Mick & David Easterby

Wild Side after winning at Nottingham in July 1983

Remembering Lord Belper

16.32 | Sun 2 Jul 23 | Memory Lane

Lord Belper was one of my favourite racehorse owners. Born (Alexander) Ronald George Strutt, the Fourth Baron Belper, or Lord Belper as he was known to the world, he was a true character. A former soldier, he had served as a major in the Coldstream Guards during World War II.

I had an on-going disagreement with Lord Belper, although I'm not actually sure what the disagreement was about. Everyone who knew Lord Belper had a disagreement with him because he made it his hobby, he just loved to disagree.

I trained a few horses for Lord Belper in the 1980s and 1990s, including the multiple winning steeplechaser Mick's Star who was ante-post favourite for the 1988 Grand National, just two years after Mr Snugfit had finished fourth. Probably the best known of his horses was Master Pokey, whose tale I will tell another time.

Lord Belper always insisted on getting his own jockeys to ride and he made the arrangements himself. He liked Michael Roberts and Steve Cauthen. He didn't trust jockeys any more than he didn't trust trainers. There were just a select few jockeys who he considered less untrustworthy than the rest.

One of the most unforgettable days racing with Lord Belper was at Sedgefield in mid January 1990 when we went to watch his horse, Mr Therm, run in a claiming chase. The horse finished second, beaten five or so lengths to Spritebrand, who was trained by my brother Peter.

As the horses passed the post Lord Belper turned to address me and I could sense the devilment in eyes.

"Objection, objection. Did you see that?" he cried. "I think we'll object to that one Michael."

Lord Belper waved his stick around, bashing it against the wall, and then he marched into the stewards and put in an objection to Peter's horse.

The objection was immediately thrown out, and Lord Belper returned.

"Why did you do that?" I asked him.

"I just wanted to test Peter out," he replied. "Ha ha, it was worth it just to see the look on your brother's face."

Lord Belper would have given anything to win that objection but I had no idea what it was all about and neither did he. All worked up and excited, he had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon largely at the expense of me and our Peter.

Sadly Mr Therm didn't manage to win a race and his outing at Sedgefield turned out to be his best performance. He was killed in a fall at the same track on Boxing Day 1990.