The Steve Smith-Eccles Column
By Steve Smith-Eccles

Well racing is never dull and this week has been no exception with jockeys taking the headlines for al the wrong reasons. Barry Geraghty takes the wrong course, Paul Carberry fails a breathalyzer, and now Darryll Holland has been accused of passing forged notes in Cyprus, where will it all end (update – The Dazzler was released without charge today (Thursday) and is on his way home).

Truth is these guys are in their jobs because they are damned good at riding race horses – no one ever said they had to have choirboy on their CV.

Get well soon Brendon Powell

Most if not all are brought up as far away from a silver spoon as you can imagine and lets face it racing has more than its fair share of shall we say “dodgy characters” to lead the apprentices astray, and as a decent meal is off the agenda is anyone really surprised that they occasionally go off the rails in pursuit of entertainment? In my day we had a laugh with the ladies and the odd whisky or ten but we weren’t under the media spotlight they suffer from today, and we were lucky we got away with quite so much looking back, but lucky us.

On a more sober note (pun intended), I see my old mate Brendan Powell was rushed to hospital earlier this week with a heart scare but the doctors at Bristol Hospital have operated and amazingly he expects to be home by Saturday to oversee his training yard. Get well soon mate and I hope to see you back in the winners enclosure shortly.

Moving on to the money making side of this article, and my bets for the weekend.

Doncaster sees the last meeting of the turf flat season and the last big betting race of the 2009 season, the November handicap to be run over a mile and a half at 15:15 on Saturday. As you would imagine it is a highly competitive affair and current betting has Baila Me as the 8.5 favourite (which should give you a massive clue as to just how wide open this contest is), but I prefer the each way chances of the ultra consistent KINGS DESTINY who represents the Michael Jarvis yard who are finishing the season in fine form and who has the invaluable assistance of the tactically brilliant Philip Robinson in the saddle. After ten races where he is yet to finish out of the first four you can quickly see why I consider him rock solid each way potential at the current 10.0 and as he seems extremely versatile with regard to the ground (he has run well on soft ground and good to firm and won on both),  and as he is also proven over this trip (unlike market rival Charm School for example), he has to be the best value bet of the week.

Over the jumps at Ascot all eyes will be on the chasing debut of top class hurdler CRACK AWAY JACK who is due to start his new career in the 13:05 at Sandown Saturday.  Trained by the excellent Emma Lavelle he was a very very smart hurdler who was only beaten two and three quarter lengths in the Champion Hurdle by Punjabi last March and as a big strapping sort he could be even better than that over fences. I am told he has schooled well at home ahead of his debut here and as he runs well when fresh as witnessed last year when he won carrying top weight at Chepstow over hurdles, his absence should not be a concern and a comfortable win is confidently expected.

Bets summary:

KINGS DESTINY 1 point each way (10.0) Totesport, Coral, William Hill 1/4 1,2,3,4 15:15 Doncaster Saturday

CRACK AWAY JACK 1 point win at sp 13:05 Sandown Saturday

Race times subject to possible change.


About Steve....

I was born and bred in a mining village in Derbyshire and prior to coming into racing the only thing I had ever sat on was a donkey on Skegness beach and the odd pit pony. My Dad used to watch racing on a regular basis and I would say to him that I was going to be a jockey when I grew up.

I was small as a child and I was influenced in the respect that you either went down the pit after school or you got out of the village so I looked for other directions to go in - racing was one of them.

Coming to the end of my schooling, father wrote off to three trainers - Frenchie Nicholson, Arthur Stephenson and Harry Thompson Jones in Newmarket. The latter was predominately a jumps trainer in those days but did have some Flat horses and he took me on a month's trial. I went down there on July 28 1970 and within weeks I was riding gallops and took to it like a duck to water. You started off by cleaning head collars and mucking out and then you were given your own horse to look after and then you moved on to two.

After three months I was riding work on a regular basis. Greville Starkey was his first jockey in those days and Lester Piggott used to come down on occasion as well so there were a lot of good riders around to learn from.
I have always been a great believer in jockeys being born with the ability to ride and it can be brought out so from an early stage Tom Jones must have seen that in. I was always going to be too heavy for the Flat so I started to do some schooling with Stan Mellor and also took to that quickly - within three and a half years I had my first ride in public over jumps.

After about four years I was riding regularly for the stable and then in five and a half years I took over as first jockey. At that time Tingle Creek was around, although he was getting towards the end of his career. The first time I rode him he won what is now the Tingle Creek Chase, it was the Sandown Pattern Chase back then, and won the race three times in all. The last time, when it was his retirement race, he actually broke his own track record. This was the horse that put Smith Eccles on the map.

My first Cheltenham Festival winner was in 1978 on a horse called Sweet Joe, who won the Sun Alliance. Zongelero was with Tom Jones as a four-year-old but he was sent down to Nicky Henderson with the proviso that I would ride him - that got my foot in the door with Nicky. Zongelero was one of the greatest bridesmaids in the game - I finished second on him in the Mackeson, the Massey Ferguson and the Hennessy.

I rode triple Champion Hurdler See You Then for Nicky in the mid-1980s also and it is phenomenal how it worked out with him. In the first one he was due to run in, John Francome was due to ride him but was badly shaken after a fall in the Arkle, the race prior to the Champion Hurdle. So within 10 minutes of the race, I picked up the ride and the rest is history.

I rode in a great time for National Hunt jockeys. Francome was probably the best but I also rode against Jonjo O'Neill, Ron Barry and later the likes of Peter Scudamore and Richard Dunwoody - some of the best there have ever been.

Tingle Creek probably provided me with my best memories. I was young and brave at the time and that style of riding really suited the horse - all he needed was to be pointed in the right direction. He either met a fence long or even longer - he would never get in close and fiddle. He never fell and I can't even remember him ever making a mistake.

In England I rode 868 winners and around the rest of the world another 30 or 40. My best season numerically was 68 and that actually put me second in the championship to John Francome. We did not have as many rides as there are these days so the numbers are bound to be smaller and there was not as much racing and more importantly there were no agents - you just rode for the stable you were attached to basically.

Since retiring from the saddle I have kept myself nice and busy at home in Newmarket riding work and schooling the young jumpers over hurdles and fences, while I take a lot of pleasure from helping out the next generation of stars in my position with the BHA helping the Conditional jockeys in the Hands and Heels series. Despite an army of unscrupulous tipsters with false names hiding behind PO Boxes you all know who I am (or the youngsters can look me up on Google) – a successful jockey who is lucky enough to offer the best of both worlds – all my contacts in the National Hunt world built up over too many years to mention with most of the very top names in the business, plus being based at the headquarters of flat racing here in Newmarket, and privy to all the latest gallop reports and stable gossip, which I use very effectively to help us all make our hobby pay rich dividends.

So, why not join me now at the reduced price, and help me to write the next chapter of a life spent in the sport we all love...

Steve Smith-Eccles runs the "The Eck " Horse Racing information service.