Talented trainer who shone with young horses passes away

Robert Priscott trained some very smart horses during his career.

Former Group One-winning trainer Robert Priscott has passed away.

The Waikato horseman was close friends with The Oaks Stud general manager Rick Williams, who said he will be a big loss to the industry.

“It is a terrific loss,” Williams said.

“He had been ill for some time unfortunately with a very acute form of Parkinson’s. His last year has been very tough on the family.

“He was a champion bloke and a champion trainer. We travelled the world together and had a lot of fun together.”

Priscott has a lifelong involvement in racing and was introduced to the sport through his father, Bruce. Priscott got a taste of topflight success at an early age when strapping his father’s smart stayer Il Tempo.

“His father, Bruce, was a butcher and trainer,” Williams said.

“They had that great horse Il Tempo before I knew Robert. He won two Wellington Cups and it should have been two Auckland Cups.

“Robert was his strapper when he went to Australia. He was a red-hot favourite for the Melbourne Cup and they think he did a suspensory before he raced over there. He went over in a boat in those days.”

Priscott followed in his father’s footsteps and became a trainer, and he tasted plenty of early success.

“When I went to Waikato Stud, I got to really know him a lot through Graeme Sanders because my father had horses with Graeme Sanders,” Williams said.

“Robert never had more than 30 horses, but he had some good ones, and Red Tempo was one of his early good horses.”

Red Tempo was victorious in the Gr.2 Great Northern Guineas (1600m) and Listed Ryder Stakes (1200m) in New Zealand before continuing his career in Australia where he won the Gr.1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) and Gr.1 Futurity Stakes (1400m).

“He won so many Group races for us with a small team,” Williams said.

“We had so many good horses together in the Terry Jarvis (former The Oaks Stud owner) days.

“He bought Buzz Lightyear and I had just started at The Oaks with Terry Jarvis. Buzz Lightyear won at Te Rapa in his first start. I talked Terry into buying him off Robert, who was always a seller.

“He (Priscott) had another good two-year-old he had bought that year called Quorum.

“The two of them went down for the Magic Millions (Listed, 1200m) at Trentham. We had this secret track gallop at Te Rapa on the Tuesday morning and Buzz Lightyear would have beaten Quorum by about eight lengths.

“We went to Trentham feeling very good about life and Chris Munce rode Quorum and got up and won, and Buzz Lightyear didn’t travel well, had a bad night, and ran a very plain race.

“Robert got Quorum sold after that. Terry Jarvis, who was my boss at the time, raced Buzz Lightyear and he was the best horse by a mile. He went on and won the 2000 Guineas (Gr.1, 1600m), Levin Classic (Gr.1, 1600m) and went to Australia and ran second or third behind Pins in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr.1, 1600m). He was a great horse.

“There are a lot of great moments, it is the end of an era.”

Williams said Priscott was a down-to-earth family man, and his loss will be felt by many in the industry.

“He was very proud of Matt and Mel (children),” Williams said.

“Melanie worked for me here at The Oaks for three or four years and then she went off to the world of insurance. We followed Matt’s rugby career and they saw our kids grow up too. We were family friends.

“He was the old style of trainer and was outstanding at what he did.

“In some many ways he was underrated, but he was understated too, and that is the way he liked it.”

– LOVERACING.NZ News Desk