Mark of Esteem was a bay horse with a white blaze bred at the Dalham Hall Stud by Sheikh Mohammed.

[3] As a juvenile, Mark of Esteem finished second on his first start before winning a maiden race at Goodwood by three lengths.

The horse was subsequently the subject of a disagreement between its trainer, Henry Cecil, and its owner, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Mark of Esteem then won the Group Two Celebration Mile at Goodwood by three and a half lengths and the Group One Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, where he scored by over a length from 1000 Guineas-winning filly Bosra Sham who was having her first race for several months and backed up the form by winning the Champion Stakes the following month.

Mark of Esteem's final start was in America, but he failed to show the same acceleration from mid-division in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Woodbine.