In 1981 he began working as assistant trainer to Peter Calver, moving to Harry Thomson Jones at Newmarket a year later and then, in 1985, joining Dick Hern at West Ilsley in Berkshire.
Sheikh Maktoum offered him the freedom to work for other owners and the chance to train a number of high-class horses, including Cadeaux Genereux, who finished first in the Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp but was disqualified after a stewards' inquiry.
In his first season, 1989, Cadeaux Genereux won two Group One sprints, the July Cup at Newmarket and the Nunthorpe Stakes at York.
Two years later Scott won the Breeders' Cup Sprint on the dirt track at Churchill Downs, Kentucky, with Sheikh Albadou.
[9] Scott had selected Lammtarra as a yearling from among those at Sheikh Maktoum's Gainsborough Farm, Kentucky, unusually being given a first pick ahead of fellow trainers Sir Michael Stoute and Criquette Head.
[2] Scott's wife, Julia, continued to run the stud successfully after the death of her husband, basing the operation around a small number of mares, including Corndavon, whom Scott had bred in partnership with Craig Bandoroff; Palace Street, dam of Sakhee's Secret; and Ferber's Follies, a daughter of Saratoga Six.
[13] On 30 September 1994 Scott was shot in the chest and killed by a stud groom, William O'Brien, using a single barrel shotgun.