The Waiting game: Ian Smith

By Nicholas Oakes

Ian Smith wouldn’t have known Dale Pinkney if he tripped over him while the pair were jumping in a motor home full of Maritimers bound for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the fall of 1985. But the duo got talking and ended up picking out a yearling colt by Tyler B for $12,500 and taking him back to Nova Scotia with them. They didn’t realize they had just picked out a world champion – or that over 20 years later their astute purchases would still be propelling them to life in the fast lane.
Smith, 62, is, was, and no doubt always will be a Prince Edward Island boy at heart – as he grew up in the small community of Pownal outside Charlottetown. His family had work horses but never race horses – though they regularly attended the races in Charlottetown.
He went to Agriculture College in Truro, N.S., where he took business, then started to ply his trade as a real estate developer back on P.E.I.
“I was interested in real estate and building,” Smith says. “I built a lot of apartments in my younger years.”
In 1968 (at just 21 years of age), horses came into the picture as Smith decided to take the plunge into the ownership ranks – getting himself involved in the sport he grew up watching as a young boy.
“I guess I was a little adventurous and always looking for a winner,” he smiles.
His first horses weren’t barn burners by any means but Smith was enjoying himself. One of his first was a trotter named Pequoig Warrior who went on to have great success racing in Cape Breton after he sold him to Bernard Peck – then the father of a young Greg Peck (trainer of this year’s Hambletonian winner Muscle Hill).
“I don’t know if Greg Peck learned how to hang out a trotter off (Pequoig Warrior) or not,” Smith ponders with a laugh.
Success started coming his way in the late 70’s with Atlantic Sires Stakes champion and maritime Free-For-Aller Maple Leaf Robbie.
“He was a winner in his day. A chestnut, and a fast horse,” Smith remembers.
But it would be a fall day at Sackville Downs in 1985 that would change Smith’s role in racing. He came to see the races at the Halifax, N.S., track but got offered a trip to Harrisburg by friends Sonny Siteman and Wayne MacRae.
“I took the offer and called home and said ‘I’ll be home a little later.’”
Once in Pennsylvania, it was time for yearling shopping but Smith eventually settled on a Tyler B colt by the name of Rumpus Hanover.
“I liked his breeding and he had a good maternal family, lots of winners,” Smith says.
But that said, there is a reason he got the colt for $12,500.
“He was a later foal and on the smallish side.”
The horse would go to Nova Scotia to be broke by Dale Pinkney – son of O’Brien Award winning Horseman Phil Pinkney. In his two-year-old year he impressed both the owner and trainer enough to try him on a bigger stage in Ontario – and the little horse didn’t disappoint.
He won a division of The Champlain stake in rein to a young Paul MacDonell, who was so young at the time that when the connections went to a bar to celebrate the victory, he had to show ID to get in, Smith remembers with a laugh.
Rumpus continued to campaign across Canada and the States in a year that would eventually see him time-trial at Lexington – setting a new world record of 1:52.3 for two-year-old colt pacers.
Then the offers started coming in and Smith was faced with one too good to say no to, as the Lou Guida syndicate tabled an offer valuing the horse at $1.6 million with them purchasing 50 per cent for $800,000.
“They were the biggest syndicate around, and they had the most bucks,” Smith says.
Business home on P.E.I. was solid but that wasn’t a large factor in the decision to sell.
“I was busy, yes, but that was a lot of money and made things easier. It didn’t change thing a whole lot but it made a lot more things possible.”
The deal had Smith retaining ownership of half of the horse but losing all say in the decisions to the syndicate, who placed the horse with trainer Lucien Fontaine for his three-year-old campaign. But Smith didn’t mind.
“That was fine, he was in good hands.”
Even though Dale Pinkney lost the horse from his barn, he was thankful for the exposure it brought to him.
“It shows you how far a great horse can take you,” Pinkney says.
Smith realized that and started hitting the colt scene in high gear but has settled on his sale of choice being the New Jersey Classic yearling sale.
Recently he’s had graduates from that sale like Exit 16 W series winner and current Meadowlands preferred pacer Camshaft Hanover (p,3, 1:50.3, $190,000), as well as Gold Cup & Saucer and $106,100 Matt’s Scooter final winner Pownal Bay Matt (p,3, 1:51.1, $250,000).
The price tags on them – $7,000 and $9,000 respectively – which translates into one thing: Smith likes doing business in New Jersey.
“The New Jersey Classic is a bit of a softer sale and The Meadowlands is a good place to race,” he says.
His niche has become buying horses in the Jersey sale and bringing them home to be broke almost exclusively by Dale Pinkney, then sending the better colts to Dale’s cousin – Dave Pinkey Jr. – in Creamridge, N.J. The yearlings offered in the New Jersey sale fit Smith’s mold perfectly.
“They’re in a price range that we can afford to take them home there,” Smith says. “You don’t get the purple pedigrees you would at Harrisburg but you find comparable bloodlines.”
Primarily Smith has owned the horse alone – free of partners.
“In the horse business you have to make some quick decision and it’s a little easier to make those decisions yourself.”
Due to the fact every dime comes out of his own pocket, value for his dollar has been the name of the game for Smith but he doesn’t pay a great deal of attention to the sale catalogue.
“I see what sires and mares are being offered. I don’t really pay much attention to the catalogue until I get there and look at (the yearlings).”
He’s come to realize that conformation -not black type – is key in the yearling game.
“The ones you pick on breeding that are the best bred, either have something wrong with them or they go for too much.
“The breeding is so close now, you could get them from pretty well anything. You look for the best bred ones you can for the money. Conformation is a must. If they haven’t got that you can pretty well stroke them off.”
When Smith and Pinkney arrive at the Jersey sale they take their time, looking at every pacer in the sale and a few trotters.
“If you don’t examine them before the sale, that bargain that’s going through the ring, you don’t know it’s a bargain.”
In Smith’s eyes, Dale Pinkney is every bit as good as his legendary father and Smith trusts Pinkney’s judgement.
“(Dale) may be overshadowed by his father but they’re side by side.”
Bargains are something Smith has proven he can find. At a sale at Tioga Downs in New York, Smith bought five yearlings for between $1,300 and $1,800 – all of them went on to take marks better than 2:00 and the shining star was Pacific Fella filly Princess Julia who has banked over $100,000 and scorched the Charlottetown, P.E.I., oval in 1:55.1 winning the Atlantic Breeders Crown mares Distaff.
“Sometimes price isn’t a good indication,” Smith says. “If you don’t mind feeding them and waiting on them you can get something. You never know where they’re going to come from.”
That attitude is part of the charm that has Pinkney and Smith working so well together.
“Ian’s the very best,” Pinkney says. “If we have to wait that’s what we do.”
Waiting can sometimes be a must, especially considering the prices Smith grabs them for.
“You’re buying in the bottom end of the barrel and trying to race the top end,” Pinkney says.
That can sometimes have it’s issues, he says.
“They’ve probably not been handled as much, not as much time spent on them.”
It also doesn’t help things trying to deal with the unpredictable Maritime winter while preparing colts, Pinkney says.
“If we were in New Jersey we would be a little farther ahead of the game.”
Smith doesn’t get in a panic over it all.
” I like to hit the later stakes and late closers and dodge the bear cats,” Smith says. “When you’re buying horses for lower prices that’s what you have to sacrifice.
“You won’t be getting stake horses, well stake horses are a bonus but you don’t need stake horses. I like a nice raceway horse for some enjoyment.”
But one might ask why Smith doesn’t invest more heavily in the Maritime program.
“It’s nice to have a couple of Maritimes breds but when you look at the economics you perhaps have to spread out a little bit farther. In the Maritimes there’s always only a few horses that pay their way.”
Through it all, Smith never made a permanent business move away from P.E.I and didn’t really want to.
“I never had any great desire, no. I was always busy and perhaps didn’t have time to think about the better things out there. (It’s just) the quality of life here. There really is no comparison anywhere.”
The horses take him far enough, he says.
“With race horses you get to see a lot of country but you always get to come back home.”
Though an increasing possibility has been the chance of The Meadowlands closing shop faced with surrounding competition.
“I find it hard to believe that the state would let a place like the Meadowlands fade. But I guess they need the slots to compete with New York and New Jersey.”
But would Smith truly be surprised?
“I would be, yes,” he says, “but I guess queerer things have happened.”
All in all it’s just a simple past time for Smith.
“It’s something to do. It’s a challenge I guess. You always want a better horse, you want to beat the best.”
He credits a great deal of his success to the top notch horseman he’s had handling his horses – from Earl Smith and Joe Smallwood, to Mike MacDonald and the Pinkney’s.
“I’ve surrounded myself with excellent trainers, drivers, and grooms. I’ve been very fortunate to have such talented Maritimers that make the difference.”
Smith’s current hopes lie one the backs of Blissfull Hall colt Blissed Off and Allamerican Native colt Parsons Hanover.
Reflecting back on the chance trip he took to Pennsylvania 24 years ago, Smith likes how it turned out.
“I should’ve taken more trips like it,” he laughs.