3 minute read
Kevin Stott is not the only member of his family making headlines this year with brother Marc Stott showing he is among Scandinavia’s leading trainers when he won another Classic on Sunday.
Stott, who trains in Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, travelled to Jagersro, near Malmo in Sweden where he saddled Alwaysonmymind to claim the SEK700,000 (£61,000) first prize for the Swedish Oaks.
He already boasts an impressive collection of the region's Classics. "It's one of my biggest wins," he says. "Classic wins are always important so this was a big win.
"I've won the Swedish 2,000 Guineas, 1,000 Guineas and now Oaks, the Danish Derby, 2000 Guineas and 1,000 Guineas and the Norwegian 2,000 Guineas. I've only been training for six years so it's definitely been a good six years to start off with."
Marc Stott, 34, is the eldest of three brothers, whose English father Ken was a well-travelled jockey until settling in Denmark where he set up as a trainer. The Stott siblings also rode but only Nicolaj and Kevin, who recorded his first G1 winner on Hello Youmzain at Royal Ascot in June, are still licensed jockeys.
Marc was briefly based in England with the late Michael Jarvis and Richard Gibson in France but rode mainly in Scandinavia before weight put paid to any career in the saddle.
"I got too heavy so I picked up my training licence at the end of 2013 and was lucky enough to get 15 horses from people I had ridden for and it kicked off from there," he says.
Stable numbers have risen to around 40 with the quality of his team improving too. Last year he secured his first win outside Scandinavia when King David won a G3 race in Hamburg.
Sights have even been raised in the direction of Britain but the coronavirus pandemic put paid to those ambitions this year, at least.
"I was planning to go to Goodwood this year with King David and a filly Queen Rouge, who is a Derby winner and has won a Guineas in Denmark and Sweden, but the planning involved as a result of Covid-19 made it too difficult," he says.
"I definitely want to do it another time. I have come so far now that I am really hoping to get a good winner in England and step things up from there. That could be the beginnings of something more and I am working hard for that."
Who knows? Perhaps little brother Kevin, 26, who enjoyed an unforgettable 35 minutes when he won the Diamond Jubilee Stakes on Hello Youmzain and the Wokingham on Hey Jonesy at the royal meeting, could ride the horses for him.
"That could be fun – it would be a nice family thing to do," says Marc. "On the Saturday of Royal Ascot I was at home watching the TV with my father, very much cheering him on. That was a good evening. We were very happy for him and super-excited.
"It meant a lot to us. Kevin had been knocking on the door to get a good ride like Hello Youmzain so he really deserved it."
