Mick Easterby hopes hard work and Hoof It can lift Nunthorpe at York
The Observer
13 August 2011
Mick Easterby has a theory about the recent rioting. He explains it as he waits for his horses to climb the gallops at this rural spot 10 miles north of York, where he has trained for decades. "The poor fellas are bored to death, that's all that's wrong.
"They need work, like a young horse; if you don't give him any work, he gets very mischievous. He'll kick you and do anything. Human beings the same, you've got to give them work. Proper work, you know? You work them hard enough, they'll go to bed and go to sleep. If I have a horse [who is] bad to ride, instead of getting an hour and a half or two hours a day, he gets four."
Now 80, Easterby has been speaking his mind freely for as long as anyone can remember, presenting himself as a bluff, leg-pulling Yorkshire farmer, whose occasional television appearances are followed by apologies from the broadcaster for the language used. "Spitting Mick", who fires out saliva at regular intervals, indoors and out, is much better known for his image than for any horses to have passed through his hands.
Hoof It could be the horse who finally changes that. An impressive winner of the Stewards' Cup at Goodwood last month, he is favourite for Friday's Nunthorpe Stakes at York. Easterby reckons it would be his first Group One winner since Mrs McArdy won the 1,000 Guineas in 1977.
"He's like some of these lads, yobs. If he didn't have plenty of nice, long work, he'd be the same." As it happens, Hoof It has been particularly impressive in his latest spin up the gallops. "I'm growing more confident by the day. I've rechristened him 'the Wonderhorse'. How's that for bullshit? Life's about bullshit. You can't talk, you can't get anywhere in life. All the best trainers are good talkers. I've known some wonderful little trainers and they can't get horses 'cos they can't talk.
"You've got to be an actor to be a trainer. I've been an actor all my life. When I first got married, my wife thought I was marvellous but when she married me, all at once the penny dropped."
By this time, we are back in the Easterby kitchen and Alice, the wife in question, is rocking with suppressed mirth. But the family home is not without its sources of tension, as becomes clear when the youngest son, David, appears and Mick is asked if he might one day hand over the licence to him.
"I've been trying to step back for five years," he says, grinning. "My son wants to wear me out first because, if I stop, I'll be living forever and that's what he doesn't want. I don't mind pressure anyway. I get bored very easily."
"Yes, yes," confirms David, with a shade less evident amusement. "Every day, he says, 'David, please take over' and I say, 'No, Dad, you're the best at this, you carry on.'"
Later, Mick is explaining what persuaded him that £14,000 might be a bargain for Hoof It at Doncaster Sales in 2008. "Who bought him at the sales, Dad?" David interjects. "David bought him," Easterby Sr clarifies. "David and I bought him together."
If Hoof It wins on Friday, there will be plenty of credit to go around, as well as the prospect of a trip to the Breeders' Cup in Kentucky. Who can say what the American media would make of Mick Easterby? With luck, he can be induced to tell them the story of his family tree, explained to him recently during a phone call from a previously unknown relative.
"He said, 'I can go back to the very early 1800s. The Easterbys were quite well-to-do and they had their own crown.' That's what I've been looking for all me life.
"But he said, 'There's a good side and a bad side. The good side were landowners, had their own castle. The bad side were horse smugglers.'
"So I rang my brother [Peter, who trained Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon]. I said, 'I've got our family tree. The Easterbys were horse smugglers in the 1800's. He said, 'Ring him back and tell him it hasn't changed.'"
