Our Story
Mark Grant Racing, based in Lambourn Valley of the Racehorse, is a Breeze Up Consigning, Breaking, Pre-training and Point-to-Point yard run by Mark and Eimear Grant.
Mark hails from Tipperary, Ireland and fell in love with horses at an early age. He represented Ireland at the European Championships on the Pony Eventing Team, before catching the bug for horse racing. He started his career at the world-famous Ballydoyle at the age of 16, before he moved to the Point to Point circuit where he worked for the Cross-Country king, Enda Bolger. Mark forged a relationship with David Watchman and the Watchman/Grant combination saw Mark crowned Joint Champion Novice Point-to-Point rider and finish second by the narrowest of margins in the Conditional Jockeys Championship. Mark was first jockey to David Watchman before David turned his attention to training purely flat horses and that’s when Mark moved to the UK, where he was a successful Jump Jockey for 14 years. In the latter stages of Mark’s riding career, he started Mark Grant Racing, a breaking and pre-training yard in Lambourn. The yard has expanded over the last few years and in 2018 he started preparing Breeze Up horses. Mark Grant Racing break 50 + horses per year and buys, prepares, and sells between 15-20 breeze up horses. The most famous Breeze Up graduate is multiple Group 1 and dual Royal Ascot winner Bradsell.
In 2018, Mark married Eimear, daughter of dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winning trainer Noel Chance and they run the business together with Mark focusing on the yard and Eimear focusing on the business and marketing side of Mark Grant Racing. Mark and Eimear love welcoming and providing hospitality to existing and prospective clients when they visit Upshire House Stables. Whether you want to view the Breeze Up horses or send a horse to be pre-trained, a warm welcome awaits.
Our approach
Mark is a renowned horseman and is well known for having a great understanding of a horse, even the most difficult of characters. Each horse under his tutelage gets individual care and attention, the yard is relaxed and happy, resulting in horses thriving in their environment.
Mark’s grounding in the showjumping and eventing world gives him an advantage with young horses, particularly with breaking and schooling. It enables him to educate horses in the correct way, to ensure they move properly, have a good mouth and are a good ride.
Mark believes once you have the basics right, the rest will fall into place.
