Gimcrack memories still music to the ears of Snowy (From Gazette & Herald)

Gimcrack memories still music to the ears of Snowy

IT'S nearly 30 years since Music Boy won the Gimcrack at York, but his trainer, Snowy Wainwright, remembers the day like it was yesterday.

The Ganthorpe resident, who celebrated his 76th birthday last Saturday, has an oil painting of his number one horse, which takes pride of place above his bed.

That win, back in 1975, was the greatest achievement for Snowy, who, from the humblest of beginnings became one of Ryedale's top trainers.

Born in Sheffield in 1928, most of Snowy's first 14 years were spent in a children's home in Barnsley. With no recollection of his parents, one of his earliest memories is being in hospital with a scalded foot.

A visit by the local lord mayor, delivering Christmas presents to the home, provided Snowy with a way into horse racing.

When the mayor asked him what he wanted to be, 14-year-old Snowy, who weighed less than five stone, replied: "A jockey."

Soon afterwards, Snowy was on his way to Malton to work as an apprentice jockey after the mayor had spoken to his good friend, Captain Charles Elsey, who trained at Highfield House stables.

Snowy found lodgings with Connie Robinson, a Norton resident, who became like a mother to him and who he stills visits in a nursing home to this day, and began learning his trade.

In those days, there were no racing schools. Snowy worked for the head lad, cleaning, dressing, grooming and feeding the horses. It was hard, physical work - mucking out was done using 'muck sacks' not wheel barrows.

"If the head lad told you to run, you ran, if he told you to jump, you jumped," said Snowy, whose real name is Stanley, but was given the nickname because of his blond hair. "In six months, he taught me everything."

Aged 16, Snowy had his first ride at Pontefract. His first win came at Catterick on Pat's Choice, but, despite another win on Wimper, owned by Lord Harewood, and a second place on Crusader's Horn, Snowy struggled with needing to keep his weight down.

Rather than riding, he set his sights on becoming a trainer. Bob O'Ryan, head lad for Pat Beasley and father of current Gazette & Herald racing columnist Tom, got him a job as travelling head lad for Beasley.

"It gave me the power to mix with owners and the enthusiasm to start training. I'm very grateful to Bob for getting me the job as it helped change my life," said Snowy.

He bought his first stables in 1966 in Flockton, West Yorkshire, but moved back to Malton two years later when he took over the famous Blinkbonny stables.

His father-in-law, Arthur King, and local estate agent John Cleverly, helped him purchase the stables, from where he would have his most successful spell.

There, he trained four horses, Music Boy, Badsworth Boy, Dunmurray Boy and Burlington Boy, bought for a combined total of no more than 1,700 guineas.

Badsworth Boy won twice on the flat, before being bought by Yorkshire-based trainer Michael Dickinson and going on to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase three times.

But it was Music Boy which Snowy will be best remembered for, thanks to wins at Ripon, Catterick, Epsom, Ascot and, most famously, York in the Gimcrack.

It had been Snowy's ambition to win the race ever since he led in Captain Elsey's Be Careful as a stable lad after winning the 1958 Gimcrack. One of his prized possessions is a picture of him and travelling head lad Sandy Tierney leading in the victorious filly. Sandy's son, Nichol, is now a blacksmith in Malton whom local trainers use.

A bronze statue of Music Boy now stands in the grounds of the acclaimed Newmarket-based stud, Cheveley Park, where he stood as a successful sire. Snowy said he was the first horse to stand at stud at Cheveley after it had been bought by current owners David and Patricia Thompson.

Today, horses attached to the stud run in red, white and blue colours - the same ones worn by Music Boy.

Snowy, whose son, John, is currently an established trainer based at Kennythorpe, said he had learnt different things from the various trainers he had worked for.

"Captain Elsey was brilliant at buying cheap horses and turning them into top class ones. Ernie Davey (based in Malton) was good at preparing horses for small races. Pat Beasley was good at buying and then placing top-class horses at venues such as Ascot."

After a brief stint at Newmarket, Snowy returned north again, but retired from training in 1980 after an incident at Beverley.

He was asked to appear before the jockey club to answer claims he had slowed one of his horses up at a meeting at the East Yorkshire venue - something he strongly denies. Disillusioned with the situation, he decided to call it a day.

Since then and to this day, he has made use of his eye for a good horse at a cheap price by buying horses and selling them on. The last three horses he bought have all won recently, including Our Louise, trained by his son, John, who won at 16-1 at Musselburgh.

Snowy is currently considering writing his memoirs. The story of the orphan from a Barnsley workhouse who made it to the winner's enclosure at the York Gimcrack would certainly make a good read.

Updated: 13:09 Wednesday, June 30, 2004