Given his grandfather was a horse trader and his father, who won 17 classic races in Ireland, was the first Irish trainer to have a marked impact on British flat racing, there was little doubting Kevin Prendergast would pursue a career in the equine world. He was to send out more than 2,000 winners, never contemplating turning in his licence, and observing: “Prendergasts don’t retire. They die.”
Prendergast’s last winner as a trainer was when he was 92: Copie Conforme was ridden at Bellewstown by a favourite jockey, the omnipresent Chris Hayes. His final runner, Glory To Be, finished second in a race at Cork a week before his death. “Getting a good horse is what it’s about,” he would say. “They are like duck’s teeth, they are hard to get.” A racing aficionado would not have gleaned that from his fine record.
“Kevin wouldn’t be shy about telling you if you gave one a bad ride. He’d ring me up and say, ‘You gave that a terrible ride. What were you doing?’ That’s him,” said Hayes. “But, at the same time, he’d tell you when you gave one a good ride. The thing I love about him is that nothing ever festered. We have had our disagreements over the years but nothing was ever thrown back in your face. You ride for him in the next race and everything is forgotten. I loved that about him.”
Kevin Prendergast with Awtaad. He almost won a Derby with Madhmoon in 2019
ALAMY
The grandson of Pat Prendergast, who was reputed to have a shrewd eye for a good horse in Carlow, and the son of Paddy “Darkie” Prendergast, he was a leading amateur jockey before taking out a trainer’s licence in 1963. From Pidget’s victory in the 1000 Guineas in 1972, he would go on to win eight classics in Ireland, the last of which was Awtaad’s victory in the 2000 Guineas in 2016. In England, he won the 2,000 Guineas with Nebbiolo at Newmarket in 1977. He came close to adding a Derby winner in 2019 through Madhmoon.
Prendergast had winners over seven decades of training. In spite of his distinguished antecedents, he had to make his own way until he took over his father’s string. “I began with two horses and ten broken-down boxes,” he told Racing TV. “It was very difficult to go on my own and I had to gamble to survive. There was no other way — there was no money in Ireland.” Even the best horse he trained, Ardross — “by a mile” — had to be sold. “For money,” he emphasised.
Matters improved. Three years after starting as a trainer, Ireland’s president at the time, Éamon de Valera, became a client, and the patronage of the third Earl of Iveagh proved a boon. “He had five or six horses with me and he was a good man, the top person in the Guinness family and was only 55 when he died. He would come and have a drink with me — he had his own driver. I was guaranteed a cheque coming in and then I could buy one or two horses. And I was lucky with my foreign owners.”
Kevin Prendergast was born in 1932 in Melbourne, owing to his father having gone to Australia to find work as a jockey. “PJ” was to return to Ireland when his son was two, sending him to school in Co Kildare. Although Kevin was expelled from the Dominican Newbridge College, he was able to continue his schooling at Rockwell College, Co Tipperary, a rugby-playing establishment, owing to being a talented forward. “I did poorly in school but on the rugby pitch I wasn’t serving the orange slices at half-time.”
He and his younger brother, Paddy Jr, who differentiated from their father by being known as “Long Paddy” on account of his height, would have to run around at night in bare feet trying to keep 22 donkeys out of ditches. Their grandfather had brought these back from Castledermot to sell them on in Manchester. Paddy, who predeceased his brother, also became a trainer, enjoying success at festivals in Ireland.
Prendergast claimed he was lucky to obtain good owners
ALAN CROWHURST/GETTY IMAGES
When Kevin left school as a 17-year-old, he was to return to Australia for five years, working near Sydney as a trainer’s assistant. Back in Ireland, his Irish vowels still intact, he became his father’s assistant at Rossmore Lodge on the Curragh while forging a life as an amateur jockey with no little success. After taking out his training licence he rode his own first winner, Zara, at Phoenix Park, a racecourse which subsequently closed.
Prendergast could be outspoken about the handicapping of his horses, but the standing of Irish racing was also uppermost in his thoughts. “Kevin was a tremendous trainer who always had a word for you,” said Willie Mullins, the champion National Hunt trainer. “He had an opinion on everything and that opinion was valued by people because he’d been through it, he knew the good days and he knew the bad days. He did the hard work and he knew everything about the game.”
Prendergast’s wife, Lesley Daly, whom he married in 1957, predeceased him in 2020. He is survived by his daughters: Andrea, Penny, Louise, Anne, Norma, Amanda and Natasha. Another daughter, Karen, predeceased him.
Prendergast enjoyed fishing, golf and shooting. He would reminisce in old age about the celebrated figures he had met through racing. These included, at a time when he was young and impecunious, Bing Crosby. He had gone to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France and ran out of funds. The friend with whom he had travelled to Paris suggested he should approach the crooner. Prendergast did so but was swiftly told: “I don’t loan money.” When asked how they eventually returned to Ireland, he simply responded with a smile and a pithy comment. “We met a couple of nice girls.”
Kevin Prendergast, jockey and trainer, was born on July 5, 1932. He died on June 20, 2025, aged 92