The Pat Smullen Column: Reflections On A Master Trainer

[Wandering Eyes]

Of course it was lovely to have all the plaudits after my retirement, along with various articles and appearing on TV shows, but I wouldn’t have had the profile I have now without Dermot Weld. As I said previously, Dermot, Stan Cosgrove and Mr Haefner gave me the opportunity to ride good horses and our relationship grew over the years.  I’d like to think it was one of the most successful partnerships in Irish racing that there has been for a long time, and I think one of my proudest achievements was holding down the job for the number of years that I did.

The first couple of years were tough in that I was obviously trying to fill Michael Kinane’s boots which was never going to be achievable, but obviously I made as much of an effort as I could to try to do that.  I think after a number of years I settled into the role with Dermot and understood what he wanted.  He’s not shy about letting you know how he wants his horses to be ridden.  He’s very much a tactician and doesn’t take kindly when a race has been lost that you should have won.  He has always been a fierce competitor and still is to this day. I realised that very quickly and I think that made me a better jockey.  I had to be very much tactically aware of what was happening around me and a lot of that came from Dermot’s tuition throughout the early years.  He was very good amateur rider himself and understood when something went wrong, but when mistakes were made he didn’t take kindly to it at all.

He was a pioneer for international racing and it was fascinating to sit down and speak to him about the logistics of getting Vintage Crop (GB) to the Melbourne Cup back in 1993.  It was just so difficult that most people would have given up, but he wanted to get there to try to win that race and he’s the type of person who just keeps persevering. As a result he ended up making history.

What has always struck me is how Dermot knows the families of the horses he is training inside out, which is obviously important when you’re training for major owner-breeders. He has a big string of horses but he never carries a sheet of paper in his hand.  He knows every horse, every rider, and exactly how he wants each piece of work to be ridden.  He pairs off the horses from his mind, there was never a list in his hand, and I think that shows the sort of brain he has. I’m sure he would have been successful in any role he had chosen if he wasn’t training racehorses.

Aside from Harzand (Ire) winning the Derby, I think one of my favourite moments was when Rite Of Passage (GB) won the Ascot Gold Cup.  People don’t realise how difficult he was to keep sound. He was a very upright horse, straight in front, and he was plagued with leg injuries all his life. I think that was where Dermot came into his own in nursing horses to their races.  I don’t think that horse would have achieved anything like what he did if he was trained by anybody else.  The amount of care and attention he received in coming back to win the Long Distance Cup on Champions Day after more than 500 days off the track was unbelievable. It was extraordinary to have a horse prepared to win on a day like that after such a long time off.

Dermot was great in coaxing longevity out of horses. Famous Name (GB) springs to mind: he had six straight seasons of competing consistently in stakes class. He was just short of Group 1 level but he won all those listed races and up to Group 2 level, year in and year out.  He wasn’t an easy horse to keep sound either; he had to have a lot of physiotherapy and he struggled a little bit with arthritis towards the end, but Dermot got the best out of him and I think he enjoyed doing so. He’s a vet, as we all know, and he has a huge understanding of his horses.

Galway was always such a big week for the stable.  In a way it was a little bit frustrating for me in that Glorious Goodwood takes place during the same week and I was always wondering why we weren’t targeting those races rather than going to Galway. But it’s a meeting with which he has a long association going back to his childhood, and he just loves the place.  We took a lot of good horses there to win maidens and there was a bit of method to his madness in that Galway is a very undulating and tricky race track. A lot of maidens that he takes there learn plenty by running there first or second time out. It brings them forward and I think Dermot likes that aspect to it.  He’s been hugely successful at the meeting I think I once rode 12 winners there in the week. It’s a unique racetrack and he specialises in getting horses there at their peak.

Of course every great trainer relies on having a good team behind him or her. The late Joe Malone was a huge help to Dermot over a number of years.  He was an old-school horseman and I learnt a lot from him over the years.  When Dermot was off sourcing owners from all around the world, Joe kept the show on the road.  He was just one of those great horsemen—they don’t make them like him any more. Every time we had two horses running in a race and I was a bit confused as to which one I would ride I always consulted Joe, and nine times out of ten he was spot on.  He is sadly missed. There’s a number of staff that have been there for years and years, the likes of Raymond Carroll, and Dave Phillips, who looked after Vintage Crop and travelled him to Australia to win the Melbourne Cup, and then Media Puzzle (Ire) and Vinnie Roe (Ire) after him. Dermot has great staff to travel horses and he could let them go off around the world in confidence that the job would be done to the standard that he wanted.  I think that’s testament to Dermot as well, the fact that there’s no great turnover of staff. He was a great trainer before I ever joined him and it was an enormous pleasure to ride for him for more than 20 years.

Crowley Spot On
Looking back on last weekend’s action, I thought that the Lockinge was a little bit of a messy race.  Laurens (Fr) ran superbly and was up on the pace as is the norm for her, but she was perhaps a little bit fresh and gassy with PJ McDonald and there’s no question she’s going to improve from the run. Jim Crowley gave Mustashry (GB) a beautiful ride. He had the run of the race in my opinion; he just sat off the pace, relaxed, and came through and maybe caught Laurens as she was getting a little bit tired.  That’s not to take anything away from Mustashry, who looks a typical Sir Michael Stoute improver at the age of six.  Le Brivido (Fr) was at the back of the field and there was no pace, and I have a feeling that he is a horse who will jump forward again for that run when he gets to Royal Ascot. The race itself was a little bit inconclusive.

Wishing William Well
I’d like to wish William Buick all the best this week with his upcoming tests. It’s a worrying time for himself and his family but hopefully it’s nothing too serious.  I hope all the tests go very well for him and that we see him back on the racecourse very soon.

 

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