Horse Racing Owner Profiles

[mayo]

AE: We’re getting on to racing now, are we?

JPM: We’re both in that boat. And that’s what happened here too, in our own country. People from Eastern Europe came here – and the best of them came, to work and to look after those at home.

AE: You’ve had some high-profile people attending the awards - Michael Flatley, Mary McAleese, Enda Kenny, Dermot Desmond, Charlie McCreevy. People were agog when it was announced that Clinton was coming this time.

JPM: Well, he had a lot to do with the peace process in Ireland. So I thought he was the ideal man to get.

AE: And how did you go about getting him?

JPM: With difficulty [laughs].

AE: Do you want to elaborate?

JPM: I did it with the help of friends. I got a friend of mine to make an enquiry. He [Clinton] was given a few days that would work for us, so he picked November 17, which clashes with the Paddy Power meeting at Cheltenham. I said to myself, ‘Why did I include that date?’ But to work for him, it had to be that. He’s in Europe, flying around, and this is an extra pit-stop.

AE: Have you met him before?

JPM: Yeah, I played 18 holes with him one time in The K Club. He wasn’t long out of office. We were supposed to play only nine, but then he said, ‘Have we time for another nine?’

AE: Any plans for him to play golf this time?

JPM: I believe he’d like to – but it’s a challenge, because the days are short. So I’m not certain about it.

AE: There was a bit of speculation that he might be staying here in Martinstown?

JPM: If he is, it’s the first I’ve heard of it. I believe he’s coming in and flying out on the day.

AE: But he’d be welcome to stay if he needed a bed for the night?

JPM: I’m sure Noreen would be happy to put him up.

AE: You mentioned the Celtic Tiger ... do you have a view on those years? The country changed profoundly. What did you think of Ireland in those years?

JPM: What did I think? Nobody knows for certain but it seemed like it was an accident waiting to happen. Did it affect me? Yeah. It affected everybody in some form or other. Did it affect me as much as others? Probably more, but relatively speaking – no. It created opportunity as well, a lot of opportunity if you had capital. I’m sure everybody would do things differently if they could turn the clock back. You had a hope that it would continue and a fear that it was built on sand.

When you go into Europe, you give away so much. You give away your independence. You’ve no control over your interest rates or your currency, and that makes it very difficult for the powers that be.

Do I blame developers? That’s the game they were in. It’s hard to blame them, that’s what they did, that’s the way it was. I feel sad for a lot of them. But what the banks did – the lending – all that only delayed our problem. We’d have had to face it earlier. Nobody ran away with the money, you know?

AE: People in Limerick particularly have said about you that you never forgot where you came from – do you have a sense that Ireland, as a country, did forget?

JPM: In hindsight, that’s the way you see it. At the time, I was fearful but when you get to your mid-fifties you’ve been around a while and you recognise that – basically – we are still a lot better off than we were in the Seventies. There’s a great community spirit there now – I can sense it. I won’t say we lost it in those years, but it’s stronger than it was. There’s good comes out of every bad situation and there’s good in this too.

AE: OK, just to bring it back to Limerick specifically. You’ve had some high profile initiatives in terms of trying to lift community pride. You must have taken great satisfaction out of the Going for Gold challenge.

JPM: It’s great to see so many people wanting to make it work. I don’t do very much, but I like to feel that I am a part of it. There’s a lot of pride in our city and people can see that progress has been made. It would be nice to see it get to the next level. We’ve wonderful people in this city – and the county. They give it everything.

AE: We still have a tough challenge ahead, in terms of getting the city back on track.

JPM: I think you have to think small at the start and let it grow, rather than thinking big and being shot down. More and more people become involved. You see, when you’re 12 or 13 years old and in school – who do you always remember? You remember the kids who passed you the ball in the yard, or the guy who gave you a lift on the bar of his bike. The 15-year-old who passed you the ball, that’s the guy you looked up to. And the 10-year-old looks up to the 13-year-old – whatever he tells him to do, he’ll do it. They feed off each other. They’re the people they want to get the praise from. If you’ve a 60-year-old man talking to them, it doesn’t mean anything.

AE: Next year it will be 40 years since Limerick last won an All-Ireland, the only one in most people’s lifetime. What’s your overall view of those years?

JPM: I suppose you get what you deserve, but then again we could have three or four as easy as one. It wouldn’t have taken a lot. The Wexford game [1996 final] I believe we should have won. Much more than the Offaly game [1994 final]. Offaly finished very strong that day, our lads had given it everything but they were burnt out at the end. It’s a 70-minute game and Offaly were putting them over from every angle.

Against Wexford, I thought we were on top of them. They had a man sent off and it seemed to work more against us than for us.

AE: And have you found it very frustrating?

JPM: When they give it everything you can’t ask for more. I think we have a better underage system now and hopefully we’ll get the rewards. There’s an awful lot of work goes into winning an All-Ireland – so many people have to make it their lives to win one, or even to be good enough to compete. It’s difficult. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait too much longer. You can see some hope, but Kilkenny are a tough act to depose.

AE: You’ve been well known for financial assistance to the local GAA for years, there’s been talk that you’ve paid for the appointment of various managers …

JPM: There’s no truth in that.

AE: Really?

AE: No. We never get involved in the administration. We sponsor the team and that’s the only involvement we have.

AE: So all this talk about you bankrolling the appointment of managers is wide of the mark?

JPM: Totally wide of the mark. The only involvement I have is what I give to the county board. It’s up to themselves what they do with it. It’s not a lot of money – it is what it is.

AE: And have you ever expressed an opinion on the administration, or the managers?

JPM: No – I just let them get on with it. It would be a mistake to have somebody who is controlling anybody. It’s a difficult job being an elected member of the county board, I’d say. The county board is the county board.

 

[mayo]

AE: Yeah, that’s fair enough. But the county board isn’t infallible.

JPM: Listen, there’s none of us infallible. Not by a long shot.

AE: OK, moving on to another small-ball game – golf. Your last charity pro-am was a massive success. What are your thoughts at the moment about the next one – if there is going to be a next one?

JPM: There’s a couple of factors. One is that you have to try and do it at least as good as the last time. It worked out well the last time because it had great support, from a lot of people. I enjoy it, because people around you are so enthusiastic about making it work – whatever it takes. There’s a lot of travel involved – you have to meet the people. You’re not giving them anything, because it doesn’t work. But you’ve got to make them feel welcome, and you’ve got to encourage the wives, so that they’ll enjoy being there. Then the husbands follow.

But it’s probably easier now than it was in 2000 or 1995, because you’re being asked about it. And a big benefit is that you get people to come and play and the next year they’re here, they’ll bring people with them. At the time it’s great, but there’s a spin-off. We need more events like it, more reasons for people to want to come back.

It takes an enormous amount of time and now we have less time than we had a few years ago – the rules have changed. [He can spend no more than 182 days in Ireland, under tax residency laws]. It used to be nights in the country – now it’s days. So if I come in at seven o’clock and go out at seven in the morning that counts as two days here. Once you’re here over midnight, it counts as two days. Before, it was one. They have to do whatever they have to do, but I don’t know how much they achieve by it.

To be honest, if we were doing it in 2015, you’d have to be thinking about it in the next three or four months – because people plan their schedules a long time in advance.

We don’t have the best climate in the world, we have to make the most of what we’ve got. And the thing I have here that I value more than anything is my children and my grandchildren. You’d like to be home to spend more time with them, but at the same time I’ve a business to run abroad. As I said to you before, I didn’t leave this country for tax reasons, I went to Switzerland to set up a business. Thankfully, the business has done well. More people should be encouraged to come back – and to see what they can do when they come back.

That young man this morning is going off to Australia. If he makes it big there – and God willing, he will – I wouldn’t like to see any barriers against him coming back to Ireland.

AE: You’re somebody who does things to a very exacting level – do you find the organisation of such a big event stressful?

JPM: Well, enthusiasm makes up for any mistakes and when you get to a certain stage, it’s solutions you want – you don’t want to be faced with problems. It’s solutions you need - whatever it takes. You can make the best out of a bad situation – there’s positives in the negatives.

AE: On the subject of golf, I noticed a pro-am trophy on the way in – you were in a team with Seve Ballesteros.

JPM: That’s right – we played together down in Madrid.

AE: What do you remember of that?

JPM: Well, I remember after we played we went for a meal – a buffet or whatever was there. I was a big milk drinker at the time – I ordered milk. The waiter comes with a glass, he puts some powder in the bottom of it, he adds some water and he’s stirring it up. I didn’t say anything, but I wasn’t drinking it anyway.

So Seve said, ‘You not drink the milk? You don’t like it?’ I said, ‘Look, when we drink milk it’s a little different. It comes fresh from the cow.’

So I go to Valderrama for the Ryder Cup the next year and I get a message from the European team office – Seve wants to see me. He was the European captain and I said, ‘Ah, this is a ballhop.’ I didn’t go looking for him – even if it was true I felt he’d be too busy.

After the Ryder Cup, we went back to Madrid for the pro-am. I arrived in the car with a couple of my mates and Seve says to his brother – ‘The present I have for JP – go get it.’

He produces this great big package, a box all wrapped in gift paper. I said, ‘Thanks very much Seve, I don’t know what it is but I’ll put it in the boot of the car.’ He said, ‘No, no, no – you must open it now.’ I take all the wrapping paper off – and what is it only cartons and cartons of fresh milk. Ah, he was a character.

AE: And what did you do with all the milk?

JPM: Well, I had some of it for lunch – put it in the fridge and it was ready when we came in. I toasted him with milk.

When I came back here afterwards I was speaking to the lads in the office, speaking to Declan [Moylan]. I said, ‘You know what I’m going to do with Seve? I’m going to send him a cow – for the craic.’ It was a great laugh, but when we tried to send the cow over the logistics were too difficult.

AE: What about the big party you had here in Martinstown during the summer – there was huge interest in it.

JPM: There was maybe criticism in some quarters for having a party, but it does something for the economy when you have a party. We had people from different parts of the world and because they’re coming they plan on having a week in Ireland, or 10 days. They bring the kids. And it adds to the economy. I think you need it. It helps – you need more events.

AE: The invitations were about it being a celebration of two of your racehorses. Was that a ruse? In the early hours, there was a big happy birthday for Noreen …

JPM: Ah that was a last-minute thing. She was probably a bit embarrassed by it.

AE: But it was her birthday.

JPM: It was her birthday alright – in the morning.

AE: Surely that was the reason you had the party in the first place?

JPM: We don’t always need a reason to have a party. She said to me, ‘People will think I’m older than I am. I said, ‘They’ll think you’re younger.’ But it’s not often you have a Gold Cup winner and a Grand National winner. That’s worth celebrating too.

AE: You referred to some criticism of it. Was that something …

JPM: You’ll always have critics. But you can’t bury your head in the sand and do nothing in these times. I don’t think it does any harm. You have to show the world we’re able to celebrate too.

 

[mayo]

AE: You’re a serious businessman – was there a bit of that involved too, business?

JPM: We don’t start off with that intention, but you never know what develops out of it – for me or for other people. They get together, they chat, they’re having a few drinks late in the night. You never know what good things could happen.

AE: Around this time last year, on the day of the scholarship awards, some people might say you were ambushed a bit by the media and asked about your residency in Switzerland. That became the story the following day, rather than the awards. What was your view of that?

JPM: Well, for me the day was about the scholarship winners. It was a day for them. I didn’t think it was a day for that. It was disappointing that they took that angle on it. Maybe they feel that was their role.

AE: You had already spoken about the tax situation in a previous interview with the Leader, so you were really only restating what you’d said then, a year before.

JPM: True. People have different views on it.

AE: So would you have been angry about it?

JPM: Angry is too strong a word. The only people that ever upset me are the people I care about. They can upset me very easily. I may have appeared angry at the time. I may have been forceful about the point I was making at the time, rather than angry. I think – going forward – we need a country that tries to attract the wealth of the world. I’m not talking about JP McManus. But you need to have a situation where you have a country about which people say, ‘Why wouldn’t we come to Ireland?’As Jamie Dimon once said, ‘Capital goes where it wants. It stays where it’s well treated.’

AE: Right. Excuse my ignorance – who’s Jamie Dimon?

JPM: He’s the head of JP Morgan. I met him one day, a few of us had lunch, and I remember him saying that. Now you can look at a few individuals in Ireland and you can write the rules because of them. There may be a lot of political mileage in writing about it. But don’t drag down the country. Don’t drag it down to get more votes in your constituency by it. All you’re doing is affecting the people - you’re not helping them. That’s about playing to the lowest common denominator. Let’s try and get the highest common denominator.

I don’t intend to die a wealthy man. That’s not my ambition in life. But I’d like to have enough to live for the rest of my life.

AE: And you intend to continue making charitable donations?

JPM: I’ll be supportive.

AE: The residency rules are clearly something you feel strongly about. Is your life dictated – or at least influenced to a significant extent – by them?

JPM: No. What it means for me is, I have to spend so much time working anyway, so it’s about my free time – where do I spend it? Like , over an-eight week period I only spent two nights in Ireland. I go down to the South of France – it’s only half an hour away. That’s no great hardship. Would I prefer to be coming home to Ireland at the weekend and spending the time trying to work from here? Yeah, I would. Sure. I feel I could do more. But it’s not a great penance – it just means you organise yourself differently. There are a lot of people who’d like to do a lot for their country. They’d like to do it. They are doing it – in their own way.

The biggest difficulty I see is when you are entertaining people. You’d like to bring them to Waterville, or the like. But when you bring them, you’ve got to be there – so you have to block that time out. Instead, you can say to yourself, ‘It’s a bit difficult with the time, let’s bring them to play golf in Scotland or somewhere else.’ And it’s a pity, it doesn’t achieve anything. It has a negative effect, not a positive one. I think people are sometimes misinformed …

AE: About tax exiles?

JPM: Well, what is a tax exile? For me a tax exile is somebody who leaves the country in order to avoid paying a particular tax that was due in the country. And as I said to you before, if you leave the country and you don’t want to come back – you don’t want to do anything here – then you’re an emigrant. If you go abroad and do well and you decide you want to come back, you’re an exile. But people think differently on these things.

AE: OK, you’ve made a lot of money from the currency markets. Dermot Desmond has said you’re “a wizard” with figures.

JPM: Ah, I think that’s overplayed.

AE: People say you have a computer brain for numbers.

JPM: Ah listen, maybe in the primary school I was OK. I think these days I get lost.

AE: You don’t back your own horses if you don’t think the odds are reasonable?

JPM: Betting isn’t a big part of my life. I might have a game of gin or backgammon that would mean something, but as for betting on horses it’s not significant.

AE: It’s a bit of fun?

JPM: I’d get more fun out of my mates having a few quid on, getting the kick out of it.

AE: But clearly betting was – I don’t want to go into your whole life story now, but there was a time when it was a big factor.

JPM: Well, my life centred around gambling. I do believe I had an addiction to gambling in my youth.

AE: Really? You’d put it that strongly?

JPM: I’d bet on anything if I could find someone to bet with me. But looking back – and as a friend pointed out to me – you change the addiction to gambling to one for winning. It’s not the gambling that’s important, it’s the winning. That’s something that came to me on reflection. It’s something I’ve tried to say to anybody who’s prepared to listen.

AE: How does that process work, that change of emphasis?

JPM: I’ve tried to teach a few people that the need is to win, not to gamble. That means you don’t have to bet all the time, you’ve to be more selective. It’s like a business decision, gambling. I’ll have a bet on a game of golf – I’ll have 50 euros, or depending on who I’m playing it might be 10 euros. It just has to be important to them for me to want to win – but not enough that it’s going to be life-changing, for them or for me.

If you can change the addiction, you become more controlled, more conscious. You have to have discipline and temperament. Gambling nowadays – I don’t want to be driving people mad, I’m not recommending anybody to go into it, but the punter has a chance. The margins for bookmakers are very tight.

I remember when there was 20 pence in the pound tax paid on a bet – that in itself, strangely, was a good thing for bookmakers. Contrary to what people said – because it acted as a protection for them. Anybody who paid 20% tax, they couldn’t beat the system. So they were trying to do multiples instead of singles.

I loved the gambling, I loved all to do with it. I loved playing cards in Spellacys. Even though it was an amateur game, we’d have been one of the better amateurs in there. I loved it. But the best thing that happened to me was when tax went to 20% because I quit overnight. I found it upsetting. I thought,‘What are they trying to do?’ Then, when I went bookmaking, I made a lot of mistakes.

 

[mayo]

AE: What was the biggest?

JPM: There was loads, but I remember one time I went to Killarney – 1972 I’d say it was, I was 21. I had got a lift to the races with Paddy Murphy, who lived up there in Rathbane, he used to have the sweet stall at the races. His son used to have an ice cream van – lovely people. So he gave me a lift and I had my big betting bag and my tripod.

At the races I lost a few hundred quid on the first day. It was a three-day meeting and I was staying at the Torc hotel. I started playing cards that night and whatever money I had, I lost the lot. I remember hitching back home on the Wednesday morning and having to face into a field of hay in the afternoon.

But it was a learning process – you’re back to your father for a little while, trying to get a few quid again. That’s what it was – and it gave you time to think about what you were doing wrong. I used to get out these betting books and think, ‘That didn’t make a lot of sense, did it?’ And it’s like the old thing – if you learn from them, they’re not real mistakes. But I do believe if I my dad had given me a million pounds, I’d have lost the million before I started to learn.

AE: You were a potential case for Gamblers Anonymous, were you?

JPM: I had disciplined myself at that stage. I’d stopped betting.

AE: I’m talking about earlier on.

JPM: I don’t know about Gamblers Anonymous, don’t know much about it – I just know I had a gene in me and I wanted to gamble all the time. But I was very lucky, when I started gambling on the racecourse. One, I didn’t have a family history going into it. That can be an advantage in that there were no old-fashioned ideas. Maybe we were the start of that new group who believed they could make punting pay. And I saw, as a bookmaker, punters who were very regular winners. They weren’t big gamblers – but they fed their families, sent their kids to college. You’d find you were writing them the cheque every Monday. I never closed a winning account – I just used it to my advantage.

AE: How?

JPM: I always thought it was nice to know what they were doing – rather than guessing. You had to respect what they were doing. The information was worth something.

AE: But just going back to Dermot Desmond’s point – there must be something to what he’s saying. I don’t understand currency markets and what goes on in them, but you must have some exceptional facility for understanding risk and recognising opportunities.

JPM: don’t know about that. Most things come down to common sense. It’s not a subject taught at school, but it’s the most important subject. Just common sense.

AE: My dad would agree with you on that one - he says it’s not so common. OK, second last question. These Rich Lists that come out - from The Sunday Times – do you see them?

JPM: Well if you don’t see them somebody shows them to you.

AE: Are they guessing?

JPM: Are they guessing? I don’t know what they’re doing. But nobody seems to argue with them.

AE: Are they guessing in your case?

JPM: Listen, I’m not going down that road [laughs].

AE: OK, you’re 62 now ...

JPM: Coming up – I’ll be there soon enough, God willing. Sixty-one at last count.

AE: Have you any number in mind as to when you might retire from the business?

JPM: I just hope I can live as long as I can – healthy and well. I enjoy what I do. I don’t do anything I don’t enjoy doing. If that’s business, or in the office, or down here – I’m just happy. Happy with my life, happy I feel I’ve got extra time [he was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 but made a full recovery]. My health is perfect. I was so lucky it was caught in time.

AE: OK, that’s good, I really enjoyed the chat.

JPM: Thanks.


A file of correspondence has been placed on the desk we’re sitting at. He looks through it in search of the letter from the scholarship winner’s mother, but it’s not there. There are updates on the student’s progress, letters from the girl herself, but not the one that so moved him a few years ago.

He suggests ringing his office in Geneva. The call is made and the letter – all 10 pages of it – is put on a fax. When it arrives he steps out of the room and leaves me to read it alone.

Had there been a bet struck, he would have won it

 

[Moscow]

Thank for that mayo. Good read.

 

[Sefton]

Clive smith ...with the day that s in it. From 2009 makes interesting reading ...

National Hunt followers tend to have a fixed image of Clive Smith. He is the man in the tweed with specs and a smile, leading in Kauto Star or Master Minded after their latest big-race success. It would surprise many of them to hear that he is also a keen big-game fisherman but not, perhaps, that, when he casts his line into the sea, he rarely waits long for a bite.

"The first time I ever went out on a boat off New Zealand, I caught a marlin that was over 200lb," Smith says. "The skipper of the boat said I was a lucky English so-and-so. The best I've had was a marlin of 420lb, which is about half the weight of Kauto Star. It took an hour to reel it in and there were people pouring buckets of water over me to cool me down."

Smith will be back in New Zealand shortly after Christmas but not before Kauto Star, the outstanding chaser of the last 20 years, has attempted to become the first horse in history to win the King George VI Chase at Kempton four times in a row.

The good fortune that follows him around like an adoring puppy is something that jumping fans now almost take for granted. In all he has had no more than 14 horses in training, a tiny fraction of the strings that owners such as JP McManus and David Johnson will support each season, never mind over a lifetime.

Yet, in addition to Kauto Star and Master Minded, both of them outstanding champions, he has also finished second in a Grand National with Royal Auclair and won the valuable Swinton Hurdle with Rainbow Frontier.

"I'm that sort of guy," Smith says. "I'm a very positive person. I'm an inquirer and I've sort of found a lot of things. I look to be lucky, really, and I don't expect to be unlucky."

Smith is also "a numbers man", who made a fortune from building and selling golf courses, though he says that "you can't make money just by numbers. You have to find something that you really want to do."

Luck and a positive attitude have clearly played a large part in Smith's racing success but there have been some very shrewd decisions too. Smith, a fan of the sport since the 1960s who was at Kempton when Arkle ran his last race, was an owner with Martin Pipe before shifting his allegiance to Paul Nicholls' emerging powerhouse in Ditcheat.

His purchasing strategy, meanwhile, is also straight to the point. Where some buy untried horses that could be anything but are probably not, Smith goes for young horses, usually from France, with promising form already in the book. Kauto Star cost €400,000 in 2004, a significant amount for a gelding with no breeding potential, but he has repaid the investment many times over.

Self-made men can be difficult racehorse owners, as their natural hands-on approach can spill over into their equine interests too. Smith, though, restricts his input as much as possible.

"Paul really knows the business and he describes things to me very, very well, so I can understand it and see his reasoning," he says.

"The only thing we really talk about is the programme. When we lost to Denman [in the 2008 Gold Cup], he'd run an incredible King George and then a sparkling race at Ascot in February but had some pus in his foot afterwards and didn't race quite so well [at Cheltenham]. I said, why don't we miss out Ascot in future, and I think Paul had had the same idea anyway, and so now we're just doing three races a season and that's it. That's the only sort of thing I would say."

Smith's grand run of luck in recent years has been shared by Kauto Star's many backers, who have collected after 15 of 22 British starts, including six times in his perfect 2006-07 season. Smith likes to share it with the marlin too, incidentally, preferring catch-and-release to the more traditional kill-and-photograph approach.

The question is if, or when, his streak will end. "It really has been quite a roll," he says. "Even after Kauto I've still got Master Minded and he's only six, and Free World too, who we think is a good horse in the making. I bought one called River D'Or a couple of months ago and I might buy another in a year or so."

Smith will also fit in some fishing in between. Oversized marine predators in the southern ocean should mind how they go.

 

[Sefton]

Another from 2006 says he might have been a trainer ....

Racing: Smith and Kauto teed up for Kempton

From a racecourse to a golf course and back to the racecourse. For Kauto Star's owner, there has been an almost spooky symbiosis between the two sports he loves. Clive Smith's business is fairways and greens; his first was at Hawthorn Hill, between Windsor and Maidenhead. In view of current events, it is more than fitting that the verdant acres that launched the venture that now funds the Gold Cup favourite and his Paul Nicholls stablemates once hosted steeplechases.

In Chris Pitt's excellent history book A Long Time Gone, which charts the rise and demise of now-defunct British tracks, the chapter on Hawthorn Hill, established in 1888, ends with the perfunctory information that the course was sold "in the early 1980s and is now a golf course with little sign of its former life remaining".

That may be, but nonetheless the part it has played is now unpickably woven into the fabric of racing. Smith's creation, development and management of public golf courses proved hugely successful and although Hawthorn Hill has since been sold, he still has the two that followed, near Camberley.

He named his first horse Hawthorn Hill Lad and after that Jenny Pitman-trained hurdler won his first two races, at Wincanton and Cheltenham in 1988, he was hooked. Over time, the golf courses paid for more horses and the distinctive green, yellow and purple silks they carry were inspired by the colours of the club where their owner was once captain, Camberley Heath.

Smith, 64, once played off four and is now a nine-handicapper. He is now finding the newer hobby as wholly absorbing as the original one and speaks with a slight pang of regret that he has come to it relatively late. "If I hadn't got into golf, maybe life would have taken a different turn," he said. "I think I might have ended up as a trainer. It's a business I really think I'd enjoy, the planning, the buzz, the whole thing."

Until the coming of Kauto Star, Smith's best-known horse was the tough Royal Auclair, runner-up in the 2005 Grand National. The chestnut was first with Martin Pipe - with whom he won the 2002 Cathcart Cup - before his transfer to Nicholls. Like the trainer, Smith is a more than competent millionaire businessman who has grafted for his rewards and finds the set-up at Manor Farm entirely gemutlich. He welcomes being involved in boardroom decisions about his horses; indeed, his input into Kauto Star's Tingle Creek run was evident.

"I'd been with Martin for about 12 years and had some good times," he said, "but I felt perhaps I wanted more fun out of it. I called in to Paul's one day when I was down that way and the welcome I got was terrific. Moving was a no-brainer."

The purchase of Kauto Star, reported yesterday to be in splendid nick ahead of his tilt at the King George VI Chase, was another serendipitous series of events. It has been well-documented that Smith was outbid at auction by JP McManus for his first crack at the top of the market, Garde Champetre, and settled instead for Kauto Star. As it was the deal, brokered by agent Anthony Bromley, was completed only with difficulty as the horse's French trainer wriggled, desperate not to lose what was then the best four-year-old hurdler in France.

Smith still remembers the thrill of his new acquisition's first victory in his colours, when he ran right away from Foreman in a novices chase at Newbury two years ago. "Everything that has happened this season has been tremendously exciting," he said, "but that first win was some buzz. He showed terrific speed as he went straight past Foreman and you could see then that there was something extra-special there. Paul and Ruby [Walsh] were almost jumping up and down. And he's proved that that impression was entirely correct."

The tall, white-faced bay is well on the way to taking his place among the greats on the sport's pantheon. "You almost dare not think of such things," added Smith, "but he could be one of the real greats. He's a quick-silver jumper, he goes two miles or three miles, and he's still only six."

Smith takes massive pride in his young horse's progress. But then, he is used to the pursuit of excellence. Another of his achievements ties up golf with his other great passion, horsepower in the form of vintage Lagondas, of which he owns 1930 2-litre and 1929 3-litre models.

He is founder of the Lagonda Trophy, an annual tournament for top amateur golfers played at the Gog Magog course near Cambridge. "Some real good people have won it," he said. "Like Lee Westwood and Luke Donald. And Oliver Fisher, who won at 15 and has just turned pro. Look out for him - he's another Kauto Star."

 

[Sefton]

First Greg wood

Second sue Montgomery

 

[Rhinestone Cowboy]

Good digging Sefton. Think you get a clue to Smith's make up from these quotes:

The good fortune that follows him around like an adoring puppy is something that jumping fans now almost take for granted. In all he has had no more than 14 horses in training, a tiny fraction of the strings that owners such as JP McManus and David Johnson will support each season, never mind over a lifetime.

Yet, in addition to Kauto Star and Master Minded, both of them outstanding champions, he has also finished second in a Grand National with Royal Auclair and won the valuable Swinton Hurdle with Rainbow Frontier.

"I'm that sort of guy," Smith says. "I'm a very positive person. I'm an inquirer and I've sort of found a lot of things. I look to be lucky, really, and I don't expect to be unlucky."

ie he doesnt think it was just luck that he ended up with Kauto

"If I hadn't got into golf, maybe life would have taken a different turn," he said. "I think I might have ended up as a trainer. It's a business I really think I'd enjoy, the planning, the buzz, the whole thing."

Fancies himself as a trainer

"I'd been with Martin for about 12 years and had some good times," he said, "but I felt perhaps I wanted more fun out of it. I called in to Paul's one day when I was down that way and the welcome I got was terrific. Moving was a no-brainer."

Just wants some fun

 

[Rhinestone Cowboy]

all nothing to the row Nicholls had with Oliver Carter over Venn Ottery

OLIVER CARTER was bristling with indignation yesterday at the criticism he has attracted over Venn Ottery, who was put down following the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury on Saturday.

The Horseracing Regulatory Authority is examining the circumstances that led to the 12-year-old, whose point-to-point and hunter chase form had declined dramatically, having to be destroyed when found to have fractured his pelvis for a second time after being pulled up before the eighth fence by Andrew Glassonbury in the Grade 2 contest.

Before the race, Paul Nicholls, who saddled Venn Ottery to his only four victories, during a three-week spell in 2004, called it "an utter disgrace" the gelding was running.

The controversy was further fuelled when Sue Gardner, for whom Venn Ottery was making his first appearance, afterwards admitted to the Racing Post that she had been overruled by Carter, 88, who insisted he take his chance.

HRA officials plan to speak to both Gardner and Carter, but the West Country permit-holder has come out fighting in defence of what he claims is a slur on his family's reputation.

"We are animal lovers and we don't uphold cruelty," said a clearly upset Carter. "It is terrible to think that headlines in the paper are condemning a family that are genuinely horse-lovers.

"What happened to Venn Ottery was one of those accidents that happen in racing. Everybody knows the risks and he is certainly not the first horse who has had to be put down because of an injury suffered in a race. Only the other day two horses were lost at Taunton.

"I spoke to the jockey and asked where it happened, and he said he didn't know. He said it never happened over a jump, it happened on the level. Well I can't stop that can I?

"I am obviously sad to lose Venn Ottery, I do everything I can to make sure our horses are well cared for and all of them are family pets, but he was fully entitled to run in the race.

"He finished fifth in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, and I've run horses in the Grand National, in France and in Ireland, and I'm not a bloody mug.

"I have got a better record than 90 per cent of trainers and have won the Horse and Hound Cup four times, including with horses aged 16, 15 and 14. I have also won the Whitbread Gold Cup and been placed in it twice; all of them trained on our farm by the kindness of my family. I know he was a 200-1 chance, but I have seen winners at 200-1."

Carter dismissed the comments from Nicholls, who he described as "a gas-bag", saying: "It has got nothing to do with him", and went on: "I told Sue Gardner when I sent her the horse that I would be making the entries and deciding where he ran, as I was fully entitled to do, because I didn't want him running on firm ground. I don't run horses on firm ground. My horses win races at 15 and 16, and how many trainers are doing that?

"I could have trained Venn Ottery myself, but after my granddaughter met with an accident and is on crutches, I had no staff good enough to train Venn Ottery and hold him."

Carter added: "I don't want to be cruel to horses - never. We love our horses, we breed them, we idolise them. My following in Devon with all my friends and people is colossal. They ring me all the time, wanting to know how my horses are. I've got four runners at Buckfastleigh if the weather's right on Saturday, and it will be a pleasure to watch them run."

 

[Old Vic]

Head in hands stuff now ...


The depth of the bitterness behind the row over the retirement plans for superstar steeplechaser Kauto Star have been revealed by the horse's owner Clive Smith.

Smith says his association with trainer Paul Nicholls has broken down irretrievably and that the strain on their relationship stretched back to an argument at Nicholls' Open Day in September.

Smith, on holiday in New York, said: 'He came up to me with a tirade of foul language. He must have said it six times that he wanted the horse out of the yard then, never mind this Tuesday. What happened was the final straw.'

He added in the Racing Post: 'On October 31, I had a final meeting with Paul. Kauto was in light training but it was confirmed he should be retired, as I'd wanted, but would stay in the yard until after the King George (at Kempton on Boxing Day).

'Then, a couple of weeks ago when I was at Haydock to unveil Kauto's statue, Paul bowled a googly at me, saying it would be right if he could stay at the yard with (head lad) Clifford Baker.


'I'd already spoken to Yogi Breisner (performance director of Britain's Olympic eventing team) and he said it was no good having a top-class horse in a yard like that where he's a hack.


'I'm sure Clifford Baker would do a wonderful job and he'd be lovely for him but I always thought I was the owner.

'I didn't see him enough anyway because I'm 100 miles away. As the owner I'm entitled to some time with him.'

Smith said he had been phoned by Nicholls and informed of his intention to remove the Kauto Star form his stable on Tuesday while he was on the runway at Heathrow about to embark.

He also laid bare his irritation at their difference in opinion in how to pronounce the horse's name. The trainer has always said 'Kato'.

Smith added: 'To be honest I was disappointed from early on that Paul didn't pronounce Kauto's name correctly. There was no excuse but he did not back off.'

In response, Nicholls said: 'I strongly refute these allegations but the last thing I want to do is to become involved in a war of words with Clive. I have wished him all the best and have no further comment to make.'

Kauto Star, the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner left the Nicholls' Somerset yard amid scenes of distress and expressions of bitterness among staff.

Nicholls said he realised that Smith planned to remove the horse and saw no reason to further delay with the hiatus causing distraction to his upset staff.


Kauto Star has joined Berkshire-based international event rider Laura Collett who, with Breisner, is assessing the best retirement plan for the 12-year-old. One option is Dressage.

Smith, who no longer has any horse in training with Nicholls, has said Kauto Star will still parade at Kempton on Boxing Day, although he will not be ridden by Baker as had been planned

 

[Hoof]

Row between Paul Nicholls and Clive Smith over Kauto Star highlights trainer-owner tensions - Telegraph

There were several reasons why I did not want to train when my father offered it, effectively, on a plate. The primary one was that I knew that at some stage I would have to prostitute myself to people I did not particularly like or were just not my scene. Being a good people-person is almost as big a part of a trainer’s job as being a horseman.

The question, if you are an owner, is: do you send your expensive horse to a friend to train or do you take a more businesslike approach and send it to someone who consistently gets results? There are pros and cons all round.

Of course, John Francome had his own inimitable take on the relationship. During his brief training career he said that owners should be treated like mushrooms, namely fed lots of manure and kept in the dark.


Many a true word is spoken in jest – Francome would approve of the Australian trainer who took exception to an owner’s comment after his horse had won, removed the bridle as the animal stood heaving in the winner’s enclosure and told him to take it away.

Last week’s very public row over Kauto Star, played out in the newspapers by Paul Nicholls and Clive Smith a little like a society divorce might be in the gossip columns, is not the first time a prominent owner and trainer have fallen out. There was not much love lost between Henrietta Knight and Jim Lewis by the time Best Mate’s life had run its course, for example.

My grandmother worked for the eccentric heiress owner of Golden Miller, Dorothy Paget, primarily looking after her string of showjumpers. Paget’s relationship with her trainer, Fulke Walwyn, was pretty ropey, as it was with all her trainers and, in fact, most men. On one occasion, he saddled her five winners but, because of a bet, she was furious that it was not six.

She sat in her box at the races and sent grandmother with increasingly rude messages for Walwyn, whom she refused to speak to in person. Grandmother would return dutifully with the reply until Paget gave her the final message. “Are you sure you want me to tell him that?” asked grandmother, slightly shocked.

“Yes,” replied Paget, “and kick him in the balls if you’ve got the guts.”

It’s all part of the soap opera.

 

[JohnC]

Of course, John Francome had his own inimitable take on the relationship. During his brief training career he said that owners should be treated like mushrooms, namely fed lots of manure and kept in the dark.

explains why it was brief

 

[Lester]

If you don't yet know who owner Roger Brookhouse is, you probably soon will

In recent months, Brookhouse has been busy at some of the biggest National Hunt sales snapping up some of the sport's most exciting young prospects to race in his colours.

A former trainer himself, Brookhouse had to give up looking after his own horses as his business interests expanded, but he has enjoyed some decent success in recent seasons, for example when the fragile Cheltenian won the 2011 Championship Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.

And by signing some meaty six-figure cheques at the sales in recent months, Brookhouse hopes he has secured some future stars who will carry his light blue and pink silks with distinction.

Not that Brookhouse is necessarily the easiest man to train for and it is more his doing than trainer David Pipe's which sees Goulanes head up to Wetherby to make his chasing debut in the Towton Novices' Chase rather than staying over hurdles, where he remains not yet fully exposed.

Put simply, Brookhouse has big hopes for Goulanes and although he is by far the least experienced of these runners with just two spins over hurdles to his name, it wouldn't be the biggest surprise to see him step up to the mark, even against the highly-regarded Super Duty.

Donald McCain thinks the world of Super Duty, not least because his late dad bought the horse. But whether he really wants three-miles-plus in bottomless ground remains to be seen.

Whatever happens to Goulanes, Brookhouse will also be keen to see that Baltimore Rock wins the closing bumper. He paid £160,000 for the horse after he won a bumper for Peter Niven on his only previous start.

 

[johnno]

^goulanes a nice horse anyway

 

[mayo]

Ireland's big 4

National Hunt fans tend to look up their financial noses at the flat when it comes to money, and how the winter sport is resolutely for the ‘small man,’ but it will be hard to argue that at Cheltenham 2013 when the vast majority of big Irish hopes will be in such a tiny minority of hands.
In fact it’s much easier to argue that far from any egalitarian paradise, jump racing in Ireland right now is balanced on just four ownership uprights – JP McManus, Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud, Rich Ricci and Ann & Alan Potts.
There are other major investors such as Barry Connell and Dr Ronan Lambe but really it comes down to the ‘big four,’ and a remarkable result of their near-monopoly is that despite a desperate recession, most of the best young talent in the country still ends up being trained here.
Not only that, but their financial clout extends to France too, as will be shown at Cheltenham through the likes of Sir Des Champs and Pont Alexandre.
That’s a helluva upside considering how the 1980’s recession saw Irish fans travelling to the festival very much in hope rather than expectation. And while monopolies by definition have drawbacks, a lot of small operations are getting by purely on the hope of selling something on to the big boys for big money.
However any inverted snobbery of disdaining the flat because of its exclusivity sounds very hollow when in the upcoming major championship races basically only Hurricane Fly and Quevega figure outside the big-four ownership battalions.

 

[Morning Glory]

Rich Ricci banking on Irish trainer Willie Mullins

RICH RICCI and his wife Susannah have burst onto the National Hunt scene in a big way in Ireland, yet are not that well known to English racegoers.

Though they live in Kent, the fun-loving couple decided from the outset to put all their eggs in one basket - that of Willie Mullins, the Irish champion trainer based in Co Carlow.

And why not? Mullins is as cool and calm a professional as his English counterparts can be edgy and difficult with owners.

To have 30 horses with Mullins gives Ricci an excuse - if one were needed — to jet off and experience 'the craic' from November to April when his business commitments at Barclays Bank head office allow.

The Riccis have spent well over €5million on their horses to date - not including training fees - and are proof that money can buy happiness and success on the racecourse when placed in the right hands.

They may not get back what they put in financially but Mullins has bought the Riccis some of the best young stock in Ireland and France - some of which will be running at Cheltenham next week.

Pont Alexandre, 5-2 favourite for the Neptune Investment Novices' Hurdle on the Wednesday, is their likeliest winner according to both Mullins and Ruby Walsh.

A winner at Cholet in Central France last May, the five-year-old is unbeaten in two starts on heavy in Ireland.

"I could not be more happy with him,'" said Mullins.

"He has answered every question we've asked and I imagine he'll be even more effective on good to soft.

question we've asked and I imagine he'll be even more effective on good to soft.

"I'd rate his chances very strongly."

"I'd rate his chances very strongly."

Not that Arvika Ligeonniere, 8-1 for the " Not that Arvika Ligeonniere, 8-1 for th Arkle on Tuesday, had done much wrong before falling at Leopardstown last time. He is another Walsh is looking forward to riding and there can not be a better each-way bet on the first day.

Ballycasey's likely target is the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle on Friday. He is 4-1 joint favourite with At Fishers Cross, though the Riccis also have Champagne Fever in the race.

A winner of his only bumper last winter, and both his hurdles starts this season, the grey may lack a turn of foot but will be chasing next season, and a Festival win next week would be seen by all concerned as a bonus.

Other horses likely to carry the Ricci pink and green colours at Cheltenham, Fairyhouse and Punchestown this spring include Annie Power, Champagne Fever, Tarla, Unika La Reconce, Blazing Tempo, Touch The Eden, Blood Cotil, Zaidpour, Mikael d'Haguenet and Vesper Bell.

Asked for one to follow, Mullins opted for Annie Power.

"She has the size and scope to be anything," he said after she made it six wins from six "She has the size and scope to be anything," he said after she made it six wins from six starts at Naas last month. "With a summer's grass, she can do nothing but improve but in the meantime there is a Grade One mares' race at Fairyhouse for her."

Win or lose next week, you can bet Ricci will be laughing all the way back to the bank after Cheltenham - that is the nature of the beast.

He is in it for the craic after all.

 

[Hoof]

From Donn McCleans site ...profile of our Conor buyer Barry connell


Guest Contributors » A Man Apart

A Man Apart

By Stephen Dwyer

By the time he was three years old, Barry Connell knew what he wanted from life. His father Patrick brought his little boy to race meetings every week, after which Barry desired nothing more than to be a jockey.

Fast forward forty years, Barry Connell is a successful fund manager, having established Merrion Capital, a stockbroking firm, he then established a 50-50 joint venture called Rockview Merrion Investments. Rockview manages a hedge fund for high net worth individuals. Success was quick to arrive and Barry’s brainchild was worth €35m in a few short years.

Racing fans will be familiar with the Rockview series of bumpers which Connell has sponsored since 2005. The Rockview series is run over ten tracks and allows qualified riders to accumulate points in designated bumpers. At the end of the year, the final takes place at the Curragh and it recognises the leading qualified rider, the winner is handed a €2,500 Holiday Voucher. Patrick Mullins is in the hunt for a hat trick of titles this year, Katie Walsh won it in 2006 and 2007 and Niall “Slippers” Madden claimed it in 2005. It’s a fine idea and one of the ways of demonstrating the interest that Barry Connell has for the sport.

As well as being a sponsor, Connell is a successful dual owner and jockey. Last year saw 13 winners, including his biggest ever Irish success Rock And Roll Kid in the valuable Tote Mile Handicap at Galway. Shinrock Paddy also won The Barry & Sandra Kelly Memorial Novice Hurdle at Navan. He also joined the elite few of Cheltenham winning owners when Pedrobob landed the 2007 County Hurdle under Philip Carberry.

Self admittedly, the main reason for getting involved in horses was to ride them and fulfil that childhood dream. Ever a man for self-actualisation, 1999 saw Connell taking out a jockey’s license to ride in a charity race over one mile six furlongs at Fairyhouse. On the day, he rode his own horse, Bushman’s River, to victory by a short-head and was bitten by the riding bug.

No doubt he is a latecomer to the game but his enthusiasm and exuberance for riding are admirable. At 51, the same age as Mick Kinane, Connell has had many successful days riding his horses to success in bumpers. He even won a bumper at the November Cheltenham meeting of 2003 when riding The Posh Paddy which was surely a career highlight. He does not ride over hurdles but his famous yellow and dark blue colours have won him many admirers.

His riding style is unique, sitting high in the saddle he is not a purist, he does not come from an area steeped in the equine world; he is a Southside Dubliner with no riding background. At times his riding approach was abecedarian but that was not the case in Stratford last year aboard his £60,000 purchase, Frascati Park. Going left-handed for the first time, the 6/5 favourite hung badly right. Connell appeared to lose everything, he dropped his whip, he lost the off-side rein, in fact he lost everything but his nerve. Appearing calm and in control, he sat motionless on the horse and won by a neck on the line, he was subsequently given the At The Races ride of the week. The Racing Post was suitably impressed at this feat when writing “this true Corinthian did not put the bump into Bumper”.

Retiring this week due to a prolonged riding injury in his left arm, Connell will still be heavily involved with racing. His last winner as a rider was aboard Bullock Harbour at last month’s Listowel Harvest Festival, it was the second win of 2010 following on from six wins in 2009.

Appearing as he did on race cards as Mr. B Connell, he has to be admired for fulfilling his lifelong dream, defying his age and being a man with the courage of his convictions.

In 2008 he was asked if the racing bug had left his system and if had had plans on retiring, he replied in the negative noting “look at the Flat jockeys and some of them can ride away well into their 50s”.

Yet another job done for a man apart.

By Stephen Dwyer

 

[Old Vic]

Think this is bloke who owns Cappa bleu and owned State of play


Mr. William J. Rucker has been the Chief Executive Officer of London at Lazard Ltd., since June 2004. Mr. Rucker has been Deputy Chief Executive of European investment banking business at Lazard Ltd., since September 20, 2006. He joined Lazard in 1987. He has enormous experience as a senior banker in the metals and mining sector. He was a qualified chartered accountant at Arthur Andersen. He served as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Lazard London since 2000. He has been the Non-Executive Chairman of Quintain Estates and Development plc since October 1, 2009 and Crest Nicholson Plc at Crest Nicholson Holdings Limited since September 2011. He served as Deputy Chairman of Lazard LLC. He served as Deputy Chairman of Lazard Ltd. He serves as Director of Lazard Ltd. He served as a Non-Executive Director of Rentokil Initial plc from February 2008 to March 14, 2013. He served as a Member of the European Advisory Board at Lazard Ltd. He served as Co-Chairman of European Investment Banking Committee. Mr. Rucker qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1987.

 

[Old Vic]

Bit more about Quantain

Rucker, who took on the role on 1 October, is the chief executive of Lazard’s London office and considered the listed property sector’s top financial adviser. He counts Hammerson, Segro, Great Portland Estates and Grainger among his clients.

He advised Canary Wharf Group before its sale to Songbird Estates and, outside property, he advises Debenhams, Greene King and, most topically, Kraft in its bid for Cadbury.

Rucker is ideally suited to helping Quintain move forward. Having advised the company since 1994, he knows it intimately. He took over from economist and Financial Times journalist John Plender, who is 65 in March and wanted to step aside.

“I said to William: ‘Is there any chance you might consider coming to us?’ And he did,” says Wyatt.

“It’s a hell of a feather in our corporate cap.”

Speaking to Property Week in his first property interview, Rucker reveals where he believes the company got it wrong, his support for Wyatt and his team and how the growth of the fund management arm will enable Quintain to pay a dividend again.

Despite the company’s woes at the beginning of last year, no heads have rolled, nor are they likely to.

“In the dialogue with shareholders *— the owners of the business *— they were very supportive of the management team,” says Rucker. “What they would say, if they had criticised the management team, was that — perhaps — we were overambitious in terms of how we were going to fund out the scale of developments that we had on our books.

“If you look back strategically and ask: 'Was there a mistake made?' it was either, from a position of strength, not to have raised money to make sure we could fund out the developments or to have built up the fund management business to a bigger scale, whereby it was a recurring flywheel of income that meant the company could continue to fund itself.

“With hindsight we should have done one or the other. But I don’t think shareholders see that as a failure of management any more than they do at other companies. In terms of feedback from shareholders, they are very supportive of the team and don’t want to see a change.”

There was talk last year of Quintain considering splitting its earnings-driven fund management business from the urban regeneration side. Rucker says there are no plans to do this. “We think it works well as a combination: partnering the recurring income and the ability to add value on fund management with the urban regeneration model.

“If you have a pure development play, you are very exposed to cycles. If you have a balanced business, which means you can hold those developments through volatile markets, you have a much better chance of creating value for shareholders.”


lazards

The highest paid director — understood to be William Rucker, the Lazard London chief executive – received compensation of £5.16m last year, up from £4.86m.
However sources indicated that Mr Rucker took a pay cut believed to be in the region of 40pc — similar to that of Lazard’s global chairman, Ken Jacobs. The increase is thought to be the result of share awards, granted a few years ago, vesting during 2011.