Charlotte Mallett wins top honours at National Stud graduation

Charlotte Mallett landed the Tim Dunlop Memorial Award for Best Student as the National Stud brought its class of 2026 through the doors at the Jockey Club Rooms in Newmarket. The ceremony marked 42 graduates across the stud’s training pathways, a number that points to a wider production line for the sport’s breeding and sales side rather than a single night of honours.

The graduates came through the Level 1 and 2 Thoroughbred Industry Access course and the Level 3 Stud Management and Sales Consignment Course, the kind of practical training that feeds the jobs horse racing depends on but rarely celebrates in public. Special awards also went to Erin Wickham, Siddharth Naik, Michelle Lage, Isshin Sunazaki, Daisy Hydes and Alexander Robinson, underlining how broad the intake has become across the National Stud’s education programme.

Sir Mark Prescott led the keynote address, with Rod Street acting as master of ceremonies, and his message was aimed squarely at the realities of the industry. He urged students to take advantage of opportunities, stay professional and arrive on time, simple advice that matters in a sport where punctuality, judgment and habits in the yard often decide who lasts and who moves on. Anna Kerr, the National Stud chief executive, called the graduation an uplifting evening and thanked the funders who keep the programme running.

The numbers behind the ceremony explain why the National Stud matters beyond one award. The stud says 89% of graduates from the previous six years are working in the thoroughbred industry, which is a better measure of success than any speech on the night. It also welcomed more than 1,000 education visitors during 2025, widening its reach beyond the formal student body and into the wider racing workforce.

The next intake is already on the calendar. The 26-week Level 3 Stud Management and Sales Consignment Course begins on Monday, September 21, and applications close on Friday, August 7. The course includes rotations through the stud and nominations office, veterinary rounds, trips, visits, management training, career mentoring and additional qualifications, giving students a direct route into studs, bloodstock offices and sales consignments.

That pipeline is backed by a long list of industry partners and trusts, including the Horserace Betting Levy Board, the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, the Racing Foundation, the Wavertree Education Trust, the Alborada Trust, the EB Moller Trust, Tattersalls, the Gerald Leigh Charitable Trust, the Tim Dunlop Memorial Trust, Watership Down Stud and the John Pearce Foundation. The National Stud says its graduates go on to work around the world for operations such as Juddmonte Farms, Whitsbury Manor and Darley, and that more than 100 thoroughbred foals are born each year in its Foaling Unit in Newmarket.