TRAINERS: THE BRADLEY SMITH PROFILE
By Gaham Potter | Thursday, January 1, 2015
TRAINER BRADLEY SMITH
The Brad Smith stable landed two winners from only five starters in the final week of February, keeping up the trainer’s impressive strike-rate.
Grantly Miss duly obliged at Ipswich on February 25. It was no surprise that she claimed her due reward for her consistency, but the manner in which she raced to victory, away from her normal racing pattern, certainly did was unexpected. Uncharacteristically coming from behind, Grantly Miss hit the line hard to reel in the front-running She’s A Danika, when the latter had looked all over the winner with 100m left to run.
Grantly Miss is now a seven-time winner ... with seventeen minor placings ... from thirty-nine starts.
Smith’s second winner of the week, at the Gold Coast on February 28, was a shock to the system for many punters if the starting price of Rock Musician is to be believed. The six-year-old son of Hussonet started at $51 and won like a short-priced favourite. Clearly the step up in ground (from 1400m to 1800m), the added fitness following his first-up run and his liking for a heavy track clearly formed a trifecta of factors that made his price unrealistic and he punished those who neglected the hint of improvement on offer.
*Smith also had a third at Kilcoy on February 27 with Monschapelle while the stable’s two city runner at Doomben on Saturday, Cold Blooded and Rideonabigjetplane both finishied unplaced.
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February 14 marked a special day in the stable when stable apprentice Issabella Rabjones made her debut to official race riding when taking two rides at Nanago, courtesy of trainers Steele Ryan and Bradley Smith. To Rabjones’ absolute credit she came away with a second placing on the Bradley Smith trained Monshapelle.
While yet to win this year, Grantly Miss, who rounded off her 2014 campaign with successive wins at Murwillumbah (over 1530m) and Gatton (over 1400m) has remained a model of consistency finished second, third and second in her three runs to date this calendar year. The most recent of these runs came when being run down late at the Gold Coast over 1400m on February 11.
Cold Blooded picked up his second career win with a dominant performance in a Class 1 1600m event at the Sunshine Coast on February 8. The mare, who was was the smallest and least experienced runner in the line-up gave her rivals a start but cut them down in emphatic fashion in the home straight to score by a widening margin. Her two wins have come in only seven starts.
That result completed a fair three day’s work for the stable. Rideonabigjetplane finished second at Ipswich on February 6 and Diamond Trail finished third at Dalby on February 7.
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The Bradley Smith trained Cold Blooded followed up his maiden win with a creditable second placing in Class 1 company over 1400m at the Sunshine Coast on February 1. That translated into a bold showing at odds of $16
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Smith sent out two runners at Doomben on January 21.
Diamond Trail and Grantly Miss both paid their way.
Diamond Trail, who was first-up, stayed on doggedly to secure a satisfactory second placing behind the useful Tiger Dimejan in a Class 5 Handicap while the consistent Grantly Miss settled for third place in a Ratings Band 0-70 Handicap, which was more than a fair result giving she was stepping up to city class following successive wins at Gatton and Murwillumbah, as well as a runner-up finish, back in November and December last year.
Two runners. Two places. No cigar, but still a good result!
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STABLE STATS: January / February 2015:
Fifteen runners: 2 winners – Cold Blooded (13.33% win strike-rate) ), 6 seconds, 2 thirds (66.66% place strike-rate) and 1 fourth.
Read a review of Cold Blooded's wins here:
Cold Blooded Win 1
Cold Blooded Win 2
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BRADLEY SMITH - THE PERSONAL PROFILE:
“My dad … Gary Smith … was a jockey. Colin O’ Neill is my uncle … so racing was always in my life.
“I didn’t really think I would get here so soon, I mean training in my own right. I worked all through my twenties and got to the end of it and thought, no, I want to do something myself.
“I’ve been involved in training for about four years now.
“I started at Peter Bell’s place, Bellmere Lodge. He was excellent. I credit him with a lot the acquired knowledge that I have.
"The same goes for Steele Ryan, who has always helped me ... and he continues to do so.
"I have always been willing to learn and I have a thirst for knowledge so training was something that always appealed to me.
“Peter was good to me. Darren (Bell) has been very good to me. I was there probably about a year-and-a-half before Peter … he didn’t sell up, but he leased the place out and we moved to Deagon and I’ve been there ever since.
“That’s when things started to get going for me as a trainer.
“It is incredibly difficult for anybody to start out as a trainer if they don’t have significant backing. It was no different for me, but I had a lot of racing friends and we bought a couple of cheap horses early and syndicated them nicely enough so there was money coming in to train them.
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“I started with two horses. An old horse from Melbourne called General Laureate was my first runner at Beaudesert … and Aequitas.
“We got out first winner pretty quick when Aequitas won at the Sunshine Coast. We had to wait a fair while for the next winner, but we were patient.
“Glen and Lisa Morton have been big supporters of mine. They are big leasers of horses and a good friend of mine suggested I should lease one off them because if you have a little bit of success they will give you something to train.
“Luckily enough, the first one I got off them was Diamond Trail and not long after she won in town the first time I got a steady stream of horses off them. I’ve got four or five or theirs now.
“I’ve got a lot of good other clients. We syndicate a lot. We do buy horses on the cheaper side.
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“I’m big on type and I’m a student of that. You obviously have to be aware of the pedigree. It is important but, at the same time, I don’t go over the top with the pedigree pages. I like to go and have a good look at the horses themselves and see who is nice on type.
“I’m a big fan of Liam Birchley. He made an art of buying cheap horses that turn out ok. I think you just have to know what you are looking for … know what you like… and back yourself.
The more you do that, the more you learn, the better you get at it.
“I think the dearest horse in my stable we would have paid $13 500 for … and we’ve had city winners amongst them so it’s been good.
“Having said that, with sales I am always on the lookout to upgrade a bit... you know, get more grunt in the pedigree and look to be able to target QTIS a bit more.
“I know that is easier said than done, but I think I’m quite astute with my purchases. At the end of the day it is not all about purchase price for me. Rather it has more to do with the ‘profit to outlay’ ratio.
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“I like to keep around ten to twelve horses at this time.
“I not saying I wouldn’t get any bigger in the future, but for now I’m comfortable with that number. I’m obviously always looking to upgrade if I can in terms of quality … you know, to have horses there that are capable of winning races ... but I can’t complain about the way things have been going.
“I do believe if I keep working hard and keep learning that things will get better.
Certainly, that’s a path I’m prepared to follow.”
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