Trainer Runs His Own Race
Herald Sun 13/10/02

The sign on the gate of the modern Flemington stables is incongruous. Or is it? The small, hand-painted capitals whisper BRIAN MAYFIELD-SMITH RACING STABLES. Shouting his wares is not the trainer's style.

Asked if he had been accepted at the track in the five years he had been back training since his brief mid-life move to Africa to work with elephants, rhinos and other wildlife, Mayfield-Smith answers: "I think so. I run my own race. I respect other people's space and what they're trying to do, and I hope I get the same treatment in return. If people come to recognise that, then they accept you.

"I'm not the most outward going, gregarious sort of fellow you'd run across, but that is the personality I'm stuck with.

"I'm a bit too old to change now at 55. You might look a bit stand-offish, but I don't start out to be that way.

"At functions, it's not that I don't respect what's going on, but I just cringe being in the centre."

Mayfield-Smith does not shrink from telling it as it is, but admits to being an outsider - so much so that he called the book he wrote in 2000 The Outsider.

He said he is too old to change, but never too old to learn. He is steadfast on that track as he continues to build, in boutique fashion, on the career that peaked in Sydney in the mid-1980s when he dethroned the 33-year king of Sydney racing, Tommy Smith.

On looks, he is the typical trainer. On race day, pork-pie hat and binoculars are essential accessories to the suit. In the stables, he's in old clothes and a dirty Melbourne Cup cap.

But he said: "I'm just a horseman who makes a career out of training racehorses. It pays better than being a stockman; you can afford a better-class bed and mattress."

Mayfield-Smith started back in racing in 1997 with two horses and quickly built up to stable capacity of 26.

"I've had a hell of a lot of winners, probably averaged 50 at least each season," he said.

"We've had 37 stakes wins and six group ones among them. It's far exceeded expectations, anyway. I'm fairly satisfied with that, naturally. It's made it well worthwhile."

The trainer's strike rate in the city this season is one winner in four (10-39), right at the top of the list. It was similar last season and Turf Monthly in May claimed he had set a benchmark for trainers.

"I don't like to pat myself on the back," Mayfield-Smith said. "I just like to go about my business quietly and try to do it well."

With a stable full, he has trouble fitting in the 20 horses in pre-training. With those spelling, he has about 70 on the books.

Interestingly most are sprinters, with Newmarket winner Rubitano and fast filly Innovation Girl the stars.

Having sprinters, he said, is by accident not design. Quick turnover is not the aim and a Melbourne Cup winner remains his goal. "But I'm not within a bull's roar of it," he said.

Since moving from New South Wales to Flemington, by way of Africa, Mayfield-Smith has tried to lift his craft to another level. He is not content to accept that if something works well, leave it. Part of the self-education is with quarter horses.

I go to Nar Nar Goon," he explained. "A trainer there, Aaron Wheatley, he's been teaching me the finer points of riding.

"I'm probably going to start riding in cutting shows later this month or early next month. I'll see how I go. It's nice to do something different with horses at a competitive level.

"You have to ride with loose reins, leave it to the horse.

"It's quite fascinating that a horse, by its own volition, can work the cow with such energy and commitment."

His stable pony, Hank, is a 10-year-old quarter horse. It is learning, too. "He goes down to the trainer at Nar Nar Goon and does a bit of cattle work just to smarten him up and make life a bit interesting. He's moulded quite well."

Mayfield-Smith retains his passion for wildlife conservation, but said he had been disappointed with the people he and his wife, Maree, have dealt with at zoos since his return from Africa.

"The money from my book went to the Taronga Foundation," he said, "towards bringing out four breeding cheetahs from South Africa."

The Mayfield-Smiths went to NSW in 2000 to see them, offering: "If you want any more help, we're only too happy to help." He said they have not been contacted since and spoke about a similar experience at Healesville in Victoria.

"It makes you feel a little bit miffed," he said. "You've virtually got to chase people and shove money in their pocket.

"I said to Maree, 'If that's the way they treat people, let's forget about it'. So, basically, it's been put on hold. In not going very far with other animals, I've spoken to different people about trying to set up something to help retired racehorses.

"I've got a great old horse called The Collector (who had leg problems). I told the owner if he sold him he'd end up coming to grief. I said, 'Maree and I'll take him and we'll put him up on our property (102 hectares at Yea)'.

"He's sort of No. 1, I suppose, in what will become a line. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, but it's something I feel I need to do."

What of his training future? "I probably won't go to the end of the string as a horse trainer," he said. "What I'd like to do eventually is retire to the quarter horses and be involved in the cutting industry.

"Then I can live probably eight months in Australia and four months in Africa. I've got a base (Yea) to come back to.

"I want to make as much happen in my life as I can. I would prefer to sort of gallop into the grave rather than be carried into it."