Legendary Trainer Peter Easterby Dies at 95

Miles Henry Easterby, invariably known as Peter, who has died at the age of 95, was not only one of the best and most successful dual-purpose trainers Britain has ever known, but also one of the most popular and most respected.

Peter Easterby and his younger brother Mick had good teachers because they grew up under the wings of their father William, a farmer and amateur rider, and uncle Walter, a trainer. From them they absorbed an almost bottomless reserve of horsemanship and a very strong work ethic. Life was tough and William farmed in various parts of Yorkshire before settling his family at Great Habton, near Malton. There Peter, who had spent a short period away working for Frank Hartigan but whose induction into racing had mainly come from the family, began training in 1950, still aged only 20.

Walter Easterby was a very good trainer who enjoyed success with the small string which he handled but, even so, he cannot have foreseen the thousands of winners which would be churned out by his two nephews (Mick began training at Sheriff Hutton in 1961) and his grandson Tim, Peter's son who, in a seamless transition, took over the license at Habton Grange when his father retired in 1994, aged 65. Thereafter Peter remained an integral component of the stable and a regular at the Yorkshire racecourses.

The horse who really put Peter on the map was Goldhill (Le Dieu D'Or). One of the best two-year-olds in the north in 1963 when he won five consecutive five-furlong races including the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, Goldhill achieved little as a three-year-old before bouncing back to better than his previous best as a four-year-old in 1965, making all the running for a four-length win in the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot before losing out in a three-way photo-finish in the July Cup. He subsequently retired to Eastthorpe Hall Stud in Yorkshire before moving to Burston Stud in Staffordshire, eventually proving himself as versatile as his trainer with his winning offspring headed by the precocious sprinters Lush Park, Fretta and Dutch Gold as well as the dual Champion Hurdle winner Comedy Of Errors.

That 1965 season had begun well for the stable when the six-year-old gelding Old Tom (Relic) won the first feature race, the Lincoln Handicap (run for the first time at Doncaster after the closure of Lincoln racecourse), ridden by Scobie Breasley. Peter won this great race again eight years later when the 50/1 shot Bronze Hill, a son of Goldhill, won under Mark Birch, the multiple 'Cock of the North' who spent almost his entire career riding for the stable after having served the first three years of his apprenticeship with Geoffrey Brooke in Newmarket.

Peter's dual-purpose status was emphasised in 1967, a year in which his biggest win came in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham when the six-year-old entire Saucy Kit (Hard Sauce) beat 22 rivals to win the Champion Hurdle, ridden by Roy Edwards who, after both horse and jockey had retired, stood the stallion at Blakeley Stud in Shropshire.

Peter Easterby enjoyed a particularly golden era during the late 1970s and early '80s when the stable's stars included two dual Champion Hurdle winners (Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon) and two Cheltenham Gold Cup winners (Alverton and Little Owl). During this period Peter was champion National Hunt trainer for three consecutive seasons, beginning with the 1978/'79 campaign.

Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon (who moved to Great Habton after starting out on the Flat with Jeremy Tree and then beginning his jumping career with Gordon Richards) remain two of the legends of the sport. Other high-class hurdlers in the stable at the time included the 16-time winner Sula Bula (whom Peter had bought as a yearling at Doncaster for 2,200 guineas) as well as Within The Law and Major Thompson, who finished first and second in the Schweppes Gold Trophy at Newbury in 1979.

Peter bought Night Nurse (Falcon) as a yearling at Tattersalls in 1972 for 1,300 guineas and then guided the horse to three wins on the Flat and, most famously, triumphs in exactly half of his 64 starts over jumps, comprising 19 wins over hurdles and 13 over fences. He came close to securing the holy grail of National Hunt racing, failing only narrowly to augment his two Champion Hurdle triumphs with a victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, in which he finished second to his stablemate Little Owl (Cantab) in 1981. That was a second Gold Cup in three years for the stable, following the win of Alverton (Midsummer Night) in 1979. Alverton, previously a multiple winner on the Flat, had won the Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham 12 months before his Gold Cup triumph but heartbreakingly suffered a fatal fall at Becher's Brook when favourite for the Grand National three weeks after his finest hour.

Sea Pigeon (Sea-Bird) did not follow Night Nurse over fences, having fallen in the Colonial Cup steeplechase in the USA fairly early in his National Hunt career, but he augmented his hurdles victories (which included two Champion Hurdles, two Fighting Fifth Hurdles, two Scottish Champion Hurdles and one Welsh Champion Hurdle) with some magnificent performances on the Flat. He twice won the Chester Cup (both times ridden by Mark Birch), took the Ebor Handicap at York (carrying 10 stone, ridden by his usual jumps jockey Jonjo O'Neill and giving 40lb to the runner-up) and thrice landed the Vaux Gold Tankard at Redcar, carrying 10 stone each time and ridden twice by Birch and once by O'Neill. All told, he won 21 times over jumps and 16 times on the Flat.

Lest it seem that the stable was concentrating solely on older stayers, the Ebor Meeting at which Sea Pigeon won the eponymous handicap also featured victory in the G2 Gimcrack Stakes for the Mark Birch-ridden two-year-old sprinter Sonnen Gold (Home Guard) who had been bought for 1,700 guineas as a foal. This was Sonnen Gold's eighth start and seventh win of a season in which he went on to run once more, finishing second to subsequent 2,000 Guineas winner Known Fact in the G1 Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket.

At the end of the year, Sonnen Gold was allotted 9 stone 4lb on the Free Handicap, 3lb below the top-rated Monteverdi, the Vincent O'Brien-trained Dewhurst winner. He was given 10 stone 5lb on the Northern Free Handicap, 12lb higher than the second-top weight, his stablemate Silly Prices (Silly Season), a three-time juvenile winner whom Peter had bought for 2,000 guineas as a yearling.

By the time that Peter Easterby stepped back to hand over the licence at Habton Grange to his son Tim (who had ridden plenty of winners for his father as an amateur, both Flat and National Hunt, including on horses such as Sea Pigeon and Sula Bula) he had achieved the unique feat of being the only British trainer to have sent out over 1,000 winners both on the Flat and over jumps. Since then, the stable has continued to flourish as Tim, truly a chip off the old block, has prepared a huge volume of winners including several at Group 1 level. Most notably, Bollin Eric (Shaamit), bred and raced by Sir Neil and Lady Westbrook for whom Peter had trained for decades, won the St Leger in 2002. Almost similarly satisfying for a proudly Yorkshire family will have been the triumph of Winter Power (Bungle Inthejungle) in the G1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York's Ebor Meeting in 2021.

Softly spoken and blessed with a nature dominated by innate kindness, Peter Easterby was a legend of the training ranks; a loving and loved husband, father and grandfather; a mentor to many; and a friend to all. He will be sorely missed and never forgotten, and we offer our sincere condolences to his family.