Steve Smith-Eccles - 'The Eck' puts you straight!

By Steve Smith-Eccles

Steve Smith-Eccles Grand National Preview and other bets....

Its not often that I am lost for words but it has been a quiet week in the big wide world of racing as the new flat season starts to move in to top gear (however slowly) and we waited patiently for the three day Aintree meeting. Before we get down to business on the big race the other main news has to be the shock defeat of 1000 Guineas favourite SPECIAL DUTY who was expected to win her prep race in France despite it being common knowledge

Hoping to be fit for Saturday Aidan Coleman

she would improve for the run.  Bookmakers here have certainly over reacted pushing her out to 6.0 and I would happily take that price “with a run” as she will improve considerably and would not have appreciated the softer ground and given a quicker surface at Newmarket in May, I would certainly expect to see a very different filly.

At Aintree on Thursday jump jockey Aidan Coleman proved yet again what a tough bunch jump jockeys are after being sent to hospital after being kicked in the abdomen when coming off of Double Handful in the novice hurdle. Fr form being out for a week or more he was discharged quickly and actually back at the track before the lucky last to state his case to be allowed to ride for the rest of the meeting.  Punters will be hoping he is passed fit tomorrow by the doctor as he is due to partner last year’s winner Mon Mome, the subject of many a bet and a leading chance to take the big race.

Looking ahead to the racing this weekend and in the big race I have come down on the side of COMPLY OR DIE with Timmy Murphy in the saddle. He won the race in 2008 and was runner up last year but more importantly comes here as fresh as paint after two runs around this season, one over hurdles and one at the Cheltenham Festival which will have put him spot on for this arduous task.  Timmy Murphy chose him ahead of the short priced The Package which is a clue in itself and at odds of around the 26.0 mark on the exchanges he looks as solid an each way option as you can get in this unpredictable contest.

For the NAP this weekend look no further than ZAYNAR who runs in the 14:50 at Aintree on Saturday and ought to come in to his own. Trainer Nicky Henderson made no secret of the fact that he wished there was a two and a half mile Championship race at the Cheltenham Festival which would have been ideal for this five year old son of Daylami who was outpaced when third in the Champion hurdle over two miles but stepped up half a mile here he is expected to come in to his own and is worth a bet despite high caliber opposition such as Celestial Halo and Khyber Kim to name but two.
 
Steve’s bets this week:

1pt each way COMPLY OR DIE 16:15 Aintree Saturday at SP

3pts Win ZAYNAR 14:50 Aintree Saturday 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.