Racing trainer found shot

ONE OF BRITAIN'S leading racehorse trainers died yesterday in a shooting incident at his home at Cheveley, near Newmarket, writes Sue Montgomery.

Police found the body of Alex Scott, 34, at Glebe House Stud after being called out to a reported shooting at 6.10pm. They are treating his death as suspicious. Dr Nathaniel Carey, a Home Office pathologist, was due to carry out a post-mortem examination this morning.

Mr Scott was private trainer to the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who is one of the country's leading owners.

He was educated at Cambridge University and gained training experience with the royal trainer Dick Hern before setting up in his own right in Newmarket in 1989.

He tasted immediate success with Sheikh Maktoum's champion sprinter Cadeaux Genereux, winner that year of the July Cup and Nunthorpe Stakes and scored a rare British triumph at the Breeders Cup in the United States in 1991.