Steve Smith-Eccles Week in Racing....

By Steve Smith-Eccles

In this age of cameras everywhere, from CCTV to the hundreds of satellite channels invading our every waking moment it seems almost expected that everyone is not only willing to be on television but will sell their soul to do so!

Not so jockey Robert Thornton who is quoted in the racing press as continuing his stance against the current fashion employed by Channel Four and others of stuffing a microphone up a jockeys nose within seconds of him finishing a race, especially if they win. It will come as no surprise to any other old timers out there that Robert started off with David Nicholson who was adamant in his approach and instructed all his jockeys to ignore the press until after the heat of the moment, which can cause the wrong words to be used while the adrenaline is still flowing. Personally, I have been

"Old School" Robert Thornton

there, done that and got the tee shirt, and those with long memories may recall my faux pas at Newcastle after riding the winner of a three-mile novice chase one Saturday afternoon for trainer Denys Smith?

After crossing the finishing line I felt the horse had a leg (a minor injury) and jumped straight off him as all good jockeys should to lead him in to the Winners Enclosure gently without the weight of yours truly on his back. Under the pressure of a microphone in the face and between deep breaths (it isn’t easy riding a horse believe me) I managed to mix up my words and told the watching world that the horse was hanging for the last two fences (which he was), and that I had jumped off him as I felt he had injured his leg after the winning post but somehow everyone thought I had ridden him while lame for two fences which is NOT what happened or what I meant at all! As you can imagine, all hell broke loose and I was investigated by the RSPCA (not guilty I might add), and received more hate mail that a convicted murderer, so that was a lesson learnt the hard way!  Personally, I think more trainers should take the hard line and tell their jockeys not to talk to the press until they have at least had the courtesy to talk to the owners (who pay the bills) and the trainer first and this is all becoming far too “Americanised” for my liking.

Moving along to Cheltenham next week, I will be covering the Friday in my next article but before then I am sure you would like to have a bet or two at the World’s greatest jumps meeting.

As always, it will be competitive, intriguing, and provide a lifetime of racing stories but that will be for next week, for now you want some bets to make some money with!

In the opening race there will be thousands of skint Irishmen looking to get home if DUNGUIB gets beaten but at odds on I recommend you lay him in all honesty. It’s a competitive race, anything can happen, and he needs to improve his jumping considerably if he is to win this race despite his amazing cruising speed, and I prefer a couple of small each way bets on GET ME OUT OF HERE at 7.0 and MENORAH at 13.0 as if there is an upset they could cause it, and both need to be backed to small stakes.

In the Champion Hurdle I do think PUNJABI has been seriously underestimated, an opinion shared by trainer Nicky Henderson. And I will be backing him each way at 9.0 though I have already had some of the 17.0 earlier in the season, but for my main bet I will wait for the highly competitive Champion Bumper where the one I am told to be on is the Dermot Weld trained HIDDEN UNIVERSE. His record reads run one won one, but it’s the improvement he has shown at home that makes me want to back him and word from across the sea is that they think he could be something really special.

Finally for this week we have the Gold Cup to mention where I cannot oppose KAUTO STAR despite his skinny price – he is a machine and barring accident I cannot seen anything beating him and he is the banker of the meeting.

Summary of Steve’s bets for Cheltenham:

2pts LAY on DUNGUIB Supreme Novices Hurdle at Betfair SP

½ pt each way GET ME OUT OF HERE Supreme Novices Hurdle Tuesday at SP

½ pt each way MENORAH Supreme Novices Hurdle Tuesday at SP

1pt each way PUNJABI Champion Hurdle Tuesday at SP

2pts Win HIDDEN UNIVERSE Champion Bumper Wednesday at SP

3pts Win KAUTO STAR Gold Cup Thursday at SP


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.