Life’s delivered some ups and downs for carpenter Josh Smyth over the past 12 months – but he’s hoping the setbacks will be the catalyst to kick starting a full time harness racing career.
Smyth spent 12 years as a site manager for a city formwork company but became disillusioned after being caught up in the difficulties facing the sector six months ago.
“I was spending weekends and after-work helping out my father-in-law Ken Tippett with his horses, so we decided to ramp that up a bit and start doing pre-training and breaking,” Smyth said.
Smyth is now pre-training and training four horses and breaking in a further two, as well as assisting the Melton-based Tippett in running his team.
The full-time focus has also opened up the opportunity for Smyth to step up his involvement as a driver, and last week recorded a breakthrough win, his first in four years. Smyth piloted Im Eugene, a $31 chance, to record a front-running victory at Melton (Jan 23) in a career-best mile rate of 1:55.5.
“The feeling doesn’t get much sweeter,” Smyth said.
“I’ve seen how much time Kenny has spent getting ‘Nigel’ (I’m Eugene’s stable name) right. He is a very nervy horse who has always had the ability at home, but struggles to take it to the races. To be able to get him across the line in that sort of fashion made it pretty special to me. Fingers crossed he can continue on with the same sort of efforts,” he said.
Smyth, who grew up at Melton, admits he “didn’t even know what harness racing was” before he met Tippett’s daughter Sarah when he was 19.
“My mum had a friend who did rodeo and barrel racing, but that was as much as I knew about horses. But I asked Sarah about what her dad did, and I started helping out around the stables,” he said.
“Once I started working them, getting in the cart and jogging them and doing fast work, that was it – I was hooked!”
Smyth said he first began developing his skills as a breaker about 18 months ago, and enjoys the challenge.
“I bred a couple that I had a go at breaking at first. I’m the sort of person who learns by watching and doing, rather than being told what to do, so I am in the best place for that, with Kenny’s knowledge behind me,” he said.
“Ken’s got so much experience and I have my own thoughts and ideas that I bring into what I am doing and it’s working well.
“I’ve also had a lot of help and encouragement from everyone. That’s the great thing about this sport is that people are so willing to give you their time and what they know if you have got questions.”
Smyth said the lifestyle change has also allowed him to step up his involvement with the couple’s two children, eight-year-old daughter Addison and three-year-old son Jack.
“Sarah works full time in the city and has a demanding job at Mecca. I’m able to do the morning school and daycare run with Addison and Jack and the afternoon pickup as well,” he said.
“Sarah is backing me up. She’s seen both sides of the industry and she knows it’s a tough game – but everything is tough at the minute, so we are giving it our best shot.
“Working with the horses full time is something I’ve always wanted to do, ever since I got involved, so now we’ve just got to find a way to make it work,” he said.
