There were plenty of bright mornings out on the heath
And the Guv'nor was hard at work preparing the horses for the season ahead
A change of interview for this month as we interviewed three retired racing characters, Tommy Hardman, Joe Tate and Mick Carty, on their experiences in racing.
Tommy, now aged 84, was apprentice before the war to Billy Carr in Bolton, Lancs. "I was a little short arse I suppose and wasn't much good for anything else!" he laughed. He talks fondly of his Guv'nor who used not to train two-year-olds, but buy problem horses and run them until they were six or seven and with great success. Tommy's apprenticeship was to be 7 years but it was cut short in 1939 due to the war. After the war, many apprentices were given a license to ride. "And then I just tried to better myself and ended up in Newmarket working for Bernard Van Cutsem – the first public trainer at Stanley House, and Travelling Head Man for John Oxley,'til he retired."
Joe worked for various trainers too, including breaking yearlings in to go to America for Godolphin. Joe is first in a line of recent race stars: he is father of Jason Tate, who rode a winner on every racecourse and his grandson, Luke Morris, is now an apprentice to Michael Bell.
Mick Carty (also aged 84) started out serving his five year apprenticeship in Ireland and also worked for a few years for Mark.
When asked about the way things were, they all were as bright as buttons reminiscing about their adventures.
"Oh, it was hard, but it was great!" laughed Mick. "You got a bit of grub to keep you alive!" but when asked what hours they worked, the whole table erupted in laughter.
"From 6am you’d be riding out 3 lots, then lunchtime was spent around the yard and at night we'd be bringing the corn in off the fields. Every evening stables at harvest-time, we'd have a bite to eat before carrying sacks weighing 14 stone – we were only 6 stone something ourselves!" said Mick.
Tommy piped in with his addition: "We were given no money, so I had to earn it shearing the sheep!"
Joe earned "5 shillings a week working from seven in the morning to seven at night". Mick then joined in: "You did much better than me!" He earned 2/6d a week. "And in the winter lambing time, we'd ride a bike four miles to see the pictures and at 11 o'clock at night when we got in to where we lived, we have to fill up a bottle for the lambs, go to check the sheds to count them all and check the foxes hadn't got them and then give them their bottles – it was freezing!" Having full day's off started with Sundays off in the late Sixties.
(Having said that, Billy one of our travelling lads remembers being paid 12p in his first job and having to sleep in a hen hut – complete with the hens on the shelf above.)
When asked about travelling the horses, the lads would go with the horse in the horsebox, or try to share a lift – but before that most people would travel by train – horses included. Mick went on to tell how Jack Jarvis would have a couple of carriages of horses and they'd stay up at York racecourse for a couple of weeks. They all agreed that racing was "quite lively – there were 6 or 8 meetings at Redcar and the three day meeting at Ayr"
Favourite horse: "Cool Customer" (Tommy); "They're all favourites – and part of the family!" (Mick Carty); "Rambling Artist" said Joe. "He ran in the National… I could take him home to the bungalow… and get him to stand there while I went inside and then I'd give him a shout 'Rambo!' and he'd come up to me again."
Favourite racetrack: Nottingham (Tommy) "as I did better there"; Windsor (Joe); York and Cheltenham (Mick)
Favourite part of the job: "Travelling Head Man - it was always the best job in racing", said Tommy. While Mick said that his time riding out was the best and Joe agreed adding: "riding work and riding yearlings". But, meanwhile, Tommy was still fondly recollecting: "I'd be down the Carpenter's Arms til 12 and then get the tack ready for racing at 5 in the morning…"