Interview with Mark Lawson, who says he has a ‘lot more to offer’ now that he is back among the winners in the Middle East – after a decade-long hiatus
The open, easygoing nature of some people makes them hard to forget. It’s a useful quality, particularly if you leave a career and return to it ten years later.
Affability maybe part of the reason why Mark Lawson’s recent return to race-riding in Bahrain after a decade-long hiatus is going so well. That and hard work. After all, you need more than a sunny nature to help you lose 12 kilos in nine weeks.
“I was my own worse nightmare,” says the 42-year-old Brit of the reason why he retired from the saddle in 2014. “I was in the Middle East for the last four years of my career and I was really struggling with work, I wasn't doing things the right way, partying too much and living life. The weight just got the better of me.”
Lawson had notched around 200 winners by the time he stopped, a far from insignificant number.
Originally from Sheffield, he doesn’t have a racing background but, due to his stature, a career in the sport was suggested to him by a careers advisor at school. He began riding professionally in 2002, but his time in the saddle was punctuated by injury.
“I went to America and Canada and rode around 40 winners out there and then I came back to the UK and was riding for Mel Brittain and Bryan Smart up north,” he explains. “I was a little bit of my own worst enemy really, struggling with weight, so I'd be packing up every week.
Qatar calls
“I had an injury to my left hip at Doncaster when horse reared up so I had to have that reconstructed, which meant a year out. I moved south to Lambourn and met my wife and Paul Blockley asked me to start riding again so I had a few rides and then someone got me a job in the Middle East, in Qatar.
“I realised that there's an easier life in the Middle East than there is back home, where you’re traipsing around to try and just get one ride here and there. So I just concentrated on flying out to the Middle East and then spending the summer at home as an exercise rider.”
That was until 2014, when it all got the better of him and he moved back to the UK full-time – until, somewhat ironically, his job with husband-and-wife training partnership Daniel & Claire Kubler got him back to the Middle East.
Lawson was Astro King’s work-rider ahead of his participation in the 2023 Bahrain International Trophy, where the former Camburdgeshire winner finished sixth.
Off to Bahrain
When the Kublers announced their intention to move to Bahrain earlier this year, Lawson decided to join them. “I had ten years out of the saddle as a professional jockey,” he explains.
“But when I arrived here as a rider for Dan and Claire, some of the lads mentioned that there’s plenty of rides going spare. Somehow, it’s all escalated from there – it's a bit of a rollercoaster really.”
It must have felt like the downhill part of the big dipper when he fired in a winner at Bahrain’s very second meeting of the season, on Chandigah for trainer Mahmood Jawad. A considerable amount of hard work had paid off. “I was 66kg (10st 5lb) nine weeks ago,” he says.
“I went to Oaksey House in Lambourn and was running 12km a day, working out in the gym. The weight was coming down, but it kept plateauing and I was a bit ‘am I going to be able to get this off?’”
Get it off he did, and his method is an inspirational one for those struggling in the same area. “This time around I've done everything right weight-wise,” he says. “I'm 54kg (8st 7lb) every day.
“I spoke to a nutritionist at Oaksey House and she said, ‘you've got to keep feeding your body to lose the weight.’ A lot of people believe that if you stop eating, you'll lose the weight.
Absolutely amazing
“I thought, I've got six, seven weeks to do this so I'll just try it – and I've just had loads of protein every day, omelettes for breakfast, loads of chicken and fish and left out carbohydrates. And literally it's dropped off – it’s absolutely amazing. I eat really well, three meals a day.”
Lawson relates the above with the enthusiasm of a young child in a toy shop. This a man loving life and embracing healthy living – and not just for Instagram purposes.
“I’m really happy,” he says. “I feel like it’s almost a bit of a second coming – an opportunity that’s written in the stars. When I was younger, I probably took it for granted. Now, I've had a few years out and I've done the hard work in the yard and learned the horseman side of things. I feel like now that I've come back, I’ve got a lot more to offer.”
Lawson’s work ethic stands him in good stead. The jockey is up at 4am to ride out for the Kublers before running or heading to the gym, and then riding out in the afternoon for new Bahrain-based trainer Robert McDowall, a former assistant to Sir Mark Prescott who is having his first season in the island kingdom.
“Rob have worked with each other before, so we’ve kind of bounced off each other,” says Lawson. “I say something and he’s already got it written down on a piece of paper because we think so alike. It’s something that’s really working at the minute.
“He started out giving me the opportunities and I’ve had a winner and a couple of seconds, so we’ve gone from there really. Originally, he said that he'd help me where he could and that was it. I'm grateful to Rob and Sheikh Hamad bin Abdulla bin Isa Al-Khalifa for giving me the opportunity.”
One season at a time
With global stars Mike Smith, Yutaka Take, Adrie de Vries, Frankie Dettori and plenty of others setting a fine example of riding into their 50s, could Lawson follow suit? He’s certainly not dismissing the prospect.
“Another ten years, yeah, that's what I said to Jess, my wife!”, he laughs. “She said: ‘Just take it one season at a time!’
“But she's happy and she and my little girl, Isla, watch all the time. My daughter is ten so she wasn't around when I was a jockey before, but now she's screenshotting on her iPad at home when I'm racing and showing her friends. They're coming out in December to see me so that will be nice.
“I lost my Dad a few years ago, so when I rode the winner the other day I said it was for him, and my little girl said to me on the phone: ‘I'm not pleased with you, you didn't say that winner was for me!’
“I said: ‘The next one is for you.’”
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