Why is it sad?
Maybe he wasn't ready to stand in a field.

FAIRWAY TO HEAVEN; Clive Smith built golf courses for the masses, then built his fortune by selling them to the Japanese. Now he owns the best jumper in years.

THERE are some who would have you believe that golf is nothing but a good walk spoiled, but they get the shortest of shrift from Clive Smith. Neither will he be told it is the preserve of the middle-aged, the middle class and those with funny trousers.

In his palatial home in Surrey's leafy stockbroker belt, the spruce 64-year-old may look every inch one of the archetypal 'men with small white balls', but beneath the veneer of corporate accountancy and club captaincy there lies a fervour that sets his love of the game apart.

For Smith, golf has been a lifetime passion and its democratisation a life's work. It has also brought him a considerable fortune and a life of some luxury but, ever sensitive to the needs of the hoi-polloi, he has recycled a chunk of his hard-earned wealth to the benefit of horseracing fans throughout the country.

Thanks to a keen eye for the main chance, a new-build golf course for the common man and a clutch of exceedingly generous Japanese businessmen, Smith has been able to deliver us Kauto Star, the immensely gifted, boldly campaigned and intriguingly flawed favourite for Cheltenham's Totesport Gold Cup. And for that, we thank him.

Of course, it is highly likely this Gallic phenomenon would have arrived on these shores anyway, wafted by the breeze of a thousand fluttering cheque books, but perhaps it was for the best that he fell into the hands of a man for whom racing has always been a secondary interest, and who, as a result, has proved refreshingly keen to put the thrill of winning above the fear of losing.

The consequence has been a season that, to date, has offered us five chances to watch the most exciting chaser of his generation in full flight against all-comers. The prospect is of a Gold Cup to savour, and Smith has the taste for it.

"I die for Cheltenham," he says. "I absolutely love it. I wasn't brought up with horses and golf took over my life when I was 14, but this horse has given me the greatest thrill of all. If you've got a great horse and you can see how much people are enjoying him, why not run? That's my view. He's a racehorse and that's what he does."

It's a policy that fits right in with the ethos of Paul Nicholls, the trainer charged with nurturing Smith's investment. The pair share a sense of sporting adventure, but it took the owner a long while to find his racing soulmate, after spells with Jenny Pitman, David Elsworth and Nicholls' arch West Country rival, Martin Pipe.

SMITH had a winner with his first runner, in the shape of the Pitman-trained Hawthorn Hill Lad; he had some "inspirational" times with Elsworth, who was "a bit of a lad"; and spent 12 years as part of the furniture at Pond House; but through it all he was looking for the right time and the right place to take his investment to another level. The time proved to be 2003, the place, Manor Farm Stables, Ditcheat. The end result was beyond anybody's wildest dreams.

Smith recalls: "From 1987, I had one or two horses, maybe three, with Martin, but even though we'd won a Cathcart with Royal Auclair, he had David Johnson in the yard and David got first chance at the good horses. I wanted to get a bit more serious, increase my number of horses and get some nice ones to see me through my 60s, when I can really get out and enjoy them.

"I wanted a trainer who would be relaxed, friendly and open with me, and from what I'd seen of Paul, I thought he was the right man. I'd been meaning to find a way to bump into him, so when I went down for my brother's 60th birthday party, near Yeovil, and found myself only ten miles away, I just drove round and walked into the yard.

"It was a Sunday morning and Paul was in his office. I said: 'Morning, anybody at home?' He popped his head out of the window and I explained I was an owner with Martin Pipe and I had a horse called Royal Auclair, who of course he knew all about. He said: 'I'll be right down.' We sorted it out there and then."

Nicholls must have thought all his Christmases had come at once, but the full value of Smith's buying power was yet to be revealed. And some buying power it was, thanks to that golf course and those Japanese gentlemen, but its origins were far more tin pot than claret jug.

As a pupil at Windsor Grammar School, the teenaged Smith had been asked by a classmate to caddy at the local club, and quickly found that it was far more fun and a lot better paid than a paper round. The seed was sown, but it was some years before it would bear fruit.

Missing out on university thanks to an ill-timed romantic interest that helped him fail the requisite exams, the floundering youngster used his caddying contacts to land a spot for himself as an office boy on the Stock Exchange. The business appealed, but the speed of advancement didn't, so he went off to get himself some qualifications, enjoyed a delayed university stint, and then worked his way up the corporate ladder at Ford and Chrysler.

FINALLY, he decided that the letters after his name should be used to spell success for himself rather than for somebody else, so he dabbled in property building, made a few bob, was asked to become captain of a golf club, and soon mixed the two interests to produce a rich and intoxicating cocktail.

He explains: "I'd been to a lot of the elite clubs but I couldn't work out where the ordinary ones were. I decided there was room in the market for courses for the ordinary guy to play golf, so I advertised in Farmers' Weekly for a sporting site and found one near Bagshot.

"I had some savings, I sold my house and the car I'd got from Chrysler. I bought an old banger for a couple of hundred quid. And I got the machines in, designed the course myself. I did everything myself. My father was very handy with machinery, so I was cutting the greens myself with mowers that he kept going.

"I didn't even have a clubhouse, just an old caravan that cost pounds 100, plus pounds 30 delivery. I remember being there one day and getting up to go out and my Wellington boots were frozen to the floor. It wasn't exactly Wentworth, but I bought part of an old garden centre that was advertised in Exchange and Mart, turned it in to a clubhouse and it's still there today.

"I just had to last out the two years I spent building it without going bankrupt. It opened on May 15, 1978, and they never stopped streaming in. From day one it was absolutely mad and I thought, 'I've hit the jackpot'."

He hadn't. The jackpot came when he built his second course, on the old racecourse at Hawthorn Hill, near Maidenhead, and his new-found Oriental friends coughed up a cool pounds 8 million to take it off his hands. It allowed Smith to start taking his golf seriously again, at all the elite clubs, and to put a couple of Lagondas in the garage, but it also allowed him to build up a fighting fund for racehorse ownership.

He took some knocks in his early years in racing, but he was a lucky owner, never short of a winner. Royal Auclair's 2002 Cathcart was the high point, but Smith's biggest stroke of luck was just around the corner. Two strokes of luck, really. The first was being outdone for Garde Champetre, recommended to him by Nicholls but snapped up by a killer bid of 530,000gns from J P McManus. The second was being given a sneak preview of a video belonging to ace bloodstock agent Anthony Bromley - the star performer, filmed on location at Auteuil, being none other than Kauto Star. Since being sold, Garde Champetre has won once, a pounds 6,500 novice chase at Carlisle. Since being liberated from France by Smith, Kauto Star has landed two Tingle Creeks, a King George and a few other piffling Grade 1s to boot.

The biggest thrill to date, says Smith, was the first Tingle Creek, the race that announced him to the world as a major force. The moment Smith knew he had a true champion on his hands came after his stunning victory in the Betfair Chase last November.

He recalls: "At Newbury, when he beat Foreman over two miles as a four-year-old, we thought he had a bit of talent, but we didn't know how far he'd go. When we went to Haydock, Ruby thought he'd stay the three miles, but you never know, do you? And he really came up trumps - as we went in to receive him, Paul turned round and said: 'This is a horse in a million.' That was exciting, to know we'd found something really special."

Soon, we will find out just how special. Smith will be at the festival all week, with his partner, Janet, to watch Turthen in the William Hill Trophy or the Kim Muir, and Royal Auclair in the Sporting Index Cross Country Chase, but mostly to join the rest of us in admiring a rather more special beast. The man who made his money bringing golf to the man in the street has opened up the Kauto Star Owners' Club to the masses, and they will be out in force to see him bid for immortality in the bountiful but unforgiving arena of Prestbury Park.

Smith says: "He's become a public horse now and the crowd would love to see him go and do it. If he got his stride right and bounded over the last and strode away to win, the crowd would love it. And that's what I'd like, too. I'd like to see him get it all right this time."

irrelevant

he had decided the horse was doing dressage before it had spent a munute retired. as if the thing hadnt done enough for him. made his solitary life joyous

if the horse had taken retirement badly-dont forget it enjoyed the summer in a field for 10 years-then by all means find somethig for it to do but leave it alone until you can be sure

tragic(and mysterious) end for a great horse

Nice post Cider. Wonderful insight into the mind of mr Smith

Mitolo, I hal,
I don't know why but this topic always seems to cause arguments/ disagreements on here.
I don't want to argue with you but I had this same discussion on here before and got slated for trying to explain the thought process behind it as a horse 'person ' I thought I might be better qualified to try and explain than a non horsey punter .

Mitolo , He was still young and in the prime of his life. Why would he want to stand in a field ?  You could see from all the times you saw him racing how he thrived on crowds and competition.
He was retired from racing be ause as a champ he deserved to go out at the top and as soon as he gave a sub par run at top level they pulled him up and retired him from racing. Not retired him from life !

Does any sportspeople who retires from football, jockeys, athletes,  retire in the prime of their life and go and live with a load of pensioners in an old people's home ? No.
They find another less physical calling. The same with Kauto.
And dressage would have suited him. He had the most amazing natural paces and floated .
It was a nice idea for him.

Ihal , dressage is not like the instance you refer to.
What charlotte duerdin did was trying to get a horse to do movements at grand Prix level.
Riding club, roar level is just basic dressage and very natural. They might do a bit of shoulder in or half pass at most.

I will pop down and look at my almost 31yo later this week ,did low level jumping till he was 22 , bits and pieces of dressage and x/c . Only stopped cos the sod ran straight through me one morning turning him out and I didnt want injuries nearing 70 . He has had almost 10 years being a field chaperone for all the lovely young ladies in the yard .

Born to die…..