The short answer in that he wasn’t, at least not in the sense that, say, the late Sir Henry Cecil was knighted, for services to racing, in November, 2011. Unlike his distinguished former colleague, Sir Mark Prescott was not invited to a formal ceremony of Investiture at Buckingham Palace and, consequently, was not ‘dubbed’ a knight by being briefly touched on each shoulder with the traditional Knighting sword by Queen Elizabeth II.
To avoid any confusion, Sir Mark Prescott is not a Knight of the Realm, but is afforded the title ‘Sir’ by virtue of the fact that he is a hereditary baronet. Thus, his name appears on racecards and elsewhere as Sir Mark Prescott, to distinguish him from a knight. Sir Mark is, in fact, third Baronet Prescott, of Godmanchester in the County of Huntingdon, and inherited the title following the death of his uncle, Sir Richard Stanley Prescott, in 1965. As such, in England, he officially ranks above all knights, except Knights of the Garter.
Hereditary dignitaries aside, Sir Mark, who turned 75 on March 3, 2023, has been the master of Heath House Stables, on Moulton Road, Newmarket since succeeding the previous incumbent, the late Jack Waugh, in 1970 at the age of just 22. Interviewed by the ‘Racing Post’ in July, 2022, he reflected on his early career, saying, ‘I didn’t take too many prisoners. I fired three people the first day I started. They were bullies, horrible bullies. I don’t think Mr. Waugh had realised how horrible they were.’ In over half a century at the helm, Sir Mark has saddled over 2,000 winners and, in recent years, has achieved numerous high-profile successes with Alpinista, who was retired to stud after justifying favouritism in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October, 2022.