Will Easterby, who turned 28 last week, is the latest member of the famous Yorkshire racing dynasty to be making his mark on the sport. A successful trainer-rider with 87 wins in the saddle between the flags to accompany 33 under rules, he is based at the Great Habton yard where his legendary grandfather Peter – the only person with over 1,000 winners in both codes in the UK – trained the likes of Little Owl, Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon and which now houses the 150 flat horses and a dozen jumpers in the care of father Tim, who has had over 2,000 winners in his own successful career including a classic win with Bollin Eric in the 2002 St Leger. Jake Exelby caught up with Will on his return from the Newmarket Sales to discuss his own career and ambitions.
Along with your father and grandfather, how do you fit into the Easterby clan?
Mick is my great-uncle. He has three children – David, who used to ride and train pointers, Sue Mason (mother of flat jockey Joanna) and Cherry Coward, whose daughter Jacqueline was champion point-to-point rider. That family are something else and hard to keep up with! My Mum rode as an amateur as Sarah Nicholson and her father Geoffrey used to hunt with the Sinnington and work on the course at Duncombe Park.
Peter Easterby standing with Night Nurse (Keith Stone) and a young Tim Easterby (horse unknown)
Tell me about your pointing career to date
Mum started training pointers when I was at school. When I was leaving school, Mum said I could go to work for someone else or – if I went to uni – she’d keep the pointers and I could ride them. So I went to Newcastle to study Land Management. When I finished, I started training. We have four yards at Great Habton and I train pointers from one of them. My sister Emily, who rides as an amateur on the flat, does the majority of the work at home, Mum rides out most days and I school the pointers and take them to the races. Hazel Winn is also a great help.
My first season (2016/2017) was a bit of a disaster! Mum had won the small trainer (seven horses or fewer) title the year before with a brilliant strike rate but I had a tough awakening, although things have improved since then and it’s been good fun. In 2018, I was third – subsequently promoted to second – on Greensalt in the Aintree Foxhunters. He’d started as a maiden in 2015/2016, won four races that year then missed a season. He’d run well in a Hunter Chase so we thought we’d have a go, even though he was an outsider. I first walked the course at Aintree when I was ten and used to dream of riding it – I’ve had four goes and four clear rounds! I also rode Camden in the Cheltenham Foxhunters. It’s fantastic to be part of it, like a non-league football team playing at Wembley.
Will and Greensalt at Aintree
Who have been the best horses you’ve ridden and trained?
Monsieur Jourdain, who Dad bought as a yearling for Charlie Stevens. He ran over five furlongs on the flat as a two-year-old, then became a handicap chaser and his owner gave him to my grandad to run in points. Mum used to ride him out every day and he won three Grimthorpe Gold Cups – the only horse to do that – in a row at two different courses.
Will winning his second Grimthorpe Gold Cup on Monsieur Jourdain
Black River was a tough horse to beat and a great horse to have when I was learning to train. Emily did all the work with him but he was difficult to keep sound. And I was privileged to ride a couple of winners on My Old Piano, although I didn’t get on him until he was older.
For other people, Robin Tate’s Absainte, a bombproof mare who’s the easiest ride in the world. Robin – who still rides out in his 80s – and his daughter Fiona Needham are pointing legends who are friends with Mum and Dad. They put so much into the sport and it would struggle without them.
Which jockeys do you most admire? Why?
Jack Teal’s a good mate of mine – we were at pony club together and sit next to each other in the weighing room. He’s very professional and brilliant at breaking-in horses. Further back, Mark Walford was always good to me and I looked up to the Greenalls (Oliver and Tom), who were finishing when I started – it was good to chat to them.
A young Will (right) with Jack Teal at pony club
Which are your favourite courses? Why?
I’m a little bit biased, but Charm Park, where I started as Clerk of the Course last season – I would have done it earlier but for Covid. There’s a group of us who run the Yorkshire Jockeys Club meeting, including Rory Bevin – who’s our assistant trainer and has never-ending energy, Amy Collier, my partner Lottie Crane, Lucy Ireland, Will Milburn, and Emma Todd. And Jack’s taking over the Derwent meeting next season.
Will and partner Lottie Crane
Before the meeting, people would tell me, “That’s nowt of a job” but everything seemed to take forever and we were at the course all week. But we had a great group of volunteers who rallied round and produced a really good meeting. We were lucky – Aintree Foxhunters winner Latenightpass won the Ladies Open and, in the four-year-old maiden, the first two sold for a lot of money and Jack’s Macavity came third and then won the Aintree bumper. I trained the fourth – we were both under pressure to run one but it’s hard to get a young horse ready for a particular day.
I also loved Whitwell-on-the-Hill and it was a crying shame that we lost it. The open ditch was genuine – the fence was built over a ditch between two fields!
What are your ambitions in pointing and racing?
For us, pointing is a hobby, most of our horses run in the family colours and we can run where and when we want – dealing with owners is our day job! For example, when I was injured, Mum didn’t run the horses for six weeks, and we pack them up early, so we can focus on the flat horses.
I like to train – I enjoy that part of it. Dad says you can’t train and ride when you have owners – what if I had a fall and couldn’t train for two weeks? I’d also like to carry on the family farming business and enjoy buying horses at the sales. I started buying foals about six years ago, including Morozov Cocktail, who could turn into a useful staying chaser, the hurdler Court At Slip and improving pointer Ask To Dance. I’d like a bigger string of jumpers but don’t want to spend a massive amount as hurdlers don’t have a sell-on value and Irish pointers are expensive.
What have been the highlights of your time in the sport?
As a family, we’ve had some fantastic days. One was seeing the grin on Emily’s face the first time Greensalt worked better than Soleil D’Avril (Will’s first mount at Aintree)!
Another was Charm Park being a success, which for me was going into the unknown. As a jockey, you drive to the races, get on the horse, try not to fall off, then go home. It’s a one-day thing while, as a trainer, you’re with the horses every day. But working on a meeting, you rely on so many things and other people – there was a lot to do that day… and I rode in six races!
Will Milburn and Rory Bevin working at Charm Park
What would you do if you were in charge of the sport?
I’d get jockeys licenced by point-to-point secretaries, rather than Hunt secretaries, and only have their licence signed when they’ve done an afternoon’s work at a point-to-point course. Putting on a meeting is such a massive part of the sport.
With horse numbers at their lowest ever level, what are your concerns about the future?
This might be controversial, but I love going hunting and I’m a field master of the Sinnington. Hunting is finding it harder and harder and – if we lost hunting – would we lose pointing?
Will hunting with the Sinnington
Getting more horses is difficult, and not just for pointing – jump racing in the North of England is suffering too. One reason is cost, not just to keep a horse but to buy one. The economics favour the flat. York is one of the best tracks in the world and you can buy a yearling for £20,000 with the dream of running it in the Ebor with prize money of £500,000. Over jumps, that same budget would only buy you a store or a schoolmaster and you’re running for a few thousand pounds. And you can sell a horse rated 90+ on the flat for a lot of money to race abroad, rather than go hurdling.
Another reason is that a few years ago, low grade jumps horses would be sold cheaply to go point-to-pointing, but now there are 0-100 races everywhere, so why would you point a horse of that quality? Should we have a series of races for horses that haven’t won, say, above Class 5? (There was one at the Yorkshire Jockeys Club meeting at Charm Park).
What reasons do we have to be optimistic?
People talk about pointing struggling, but other sports do too. I play low grade cricket and a lot of villages don’t have a team now – there are other things for young people to do. But pointing has some great young jockeys and fantastic people – that’s what makes the sport what it is.
What are your plans for next season?
My brother Thomas is 16 and has just ridden his first winner on the flat. He’ll be the next one in the family to start pointing so we’ve bought some older horses for him, including the mare Crossgalesfamegame, who was second in a Listed chase at Doncaster.
We’ll have 10-12 horses, including Ask To Dance, who’s improving every year and might go hunter chasing, as well as some nice youngsters who’ll go pointing first and who we’ll sell to go under rules if they run well.
Will with Ask To Dance and (L-R) mum Sarah and Hazel Winn
We’ll qualify our horses with the Sinnington, run early at places like Alnwick and Hexham then support the local meetings. We don’t travel too far and I rarely ride south of Brocklesby Park!
What would you be doing if you weren't involved with horses?
When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a train driver. They probably saw me ride and thought, “We don’t want him driving a train!”
What are your non-horsey hobbies?
I’m hopeless at cricket and captain the Great Habton Thursday Night team, known as the “Whackers” because they’re the heaviest line-up in the league – they complained that they couldn’t fit in the largest size XXL shirts! I bat at number eleven and bowl leg spin.
I go hunting once a week and will watch any sport. I’m a Leeds United fan.
Tell me something I wouldn't know from asking these questions?
I rode in the Maryland Hunt Cup this year and spent three weeks there – it was a fantastic trip. I rode Pocket Talk for Joe Davies – his son won the race. We were jumping six-foot-tall uprights!
Will on Pocket Talk in the Maryland Hunt Cup