Sophy’s Success at the Godolphin Awards 2019

The annual Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards were held on Monday evening and we are delighted that British Racing School alumnus Sophy Scott was chosen as the David Nicholson Newcomer of the Year 2019.
Sophy came to us in 2017, taking the Foundation Course to learn the basics of working in a racing yard. Once she passed the course she moved on to work at Mark Johnston Racing in Middleham, North Yorkshire, just before her eighteenth birthday. She immediately impressed, and eight months later was promoted to Assistant Yard Manager, the youngest person ever to reach this position at the yard run by Mark Johnston.
“I felt I found my feet when I was at [the British] Racing School,” she said when interviewed shortly after picking up her trophy.  “It wasn’t the path I originally wanted to go down, but when I arrived at the Racing School in Newmarket it felt normal, like I was at home.”
The Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards are now in their 14th year, having been set up by Sheikh Mohammed, the owner of Godolphin, to recognise and reward the hard work of British Horseracing’s stud and stable staff employees. HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has always shown a keen interest in encouraging young people in horse racing, and his generous sponsorship of the event is just one way he supports them in the industry.
The awards are run by the British Horseracing Authority, in association with the Racing Post. Over 200 applications were made for this year’s awards, which were then whittled down to ten finalists in each category. These were reduced to a shortlist of three in December, before the winners were announced this week. You can find out more about the awards here.
This isn’t the first award Sophy has won for her outstanding work with horses either – last year she picked up the British Racing School’s Twelve Club Award as the best female trainee graduate of the BRS.