It’s now official,Lindsey has opened a satellite stable in Tassie with Imogen Miller and Brendon McCoull looking after things
It hasn’t taken long for Group 1 winning trainer Lindsey Smith to make his mark in Tasmania.
Smith has a base at Warnambool in the south of Victoria, but to diversify his operation, Smith is now also racing horses in Tasmania out of the Seven Mile Beach stables of trainer Imogen Miller.
The partnership is paying early dividends. From just seven starts in Tasmania this season, Smith already has four wins, including the Group 3 Mystic Journey Stakes with Yellow Sam.
“I love Tasmania; the conditions are great, the people are laid back, and Imogen and Brendon (McCoull) have been fantastic,” said Lindsey Smith.
Yellow Sam is favourite to make it a clean sweep of the state’s Group 3 fillies & mares features when she steps out in the Armidale Stud Vamos Stakes (1400m) in Launceston on Wednesday.
“She’s doing really well. She’s a bit of a full on type of mare; she seems to really enjoy the beach,” said Imogen Miller, confirming the horse has remained in Tasmania since the win on 9 February.
Miller’s stable produced the quinella in the Mystic Journey, where her stable star Alvarinho finished second, beaten half-a-length.
That quinella heads the market for the Vamos, where Yellow Sam has been backed from $3.20 into $2.60, and Alvarinho is $5.50.
“Pretty happy with how Alvarinho has come along between runs.
“The barrier (5) will hopefully make a difference this time, so we’re looking forward to Wednesday,” said the trainer, noting that Alvarinho drew 14/14 in the Mystic Journey.
The Vamos has attracted a quality field, including the first two home from last year’s race, Jaja Chaboogie and Sirene Stryker.
Dual-state trainer Lindsey Smith will close his Perth stables at the end of the year, allowing him to focus on his Warrnambool operation.
The 63-year-old Western Australia native left Perth several years ago to open his satellite stable in Victoria and says the time has come to shut up shop in the west.
"I've only got a couple of horses left, one will see out until the Perth Cup if he continues his form, then that will be all she wrote, I'll cancel my licence over there," Smith said.
"Not really a tough decision, it couldn't wash its face anymore, I was getting no new horses, most people wanted me there all the time, so it just got a bit tricky.
"I just needed to focus, being hands on I'm better off in just one place. It also means I won't be classed as a city trainer, which opens up some pretty lucrative races which I haven't been able to enter in the last couple of years."
Smith's WA representative Donna Riordan will continue to tinker with a handful of horses from Smith's property, with the veteran trainer confirming the homestead isn't for sale.
"Donna (Riordan) is going to poke around and pre-train a couple until she figures out what she wants to do," Smith said.
"I'll just leave it there, it's the family home. If we ever go home for a holiday or if I take some horses over there at Derby time or Oaks time, I've got somewhere to go."
Smith also confirmed he won't be travelling any Victorian-trained horses to Perth for the upcoming The Pinnacles series.
Group 1 winner Tuvalu and sprinter In The Boat had previously been touted as suitable horses to contest Perth's lucrative carnival but instead will remain in Victoria.
Great article, getting to know him over the last couple of years, he's a ripper bloke! Really looks after his staff too. Nothing but hard work going on down here!!
I made mention of this a couple of weeks ago & he's dead right, W/bool trainers have regained the form they've been known for over the last couple of years
Meeting the Soft Sand King
The phone rang Turnbull Stakes morning and it was
Lindsey Smith wanting to catch up and have a feed at the local watering
hole, the Whalers Hotel.
It didn’t take much to twist my (Matt Stewart) arm.
I
always love my lunch catch ups with Lindsey as he’s always full of
funny stories and has a wonderful knowledge of the horse racing caper.
So when he asks, it’s very hard to say ‘no’.
Lindsey doesn’t like the spotlight and if I’m completely honest, doesn’t like being around many people.
He’s quirky, quite shy and a little different. But it’s good different.
He sees things differently to most.
He's a deep thinker and he’s very, very smart.
When you finally get him to relax, you won't find a funnier and more positive person to be around.
People love him, he's infectious and he’s probably one of the most caring people you will ever meet.
If you gave him $100k tomorrow, he would share it with everyone and anyone just because he could.
So
I was intrigued when he started the conversation with how bad the
stable was travelling and the how the other Warrnambool trainers were
just battling as well.
Most would put it down to the wet weather and the lack of dry track conditions. But not Lindsey.
“You wait, the next few weeks and we will be back and back in a big way,” he said.
Lindsey oozed confidence and, generally, when he’s confident, he’s very rarely wrong.
During
out time chatting on Racing.com, he would tell you straight up how each
horse would go and nine times out of 10 he was 100 per cent spot on.
His
most loyal owner and great mate Chris Wells (The Gypsy King) reckons
he’s the best judge he’s seen and has an unbelievable knack of getting
horses to their optimum fitness and he always has them looking
magnificent.
He reckons it's the conditioning he does in the soft sand and there’s an art form to it.
So what was his reasoning with the locals not going as well?
Lindsey
says: “I’ve been at them for months to replenish the sand track on
course. It needs fresh soft sand a couple of times a year.
“It
makes the horses work harder and you can get them aerobically fitter.
You watch in the next couple of weeks there will be winners everywhere.”
He was spot on.
There were seven local winners from
Warrnambool trainers in a week including Tuvalu in the Group 1 Toorak
Handicap, Sirileo Miss from Symon Wilde’s team in the Ladies Day Vase
and rising star Toregene from Matty Williams.
The King of the Sand has absolutely nailed it again. But was it pure coincidence?
Lindsey is adamant it isn’t and he hopes people are starting to listen to him now.
So where did Lindsey's love of the soft sand come from?
The answer is all about love.
In 1999, back home in Perth, a chance meeting with close friend Jason Oliver introduced him to a friend called Rebecca.
Lindsey
instantly fell in love, but Rebecca was a little younger and it’s fair
to say Lindsey had been in a good paddock and wasn’t in the best shape
of his life.
So from that point forward he knew if he was to woo the younger lady he’d fallen for, he needed to shed some pounds.
“I
drove out of that meeting and on the way home I was about to swing
straight into Hungry Jacks but out of the corner of my eye I saw a sign
that said get fit for $99. So I had a choice to make and I chose
fitness.
“I walked in and met the trainer. He said lift up your
top and let's see what’s underneath. He looked me straight in the eye
and said it's going to cost you more than $99 to get you fit.
“This started me off on a whole new path learning about fitness and getting myself fit and how to go about it.
“The trainer used to talk about a bloke he’d met in America called Paul Westhead, who famously coached the Los Angeles Lakers.
“He
would train his players up a soft sand running track in Central Park
and he couldn’t believe how much fitter he would get them and how much
more conditioned they would be.
“Where our stables were, we had a
perfect area of soft sand and some undulating hills so I put myself to
the test first and started training and running in the soft sand.
“The
weight came off me and my fitness levels went through the roof. Was I
onto something different? I was working with a great mate Justin Warwick
and we had a few trotters and we got a few gallopers and we thought
‘let's give this a fair dinkum go’.
“The first galloper we had
was a horse called Old Cobber. He won nine races in a row in seven weeks
and we were away. We had this soft sand hill which had three trees on
it.
“If a horse could only get to the first tree he wouldn’t cut
it. If it could get to the 2nd tree he would win races and if he could
get the 3rd and final tree he was a Group horse.”
It was as simple
as that. The tradition has continued over the journey with Grant
Williams and Adam Durant both working and learning their craft under the
guidance of Lindsey Smith and the soft sand and those three trees.
But
as Lindsey says: “the best Group 1 winner to ever come out of that soft
sand hill was me, as I ended up marrying Rebecca and as they says the
rest is history.”
Wisdom has been chasing me but I've always outrun it!
Warrnambool-based trainer Lindsey Smith is confident promising four-year-old Tuvalu can continue to race successfully despite an ongoing health battle.
The son of Kermadec spent several weeks on the sidelines earlier this year after a health scare, that was initially believed to be gall stones.
Vets now believe Tuvalu may have an ongoing liver issue, but Smith is remaining confident his emerging talent will continue to race on competitively after a narrow defeat at Flemington last Saturday over 1600m.
“They’re thinking it could be a thing called Gilbert’s syndrome, humans get it, they think it might be something similar,” Smith said.
“Endurance runners get it as well; it has happened before.
“He (Tuvalu) seems ok, I can’t pick anything, physically he looks good, he only went for a trot and a swim down the ocean today
He likes being out in the sun which seems to lower it a little bit, but it doesn’t seem to affect his health or anything.
“Some of the vets say it shouldn’t bother him, so anyway we’ll push on because he seems ok.”
Tuvalu will stick to headquarters for his next assignment, but Smith is keen to drop his galloper back to his most successful distance.
“I’ll push on. I might drop him back to 1400m in a couple of weeks at Flemington,” Smith said.
Tuvalu’s narrow Flemington defeat capped off a disappointing week for Smith’s stable after Goodwood favourite In The Boat was scratched from the Group 1 sprint.
“We had a bad week with In The Boat and then Tuvalu getting beat, but what do they say, look for the sun on a cloudy day?”
His nice horse In The Boat was swabbed after his last start 3rd, they found some blood in his urine. They’ve since discovered the horse has some nasty gallstones in his bladder.
Ballarat Vets are sorting him out, painful thing, can’t imagine what he was going through to still run a decent race.
Some updates on a few of Lindseys from Wa Racing News
Chantrea
Lindsey Smiths four-year-old mare is in the paddock for a quick break after a winless campaign in December and January.
After winning the first six races of her career, Chantrea ran third in the Jungle Dawn Classic (1400m), fourth in the Starstruck Classic (1600m) and third in the La Trice Classic (1800m).
Owner John Yovich said the daughter of Puissance De Lune has pulled up great, but unfortunately the way the races were run didnt suit.
She will go to Melbourne in a few weeks but at this stage her first race target has yet to be decided.
Too Close The Sun
After doing the bulk of his primary work at Lindsey Smiths stable, Too Close The Sun is set to go back to Melbourne.
A winner of the Ascot Gold Cup (1800m) and runner-up to Inspirational Girl in the Group 1 Railway Stakes (1600m), the talented five-year-old will target the Futurity Stakes on February 20 and the All Star Mile on March 13.
Silentz
Silentz is spending a few weeks with Roy Rogers in Albany after his dominant win in the Mungrup Sprint (1300m) at Mount Barker.
The Lindsey Smith seven-year-old will target the Cyril Flower Stakes, Pinjarra Classic and Bunbury Stakes.
5 time Melbourne winner Silentz returned from a 2 year retirement with his first run for Lindsey at Mt Barker (WA) yesterday and came away with the feature sprint race.
Lindsey Smith isn't a betting man but if he was, he'd have something on former Hong Kong galloper Rivet
Delight in the Winning Edge Presentations Handicap (1700m) at
Flemington on Saturday.
To be ridden by Ben Melham from barrier 11, the six-year-old is a $21
hope with Sportbet and Smith says he expects the horse to run well.
"It's not a bad field. He likes a little bit of give in the ground," Smith said.
"I don't bet but if I was to have a bet on all of (my) horses (on
Saturday) then he'd be the one I'd have something on at good odds."
Undefeated three-year-old Tydeus will contest the Group 2 Danehill
Stakes (1200m), however, Smith believes the $9.50 hope may be racing out
of his grade.
"He is a progressive horse, but he has gone up a few grades," Smith said.
"It's not something I generally do, but he's a stallion and the
connections would like to have a look at him against the better horses.
"Me, I'd be going to a Class 3, but I like winning more than just
going around. But he's a nice horse and he can go in either ground, so
it won't matter if it's wet or dry.
"At the end of the day we will find out (just how good he is). We can
always take our bat and ball and go home somewhere a little bit
easier."
Adelaide Ace ($20) will step out in the Listed Sofitel (1400m) for Declan Bates.
"I maybe didn't have him fit enough to run the race he run (first-up)," Smith said.
"It flattened him a little bit. I will pretend he is first-up and he
will bounce out of this race a lot better than his first start this time
around.
"He can wait for a later date."
Wisdom has been chasing me but I've always outrun it!
It is probably a combination of both what Smith said, Waller is the better trainer, He was first up over a mile in quite a poor race. I would say the figures from the race would indicate he did not need to be anywhere near his best.
Lindsay Smith gets his fair share of winners but I can not help but think the quality is a little disappointing.
Wouldnt it be great to know just what it took to totally invigorate the old boy?
“Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride, friendship without envy, or beauty without vanity? Here where grace is laced with muscle and strength by gentleness confined”
Lindsey Smith
says he got egg on his face and freely admits he has had his pants
pulled down by master trainer Chris Waller over the incredible
renaissance of comeback king Humidor.
Humidor was a three-time
Group I winning weapon at one point of his career but couldnt fire a
shot in three starts for Smith in Perth.
Enter Waller who trained
Humidor to win the Feehan Stakes at The Valley on Saturday, giving the
veteran galloper a shot at a Cox Plate which appeared beyond him when he
was making up the numbers in races in WA.
Smith had been happy to
move Humidor on, feeling that the eight-year-old was well past his
best, but knew something was brewing when he watched him in the mounting
yard on Saturday.
Sydney Racing
He is happy to give all kudos to Waller and admits he feels somewhat silly.
He (Waller) pulled my pants down, its fine, he outplayed me Smith told Racenet.
He trained it better than I did, as simple as that, and I take my hat off to him.
I
only saw the horse on TV and I must admit before the race I got a bit
nervous because in my time I had never seen him look that good.
In my time of looking at Humidor, he is pretty unattractive but he looked pretty good in that mounting yard.
He looked better halfway up the straight.
I was thinking where did that egg come from, because its landed straight on my face.
As a result of the lessons learned through the Humidor experience, Smith has vowed to better himself as a trainer.
He wishes he had done some things differently with the veteran galloper and used different training methods.
What Ive got to take out of that is that Ive got to get better, Smith said.
I gave up on him a bit, I didnt think he would come back.
But Waller is the best trainer in Australia for a reason.
I can duck and dive and I can do whatever I like but at the end of the day, down they come, the pants.
Humidor - who most thought was a spent force prior to Saturday - is now a $21 chance to win the Cox Plate.
Knowing
he has a golden ticket into the race, Waller can plot a conservative
approach as Humidor tries to go one better than when he ran a famous
second to Winx in 2017.
Wisdom has been chasing me but I've always outrun it!
By all means identify the specific black marks that are are allegedly adding up.
ps The East Coast Autumn carnival is commencing: Smith will be here for most of it. The WA late Autumn/Winter carnival commences following Autumn carnival: Smith will be back in Perth for it. The Spring carnival commences....
Would have thought she’d have enough on her plate considering the bloke she works for spends the majority of his time in WA. It’s all good. We might be fortunate to see a repeat of the 2018 Grand National Hurdle and the like.
No idea the background of the horse, but how can the stewards let all this sh1t happen again. You had Mclean stable foreman for Weir and training his own horses. He was setting up races with his and Weir runners in the same race, stewards coming down to Warrnambool to do swabs only to find them not in the allocated base, but somewhere else. Haven’t we been down this track before????? She either trains in her own right or she’s an assistant to Smith.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum