Spittin Mick
Robin Oakley
There is no cannier, or more careful, man in racing than Sheriff Hutton trainer Mick Easterby, 76 this weekend. If he didn’t exist, Yorkshire would have to hew him out of Wensleydale stone. He says he would like to win the Lottery and spend all his days counting, not spending, the money. He collects farms the way other people collect Toby jugs or first-day covers. The sign on his office wall used to declare, and probably still does: ‘If I can’t take it with me, I don’t want to go’. True or not, the story they tell of the owner who called Mick Easterby and said he’d like to buy a nice four-year-old hurdler takes you to the essence of the man. ‘I’ve got just the ’oss for you’ was the reply. ‘Nice Roselier gelding, for £10,000.’ ‘Well, actually, the business has been going rather well lately, Mick, and I was thinking of something around the £20,000 mark,’ said the wouldbe purchaser. ‘Oh, you should have told me you wanted your own horse, ten thousand was just for a half share ... ’ You don’t win a reputation as the sharpest cattle and horse dealer in the north without being able to seize your opportunities, and when Mick Easterby sent his first-ever runner to Lingfield Park last Saturday we should all have recognised that. I was too convinced of Blue Bajan’s chances in the Winter Derby on the Polytrack even to look at a saver on his huge great Gentleman’s Deal, a 17.2 hands horse who is already combining stallion duties with a racing career that had secured him six victories in six races on the all-weather before he arrived at Lingfield. In the event Gentleman’s Deal, the 4–1 joint favourite, wore down Blue Bajan and then held off the finishing thrust of Grand Passion to take the £56,000 winner’s prize. So that puts a ‘Derby’ trophy on the Easterby shelf to join that for the 1,000 Guineas, a Classic which he won a mere 30 years ago with Mrs McArdy.
‘Spittin Mick’, whose word is his bond and who shakes hands on a deal the oldfashioned lubricated way, buys his horses as much on looks as on pedigree and ‘vets’ them himself. He got Mrs McArdy in a package deal of eight horses for £6,000. He didn’t want the others but reckoned the breeder would have asked a lot more than £6,000 if he had revealed his interest in Mrs McArdy. Needless to say, Gentleman’s Deal was a bargain, too. The son of Sleepytime was sold as a yearling for 460,000 guineas. Easterby bought him for 26,000 guineas.
It will be interesting to see now if Gentleman’s Deal’s connections take up the extra prize on offer. The Hollywood Park racetrack in the US, where horses compete on a ‘cushion track’ similar to the Lingfield Park surface, invited the winner of the Winter Derby to participate in the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on 30 June, with entry fees waived. The US track will also pay $10,000 for each leg of the horse’s journey. Easterby in Los Angeles? Stranger things have happened, although I am not quite sure where he would get his habitual three pints a night.
The thrilling finish to the Winter Derby, whose original entrants intriguingly included Sir Percy, winner of the real thing on turf at Epsom last year, and the quality of the rest of the Lingfield card were a reminder of how far all-weather racing has come in Britain.
Lingfield, Southwell and Wolverhampton have been joined by Kempton Park, which replaced its turf flat-racing track with Polytrack and which should this summer begin to realise the dream of becoming London’s alternative night out with floodlit racing and dinner. They should soon be joined, too, by Great Leighs in Essex after its teething problems. Sedgefield has planning permission for an all-weather track and even Newbury, perhaps a little unwisely, flirted with the idea.
Most trainers now prepare their horses on all-weather surfaces rather than grass. And while all-weather racing began as bookie-fodder to provide something to bet on for people who would otherwise have joined a poker school or fallen for the three-card trick in Berwick Street Market, it is now supported by many of the best trainers in the land. When the trophies for the winter Flat season were handed out last weekend the trainer’s prize went to Mark Johnston, the north’s leading handler. His 44 victories from 138 runners on the all-weather since the season began in November netted his connections £226,979 in prize money. The next three were Kevin Ryan, Richard Hannon and Clive Brittain, with Gary Moore in fifth place.
Mick Easterby’s 33 per cent strike rate, with 15 victories from 46 runners through the all-weather season, proved that old dogs can learn new tricks. Mark Johnston’s score was 32 per cent and others with a high strike rate to note for the all-weather next year were Peter Makin at 30 per cent, William Haggas at 28 per cent and Hughie Morrison at 27 per cent.
Neil Callan was the top jockey on the all-weather, ten victories clear of Joe Fanning, who rode many of the Johnston winners, and James Doyle, who has effectively made his name on the all-weather surface, was the champion apprentice for the second season running. Again, if you look at strike rates on the all-weather, the man to watch is lanky Richard Hughes. He has always been a ‘clock in the head’ rider and that helps on the all-weather with so many races won by the jockey who comes from off the pace and plays his cards last.
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