100 wins and counting
Hannah Lemieux talks to trainer-jockey Claire Hardwick about past successes, emotional wins, and her pre-training and breaking-in operation
“I just want to enjoy it now without added
pressure”
IFEEL like I have my mojo back,” says Claire Hardwick as she ponders over the forthcoming point-to-point season. With last season largely a write-off owing to coronavirus – Claire had five rides – the 37-year-old trainer-jockey reflects fondly on her 2018/2019 success. Her winning ride in the ladies’ open on Argot at Sedgefield in May 2019 saw her complete a century of wins in a career spanning nearly two decades.
Despite multiple successes under her belt, the experienced rider found herself handing over schooling duties at home last year.
“Schooling has always been my favourite part of training horses and something I have always been good at, but last year I was a pot of nerves and would just let the lads do all the jumping at home, while I observed from the ground,” she muses.
Claire credits visiting the knowledgeable yard of Henrietta Knight once a week to school a variety of horses for getting her
“back into a better place”.
“I started out with Hen as a teenager after leaving school. I was there during the Best Mate glory days and stayed for a season and a half. I rang her to ask if she needed help with any schooling and she said ‘yes’,” says Claire. “Jumping at hers has really helped me. I guess now I am in my late 30s, it is hard to accept that the race-riding I have done for most of my life is coming to an end one day soon.
“I am happy to ride horses that I know, I can pick and choose – I wouldn’t want to ride any unknown horses anymore. I feel like I have ‘been there and done it’ and just want to enjoy it now without the added pressure.”
Claire has six point-to-pointers to train for this season from her Gloucestershire base in the village of Adlestrop, where she has been based for six years. She has a couple of horses bagged for herself to ride, including old favourite Western Diva, while jockey Will Thirlby will partner the remaining horses.
Claire has ridden the 11-year-old mare Western Diva in all bar one of her 30 starts between the flags and they have heralded six wins and six seconds together. And the mare
lives up to her name according to Claire.
“She is mad and pulls hard in a race, but I’m happy to pilot her because I know her inside out. She is owned by The Hardwick Happy Club and we purchased her for just £5,000.
“She is a pain in the arse but one of my favourites – despite being a typical mare and having a temperament. If I’m honest, I am probably continuing to race-ride because of her. I will certainly carry on pointing while I have the horse power, I just don’t want to be one of those jockeys who carries on for too long past their best.”
CLAIRE describes racing as her “passion”, something she always wanted to do for as long as she can remember. Following her stint at Henrietta’s Lockinge stables, Claire rode out for numerous trainers
before joining the ranks at National Hunt trainer Charlie Longsdon’s yard. She enjoyed her first
winner for Julie Wadland in 2005.
“I was terrible to start with and it took me five years to ride a winner,” reflects Claire. “I was
called a ‘turf muncher’ in one report because I kept falling off,” she quips. “I did have a winner on the Flat: it was my first ride on the Flat and I felt like a duck out of water.
“However, working at Charlie’s I got more and more practice and
got better – I was lucky to ride some decent horses there. My first ride was on a maiden in a restricted race,
you don’t see that happen so much any more. I definitely had to win the hard way, but it has made me appreciate every single winner
I’ve ridden.”
Claire has a 16% strike-rate from her
590 point-to-point career starts and has also picked up 14 hunter chase victories from 84 runs. She has had multiple rides around the home of jump racing at Cheltenham and also fulfilled an ambition to race over the Grand National fences, when she lined up for the Aintree Foxhunters in 2017 on Vincitore, which she describes as “a great buzz”.
One of her greatest highlights between the flags was riding her one and only treble to date at Mollington in 2015.
In her own words, Claire “wears her heart on her sleeve” and a few horses will always be special to her, including Palypso De Creek, Dabinett Moon and Lady Myfanwy, who are at the top of her list of wonder horses.
“I have been so lucky to ride many great horses and always cry when I have a winner,” she says. “Lady Myfanwy was the horse who started it all for me. It is hard to choose between Palypso De Creek and Dabinett Moon because I love them both for different reasons; they had different attributes.
“I knew Palypso when he was trained by Charlie Longsdon but he fell in the Grand National in 2010 and lost a lot of confidence, so his connections sent him point-to-pointing,” she says of the now 17-year-old. “I rode him in all of his 23 pointing starts and we won 17, plus seven hunter chase wins – he was unbelievable and a dream to ride.”
Palypso De Creek was trained for pointing by the late Jill Dawson, a successful ridertrainer, who died from cancer in 2015.
Claire’s success on Dabinett Moon, a now 12-year-old retired daughter of Midnight Legend, included 18 wins in total. “She was special to me because I also broke her in. She was a proper point-to-pointer and now has a filly foal by Passing Glance. When she retired, I was an emotional wreck.
“I am looking forward to riding Dabinett Moon’s niece, Pomme De Nuit, for the Marriott family this season,” she adds.
“IHAVE always trained a few horses alongside riding in points but I would never want to train more than 10,” says Claire. “I much prefer the breaking-in and pre-training side of things.”
Claire moved her pre-training and breaking-in business to Fern Farm in 2014 and Claire Hart Equine was born – using her maiden name before she married husband Matt Hardwick in 2016.
“I find pre-training much more financially rewarding than training. Covid-19 has affected business because many clients are now pre-training horses in-house instead. But I do still have some loyal trainers, including Charlie, Fergal O’Brien, David Bridgwater and my biggest supporter Jamie Snowden, who regularly sends me horses.”
Claire’s set-up includes 25 stables, plus six large bays for any rehabilitation horses or mares and foals. They have an impressive 1,200 acres of land to hack around and for turnout, plus a horse-walker, carpet-surfaced manège, and the use of local trainer Richard Phillips’ gallops.
She is also involved in the buying and selling of racehorses, plus rehoming ex-racers. She currently has Charlie Longsdon’s former stable star Loose Chips stabled with her, whom she describes as a “legend”.
“I really appreciate all the support I have, including the team at home and my family, for allowing me to live my dream. I know it sounds cheesy, but I couldn’t do what I do without the people around me.”
Fittingly, the strapline on Claire’s website reads, “Home of happy horses, happy people.” It is a perfect motto to live by for any horse person.