Harry (81) spent £1,000 on a racehorse only to discover it had a wind problem...meetthestar of BBC NI’s new show about sport of kings
The octogenarian trainer from Ballyclare is a sure bet to entertain viewers of The Horsey Set... at Down Royal, which is on BBC1 NI tonight. He talks to Ivan Little
Co Antrim horse owner and trainer Harry Smyth is the odds-on favourite to become a runaway winner with TV viewers in a new documentary about the sport of kings. For downto-earth Harry, who is 81, is way out in front as the star of the show of the Horsey Set…at Down Royal, a three part BBC Northern Ireland series about National Hunt racing here.
Even with only the briefest of appearances, Harry, a wisecracking yet philosophical Ballyclare man, breaks the mould of the stereotypical notions that anyone unfamiliar with racing might have about the sport.
In the first programme the cameras, and just as importantly the microphones, follow Harry during the behind the scenes look at Down Royal near Lisburn at one of Ireland’s oldest race meetings.
Clare Balding, an instantly recognisable and authoritative voice in racing, is firmly in the saddle as she narrates the series which starts with a warning that things are changing for the Down Royal Corporation of Horse Breeders with their land lease running out.
Since the filming of the programmes, it’s been announced that the Merrion Property Group will take over the day to day running of the track from the start of next month with Emma Meehan appointed as their new CEO.
In the first of the BBC documentaries, the producers still manage to capture the flavour of the Down Royal Summer Festival gathering in June, with its 3,000 spectators enjoying a day at the races, watching 80 horses running in seven different events.
All the while the champagne and beer are flowing almost as freely as the money that changes hands between punters and bookies like Peter Eastwood, who says it’s crucial for racing to continue at Down Royal.
“It’s been here since the 1600s and it would be a shame if racing came to an end here,” he says.
During the first programme the producers use archive footage of Royalty at Down Royal and there’s a quote from Winston Churchill who once said: “There’s something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”
The atmosphere at Down Royal is its usual relaxed self but the documentary doesn’t shy away from the downside of racing as a horse falls and has to be put down, casting a huge cloud over the proceedings for fans, jockeys and trainers alike.
The producers reveal that the entire meeting almost didn’t get under starter’s orders at all because the record temperatures of last summer meant that the track was bone dry and needed constant watering from groundsman Alan Graham and repairs to fences from head groundsman Carson Lyons.
General manager Mike Todd is seen prodding the turf with a stick that he’s been using to do precisely the same testing job for over 22 years.
Clerk of the course Brendan Sheridan is filmed walking the course with Todd before giving the go-ahead for the gates to open at Down Royal which was voted Irish Racecourse of the Year in 2017.
The green light for the meeting is music to the ears of Harry Smyth who really is a breed apart.
Clare Balding tells how he is a gearbox repair man as well as a small-time trainer who has been racing horses at Down Royal for years.
Harry says he doesn’t see himself as a racehorse trainer. It’s more of a hobby, he insists, before he adds with an impish grin: “I’d be a hobby horse trainer.”
But he’s clearly no back marker. His horse Zagnzig won on its last outing at Down Royal.
Harry bought him for £1,000 at a time when nobody else was interested. And he has no doubt where the horse would have ended up if he hadn’t taken a gamble on him. “This horse would have been away to the knacker’s if it wasn’t for me,” he says.
Other trainers were wary of taking a punt on Zagnzig because of a noise which Harry says indicated to him that there was what he calls ‘a wind problem’.
In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph Harry reveals that the horse kept bursting blood vessels.
But Harry came up with a novel remedy for Zagnzig — a theraplate, a vibrating platform for him to stand on to improve his circulation.
The theraplate cost nine times what the horse did but Harry says it was money well spent — and he has also used it himself to help with his own circulation.
Harry’s passion for horses had been a slow burner. He says his interest only started after he worked with a man whose son was a jockey and regularly talked about his career.
At the time Harry was more actively involved in another form of racing — behind the wheel of a stock car.
“I built a stock car for a bloke but we fell out and I drove it instead,” says Harry. “I took part in two world championships at Skegness and at Newton Abbot. I finished 11th out of 35 on one occasion.
“I also raced here, at Portadown, Dunmore, Bangor, Dundalk and Ballymena. But I was a lot older than most of the rest of the drivers.”
Harry says it was almost by accident that he bought a mare and one of her foals won a race at Downpatrick. And that was the start of his switch from racing on four wheels to four legs.
“It wasn’t easy for someone like me who was an outsider,” says Harry, who’s had a trainer’s licence for 35 years. “But I love the racing. It’s in my blood now.”
Harry clearly isn’t in the game for money. “It’s an easy way to get rid of money,” he counters, adding that he has a special affinity for all of his horses to which he gives names like Siochain, which is Irish for peace. Other horses are called If You Believe and Probably Not.
Harry is proud of the fact that he was one of the first trainers to support Donegal jockey Rachael Blackmore who rode Personal Shopper for him before going on to establish herself as one of the top jockeys in what has largely been the man’s world of racing.
And he clearly revels in the fun that he has at race meetings. He jokes how stewards once called him into their office to discuss one of his horses that finished last in a race. “I told them they weren’t that observant because most of my horses finished last,” he says.
The Horsey Set documentary doesn’t confine itself to the smaller trainers like Harry. The cameras have also been given access to one of the top thoroughbred horse sales in Ireland.
Balding talks of the ‘toffs at Goffs’ in Co Kildare. And chief executive Henry Beeby says it’s a who’s who of racing, adding: “All the top owners, trainers and agents from the National Hunt world in Britain and Ireland and some further afield will be here today and tomorrow.”
Renowned trainer Gordon Elliott, who won the British and Irish Grand Nationals this year, is at Goffs with money to spend as he runs his eye over young horses which are up for sale.
A new Goffs record is set as €325,000 is paid by champion trainer Paul Nicholls for what Balding says is an “unbroken youngster”.
Nicholls says everyone at the sales is looking for a potential Gold Cup winner at Goffs but there are no guarantees and dreaming is part of the hobby, he stresses
Larne trainer Stuart Crawford is more modest in his spending, though €36,000 is more than he anticipated paying for a horse that catches his eye.
“Hopefully he will justify what I’ve
spent on him,” he says.
Back at Down Royal Gordon Elliott has horses running in all seven races and the trainer’s name attracts the smart, and the not so smart, money at the bookies.
But winning isn’t everything for the trainers and owners. Groom Mary Nugent says the horses are like her children, adding:
“You don’t want anything to happen to them. You want them to win or to do well as long as they come back safe.”
Crawford winces as one of his horses is a faller but isn’t injured in a race that is won by Elliott’s Bootcamp which is ridden by Aintree Grand National winner Davy Russell.
But the news isn’t so good in the last race of the day as Elliott’s horse Suitor is another faller and though jockey Russell is quickly back on his feet, the course vet decides the most humane thing to do is to put the horse to sleep.
“It breaks my heart,” says Mike Todd. “Butwe’vegottoputitincontext.They were just racing accidents. It’s a high risk sport for both jockeys and for horses. If a jockey had been killed, that’s the perspective you’ve got to put it in.”
Attheendofthedaybookies and punters tot up their winnings and their losses.
Bookie Peter Eastwood says that he has lost in four races and won in three. He adds: “It isn’t always true that the bookie always wins. But we will be back and see if we can get our money back.” Harry Smyth, who says he does his best for his horses and hopes they do their best for him, insists that winning isn’t everything. But he adds: “Obviously for your own well-being it is important that you get a turn rather than being last all the time. Who the devil wants that?”
In future programmes in the Horsey Set, the producers focus on the Ulster Derby and the ladies who enter the Best Dressed competition as well as seeking the views of officials about the future of Down Royal.
The Horsey Set....at Down Royal starts on BBC1 NI tonight 7.30pm
❝ It’s key that you get a turn rather than being last