On Track Magazine Spring 2021

32 National Jockeys Trust Rick transcends his philanthropic work and love of horse racing through his support of the National Jockeys Trust (NJT). He was already providing support for jockeys and their families before the Trust was established in 2004 and remembers when he first became aware of the NJT’s need for support. “The morning after my horse Descarado won the Caulfield Cup in 2010, I was reading the newspaper when I came across an article saying that the NJT was looking for funding,” he recalls. Both personally and via PFD Food Services, Rick makes major contributions to the National Jockeys Trust through annual donations, sponsorships, donations for events, and generous prizes for raffles and auctions. Rick was made a Patron of the National Jockeys Trust in 2017. Horse ownership Rick recalls first getting into horse racing when he used to go with Joan’s dad to the TAB in Traralgon in the mid-1970s – and soon after, he started taking the well- trodden path to Melbourne to watch the races up close at the various metropolitan tracks. He got his first taste of horse ownership around this time, too, with a horse trained by Jack Besanko – a name synonymous to this day with thoroughbred training. “I think my first horse with Jack was Bay Amie which I had for about three years. It would win about one race a year.” Fast forward to the early nineties, Rick’s path to successful horse ownership took off when renowned Randwick trainer (and winner of the 1961 Melbourne Cup) Frank Lewis – “He’s still alive at 101,” Rick adds fondly – bought him a $16,000 yearling called Gold Brose in 1992. The colt won its first three starts, including the Toohey’s Silver Slipper at the odds of 140-1. The $100,000 purse for winning the Slipper took the colt’s winnings to $160,000 and marked the beginning of many Group 1 victories with the country’s leading trainers and often with his friend and business partner Bruce Mathieson. After his successful racing career, Gold Brose went to stud in New Zealand. Rick Smith AM (left) proudly receives his certificate as a Patron of the National Jockeys Trust from Mitch and Maddy Goring whose father Mark Goring died in a race fall in 2003, with Des O’Keeffe, Chairman – Australian Jockeys Association. Can Delphi win Rick Smith his first Melbourne Cup this year?