Training legend Peter Easterby dies aged 95

In a remarkable career which started with just seven horses at his base near Malton, MH Easterby became one of the greatest dual-purpose handlers in the history of the sport.

He won two Cheltenham Gold Cups with Little Owl and Alverton, the latter also one of three Arkle Chase winners for his trainer along with Clayside and Ryeman.

On the Flat, Goldhill won the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, Sonnen Gold the 1979 Gimcrack. He won the Irish Sweeps Hurdle (Liffey), the Schweppes Gold Trophy, three Ayr Gold Cups, two Lincolns, two Chester Cups and an Ebor.

Saucy Kit was his first Champion Hurdle winner in 1967 but Easterby will be forever ed for Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon, two of the brightest stars in the Golden Era of two-mile hurdling.

Both won two Champion Hurdles, the former in 1976 and 1977. He went on to make a successful switch to fences, chasing home stablemate Little Owl in the 1981 Gold Cup.

The remarkable Sea Pigeon finished second to Monksfield in hurdling’s blue riband in 1978 and 1979 and just when people felt his chance had gone, won back-to-back renewals the following two seasons, the second, in 1981, memorably at the age of 11 under John Francome.

Easterby was a huge influence on countless people throughout the sport, none more so than Richard Fahey who has gone on to become a hugely successful trainer in his own right.

However, he’s very clear that without the help and advice of his mentor, it would never have happened.

“Peter was a great influence on my life, right from my early school days. It’s no exaggeration to say he’s probably the reason I even got interested in racing," Fahey said.

“For me he was the best trainer on the planet, he could train anything, even at school I used to take pictures of Alverton and Little Owl in to have on my study desk. He was a huge influence even from my very early days.

“I worked for him for 18 months when riding. A lot of jockeys don’t understand the running of a racing yard, what goes on, what’s important. When I worked with him, I got quite involved and learned so much. He didn’t say a lot, you just picked it up, the few words he did use were always important. You hung on every one.

“I married his daughter Leila and got more involved with him. I used to go to the sales with Peter and again just learned so much. As a stockman, a horseman, he was top of the tree. There's never been better.

“He was incredible when it came to buying and selling horses, just incredible. I still use so much of what he taught me when I’m at the sales myself today, when I’m looking at the yearlings in the autumn his words come back to me, time after time.

“He was buying the best but with two bob in his pocket. He wasn’t giving fortunes for them. He was the best on the planet at it.

“And it wasn’t only in racing I turned to him, his life advice was incredible too. He always helped me out, pointed me in the right direction when I needed it. When things didn’t work out with Leila he never held it against me. He was like a second Dad.

“Realistically, he’s the reason I started training. I had no interest whatsoever in doing it. I was doing some buying and selling, did a bit of livery work for him, and Peter came round one day to see me 'you should start training'. I said I had no interest in doing that, but he said: ‘No you should’.

"And so, I did. I when I first started, I had six horses in training and nine broodmares for him, which would never race, but then you had to have 15 horses in the yard to have your licence.

“One day a potential owner got in touch to say he was coming over to see me as he had four or five horses to put into training. He was going to see Peter first and them come to me. He asked Peter if he’d do a deal as he was sending him five rather than one. ’No I’ll charge you more as I’ll have to speak to you more’ was the reply.

“And they came to me. I spoke to Peter afterwards to say the gentleman had decided to do it and all he said was ‘I thought he might’. He’d never say it, but I’m sure he did what he did so I got the horses. He knew I needed them.

“Right to the very end I called him the boss because he was the boss, an incredible trainer and an incredible man.

“He was loyal to the people who worked for him, just look at how long the stable jockeys like Mark Birch stayed with him. He respected everyone who worked for him, and they respected him back. Once you were on the team, you were really on it.

“He was never the sort of man to tell you, but I sensed he was very happy with how my training career panned put. Even when he was getting older, two or three years ago, he would pop around and see me.

“It meant the world to me that he’d turn up, have a look round Musley Bank and listen to everything and still offer the invaluable advice.

“He was just a huge influence on my life, on my career. He really was the boss.”

And his horses act as a fine legacy too, Night Nurse still the highest-rated hurdler in Timeform’s history.

Timeform senior handicapper Phil Turner said: "Sea Pigeon is widely regarded as the greatest dual-purpose horse of all time, which is very apt given Peter Easterby enjoyed unprecedented success in both codes himself.

“Of course, he’ll be best ed for his jumping string’s heyday in the 1970s and early-1980s. His bold campaigning of Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon contributed to them becoming two of the UK’s most popular racehorses of all time, whilst their durability also spoke volumes for Easterby’s skills as a trainer. Indeed, the highly-strung Sea Pigeon was forced to adapt to Easterby’s no-nonsense training regime upon ing the yard in the mid-seventies and held his form remarkably well thereafter, winning his second Champion Hurdle in 1981 at the age of eleven having again arrived at Cheltenham on the back of a winter break – which was very much a rarity in those days.

“Night Nurse, meanwhile, was forced to sit out 13 months with a serious tendon injury early in his chasing career, but returned as good as ever to finish second to stable-companion Little Owl in the 1981 Cheltenham Gold Cup. The yard’s previous Gold Cup win was another feather in the cap for Easterby as he’d nursed the notably fragile Alverton back to the track after leg trouble of his own.

“A self-made man, Easterby tended to let his horses do the talking for him, which sometimes means his name gets overlooked when debates about greatest trainers crop up. His instinctive methods and many achievements over a very lengthy career means Easterby should always make the shortlist for any such discussion, though."

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