Ben Smith has been many things including a bar man and an assistant to Australian racing greats like Bart Cummings. But presently he is known as the charismatic trainer of the Everest contender, In Her Time.
In an exclusive interview with Secretariat’s World Smith talks about his plans for the Time Thief colt.
Q: How did In Her Time come to you for training?
A: In Her Training was part of the Cobcroft Estate. One of the trustees (Mr. Peter Brown)bought the horse himself. He then leased it to my stable for three years. I got some existing clients and some new clients to join the lease. The lease is now complete and the ownership has reverted back but In Her Time continues to train with me. Infact we now have a few more of his horses training with us.
Q: Could you tell us a bit more about the owner?
A: Mr. Brown has always been involved. He is here twice a week, watching his horses train.
Q: How is she doing now? And what are your plan for her upto The Everest?
A: She is currently in the paddock. She will be there for another ten days. When she comes back it will be fourteen weeks until The Everest. We have planned for her to have a trial race ten weeks and a prep race at twelve weeks. The prep race is likely to be the Gr.2 Premier Race, which she won last year.
At fourteen weeks we will be all set for The Everest.
Q: Are there any contenders you are concerned about?
A: I think they are all horses to be concerned about. I think are all going to be going to be very good horses. All we can do is do the right things and the rest will follow.
In the end, it will all come down to the track condition and the racing form of those horses during that weekend.
Q: Currently how many do you have in your stables?
A: We have about sixty horses presently. We have twenty working horses, thirty in the paddock and ten in pre-training.
Q: Who is your other stable star?
A: Eldorado Dreaming is our other champion horse. She is doing really well and we expect her to go down to Melbourne for the spring carnival in Melbourne. We are aiming her at the VRC Oaks and Cox Plate.
Q: That’s interesting. If she goes into the Cox Plate then she may be going up against Winx, in possibly her last race.
A: Eldorado Dreaming is back in the stables now. She is developing very well. She will have to win some of the lead up runs going there. The VRC Oaks is the main aim with her. We have to get her to forty seven and a half kilos. We will just walk the path and see what spring holds.
Q: Going back to In Her Time, what kind of horse to train?
A: She is just brilliant. It took a little while to work her out and mature. She has a few issues with her feet as well as severe cardiac arrhythmia. But once those issues were dealt with properly, she started training beautifully. She is very competitive in everything she does.
You can do anything with her. She doesn’t put up a fuss and is very professional. She knows what her job is and has all the good attributes of a good horse. She will rest when she has to and will train when she is brought back. She knows to look after herself.
Q: It sounds like she is a pleasure to train, but I suspect your methods have a lot to do with her attitude.
A: We try to do everything right with them. Teach them the right way the first time. I want them (all the horses in-training) to trust us. We build a good foundation which makes the horses tend to want to work with you. And if something isn’t working we change it.
That is probably the best philosophy to have for any great trainer. We sincerely wish Ben Smith and his charge In Her Time all the very best in the coming weeks as they prepare for The Everests.
Published In EverestDiaries Issue 1, Vol 1
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