Our 2024 Employee of the Year, David Porter-Mackrell, was nominated by his boss Julian Dollar from Newsells Park Stud who is a huge advocate for the awards. As part of the nomination launch at York Racecourse in August Julian spoke to Racing TV and discussed the importance of nominating for the awards and how much it meant to the team and David to win the overall award.

“Personally I think it is one of the best things that they have ever done and I hope that it is here for a long time to come. It just means so much to all the staff and the people that make racing happen, whether it is at the Studs or the racing stables. It is something we are able to give back to the people that make this sport happen.

There is fantastically generous prize money, I gave the Stud prize money to David to decide how it was distributed and he made sure that every single member of staff got a share of the £15,000 prize money.

The bar is very high, the people that have won these awards are fantastic and that’s not to say that everybody who is nominated shouldn’t be celebrated as they all deserve it.

I’d love more studs to put people forward. I can’t tell you how emotional it was for David, his family, myself and Graham when he won the main title. It was a real moment of pride for David who is someone so well deserving of it and it meant so much to him.

It is important for everyone to take the effort to nominate people as it means so much to them.”