‘Life is good’ – Mark Pitman loving his role as part of stalls team

Mark Pitman described it as “sod's law” that a few hours after agreeing to speak for the first time about his new role as a stalls handler, principally as a favour to former weighing-room colleague Luke Harvey, he got kicked live on television at Royal Ascot.

Not a bad one – a French horse lashed out as he gave him a last shove into the stalls – but good enough to momentarily floor him.

He recalled: “He's the last to load and it's hanging out the back so me and a chap called Graham go trotting over and as soon as we get the quoit behind him, he lashes out.

“His foot comes down and chopped down the back of my heel. It's the only time I've done that since I started. We have a chat a couple of races before, then, sod's law, I go and get clattered on live TV two races later!”

Pitman recounts the incident with cheery good humour on his way to driving the RaceTech stalls to Salisbury. After being momentarily floored, he had got right back on his feet, for all he hobbled around in obvious pain, and kept the smile on his face.

Of course he did. That, in a nutshell, is what Mark Pitman does.

Pitman turned 60 on August 1 this year but has taken up his new role with the enthusiasm of a man half his age. Nothing will replace the thrill of riding or the pressure and occasional highs of training. But in becoming a member of the stalls team he has found a camaraderie and professionalism that he loves.

“It has been a massive eye-opener for me,” he added. “I hadn't got totally out of racing, but I had been driving Class One articulated lorries for a fair while.

“I did maybe seven years for a company outside of the sport, but I saw a job advertised. RaceTech were looking for Class One drivers who could move the stalls around the country and do the pushing during the day.”

Doing the pushing, as he describes it, rather undersells the skill and experience needed.

He continued: “I've been involved in racing all of my life. I've been a jockey, a trainer, an owner and a syndicate manager. I've done a bit of bloodstock, but I don't think anyone really appreciates what the job entails.

“When it goes smoothly it looks easy, but you get that one per cent when it is really kicking off and to be there at the coalface, knowing what to do and how to react, has been really interesting.”

It is no surprise that Pitman has been able to slot into a team given he brings no entitlement from previous highs in the spotlight – just an open, warm and modest approach.

Regrets from a storied career are few, aside from wishing he had not been so consumed as a trainer that he missed out a little on his children growing up.

“I wasn't good at delegating. I wanted to feel all the legs, see all the work, go racing every day,” he said. “I worked 24-7 and it was all consuming.”

Pitman enjoyed success despite battling against the accusation that his family name gave him a leg up in racing – a peculiar stick to beat him with given an industry standard nepotism which others have been happy to turn a blind eye to down the years.

There was the Gold Cup-winning ride on Garrison Savannah in 1991 for his mother Jenny, redemption after getting caught late on Toby Tobias the previous year. As a trainer there was Monsignor who won the Festival Bumper at 50-1 and returned unbeaten over hurdles to win the SunAlliance the following year by eight lengths as the 5-4 favourite.

There was also the 1999 Hennessy win of Ever Blessed.

“That was a great day because he was a very difficult horse to train. He had such fragile knees,” Pitman said. “To an extent the better horses would get you out of trouble as a trainer because they were good horses. It was the lesser lights that you had to get it absolutely bang on to win with them.

“Ultimately training was tough. Really tough. There were three things that could give you grief in a day. Staff, horses and owners and on a bad day you would get it from all three.”

Pitman has had offers to start training again, with “several” in the last five years, but has been advised by people he respects that the figures may not stack up and good staff are hard to come by.

“So there you are,” he said in summary. “I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm enjoying the lads and I'm enjoying the professionalism of the lads and the starters, who give you so much information. It has been great and, well, can I call it a privilege? I don't know. But I do know these lads are fabulous.”

His mother, and father Richard, will no doubt be proud. “Mum is still going strong. She's 80 odd or 82 or something now, but still giving everybody a b*********,” he added. “Dad is still around so yes, life is all good.”