Anyone who’s been on the fringe of the Sydney racing scene for three or four decades would have given Mosht Up a cheer when the mare scrambled home for trainer Stephen “Beaver” Schofield at Newcastle on Saturday.
Beaver is closing in on fifty years in the business as a trainer and jockey, interrupted by a cumulative two years on the sidelines with serious injuries.
Nowadays he’s one of twenty five trainers based at the burgeoning Wyong training precinct. Apart from former jockey Barry Gale’s assistance for two hours each morning, Stephen runs the operation himself.
He rarely has more than five horses in work, with no intention of increasing that number. Despite the inevitable niggles from those old injuries, sixty three year old Schofield still rides all of his horses in trackwork, and frequently jumps on one or two for neighbouring trainers.
“I ride a mare called Ondo Pasa for Stan Thomas most mornings and occasionally jump on one or two for Evan Holland and Mark Cross,” said Stephen. “I really enjoy being able to put those years of experience to good use.”
“When I got Mosht Up to train from the Northern Rivers a few months ago, she was going far too keenly in her work. She’s a highly strung mare, who’s always in a hurry. Rather than go straight onto the track now, I put her on a walking machine for twenty minutes and then let her stand in the tie up stalls for an hour or more. She’s usually one of the last onto the track and is much more settled in her work.”
Following two promising Wyong placings, Mosht Up stepped up to BM64 company on Saturday with a very handy 3KG claim from Tyler Schiller, the promising Riverina apprentice whose indentures were recently transferred to Mark Newnham at Randwick. Mosht Up travelled generously in third spot one off the rail in the 1300m event, before joining the leaders at the 200m mark. “She didn’t win by any fancy margin but held them safely and might be on the improve.” said the trainer.
Mosht Up (Tyler Schiller) wins for trainer Schofield at Newcastle on Saturday - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Beaver is one of many capable trainers around Australia who have limited spending power at the yearling sales. “All we can do is stick to older horses with known ability who have niggling issues,” he said. “Provided you’re prepared to put the time in, you just never know when a horse might find a new lease of life.
“We’ve had good success with three Godolphin castoffs we purchased cheaply at physical auctions. Stunned, Lutreola and Courtly won seven races between them at Wyong, Gosford and Newcastle easily topping their purchase prices. Unfortunately the Godolphin horses are more expensive now on the popular Inglis Digital Online Auction.”
"Beaver" usually straps his own horses at the races. Here he is with Courtly after a Newcastle win - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
The trainer has been able to “fluke” a few handy horses by being prepared to deal with bad habits. One such horse is Queen Snip, a six year old maiden mare who came to Stephen unraced. “She was an out and out barrier rogue,” he said. “I’ll swear I took her to the practice gates at Wyong forty times, before she’d walk in and stand quietly. She’s been placed twice at Wyong and is near a win, but boy has she been a lot of work.”
Few realise that Stephen Schofield is a native of West Ham - a district in East London about 9km from Charing Cross. He was just seven years old when he, brother Gary and sister Michelle were brought to Australia by their parents Bill and Jean Schofield. “We emigrated under a scheme introduced by the Government to entice skilled English tradesmen to this country,” said Schofield. “Dad was a fully qualified boilermaker and was lucky enough to be selected.”
The Schofields spent their early years in Sydney at Cabramatta and Fairfield. Beaver gained his first experience with racehorses during school holidays at the Warwick Farm stables of John Poletti. “I loved the whole scene, and made up my mind there and then, that I wanted to be an apprentice jockey,” he said.
On leaving school young Schofield was lucky to land an apprenticeship with legendary trainer Jack Denham who was then training under contract to leviathan owner Stan Fox. The self made coal magnate had developed his racing and breeding interests into a massive operation, and had engaged Denham to train more than 100 horses from a dual stable complex at Rosehill.
“The size of the operation was mind boggling and everybody felt the pressure,” Stephen recalled. “Allan Denham and I were apprenticed at the same time. When we started to ride in races he rode the heavier weighted horses and I rode the lightweights.
“We all had six horses each to look after and I would keep busy scurrying around the stable. It was Allan who nicknamed me Beaver after the old expression “busy as a beaver”. He didn’t know what he’d started. We remain the best of friends, and he occasionally sends me horses to pre train.”
Stephen Schofield was one of Sydney's busiest jockeys in the 70's and 80's - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
Jack Denham eventually eased himself out of the high pressure job in favour of Brian Mayfield-Smith who later gave Schofield regular lightweight rides. Unquestionably the trainer to give the jockey most support was the late Ray Guy, who rarely had less than fifty horses in work at Rosehill. “I had a great association with Ray for close to ten years,” said Schofield. “We had a big number of winners together, and I got to ride some very smart horses.”
Beaver was riding Hail Tornado for Ray Guy when he had the worst fall of his career in a race at Wyong in 1976. The horse was travelling in third spot on the fence when he suddenly fell without warning. “Following a three week coma, I was informed I had a left hemiparesis - the inability to move on the left side of my body,” said Beaver with a grimace. “You can imagine the state I was in coming to terms with everything. Thankfully I made tremendous improvement and the Doctors were able to tell me I’d get over it in time.”
His period of rehabilitation stretched out to twelve months by which time jockey S. Schofield was fully committed to a return to the saddle. A major side effect to the accident was amnesia. “To this day I have no recollection of the accident or the weeks that followed - probably a good thing,” he says.
If Stephen Schofield wasn’t the unluckiest jockey of his era, he was very close to it. Just a few months after he started to pick up the threads of his career, Beaver was involved in another race crash on a horse trained by Brian Mayfield-Smith at Canterbury. “This one wasn’t as traumatic but I did suffer a decent leg break and out I went for another nine months,” he recalled. “You can imagine how deflated I was after the second fall.”
"Beaver" bounced back from serious injuries to ride hundreds of winners. Horse lover Schofield gives Mildie all the credit for this Randwick win in 1984 - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics
In the Autumn of 1983 his great supporter Ray Guy gave him the opportunity to ride the most precocious of two year old fillies - a daughter of Vain who strung together a dazzling five win sequence. The aptly named Purpose began her winning streak in January with a Canterbury win, then another romp at Rosehill followed by a Warwick Farm success - she led throughout in all three. “There was no other way to ride her,” said Stephen. “She was just a free running speedster who resented being restrained.”
Ray Guy was faced with a dilemma as the Slipper drew near. He felt the “great doing” Purpose would need two runs leading into the classic. He elected to run her in the listed Sweet Embrace Stakes and the Gr 3 Riesling Trial which were only a week apart, and then she would have a fortnight into the Slipper. She won both races emphatically, and then came the all important Slipper barrier draw.
“We were devastated when she drew 12 of the 16 runners with a lot of speed inside her,” recalled Stephen. “She did a power of work to cross to the lead and was in trouble coming to the 200m. She wound up 6th about 6 lengths behind Sir Dapper. She needed barrier 1 or 2 and a soft lead. That’s racing!”
In the late eighties Beaver decided on a sea change. He packed up and headed to Brisbane where he would freelance for almost a decade. This bold move led him to his career highlight, a Group 1 double on the durable Prince Trialia.
Schofield was teamed with Prince Trialia when astute Hawkesbury trainer Warwick Hailes arrived in Brisbane for a three race campaign. The gelding ran third in an Eagle Farm sprint, fourth in the listed W.J.Healy and fifth in the listed Ascot Hcp. Hailes decided to stop off in Grafton on the way home, and more than covered exes when Beaver and Prince Trialia romped away with the South Grafton Cup.
Prince Trialia had nine more runs without a win resulting in his getting only 51.5kg for the 1990 Castlemaine $10,000. With Schofield back on, the son of Nordic Prince grabbed a maiden Gr 1 for horse, jockey and trainer when he defeated the very good horse Planet Ruler.
Stephen won 2 Castlemaine $10,000's and a South Grafton Cup on Prince Trialia for Warwick Hailes. Here's the first Castlemaine win in 1990.
History repeated itself when again Prince Trialia failed to win in nine starts leading into the 1991 winter carnival. His indifferent form saw him allotted only 52.5 in a similar field. This time he beat a subsequent $10,000 winner in Barossa Boy and the talented Tiny’s Finito.
Beaver rates an impromptu trip to the United States with smart sprinter Rendoo as one of his career highlights. In Australia this son of Voodoo Rhythm registered 11 wins and 14 placings for $433,000 - a tidy sum for a horse who finished racing in 1992. Stephen had won two Gr 3’s and four listed races on Rendoo and was happy to oblige when asked to accompany the horse to America.
“It was suggested that even a Stakes placing in America would make him a very saleable commodity,” said Schofield. “It was a huge thrill to ride him in three races at the famous Santa Anita track. He didn’t place and unfortunately suffered a bleeding attack in his third appearance. We left him over there where he was able to race on Lasix. Unfortunately he didn’t win in another 16 starts. He returned to Australia later but failed to win in ten starts.”
"Beaver" unsaddles Rendoo after a Rosehill win 1986 - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
Beaver isn’t a keeper of records but recalls his last metropolitan win in Sydney was on Prince High for Evan Holland at Warwick Farm in 1995. He continued to ride until complications arose from friction caused by a steel plate inserted after he’d sustained the broken leg in the Canterbury race fall many years before. “I developed a chronic bursitis near the steel plate which brought my riding career to an end.”
He trained briefly at Canterbury but had to relocate to Randwick when the former was closed as a training centre. Eighteen years ago Beaver decided to follow other Sydney trainers to the rapidly developing Wyong precinct and hasn’t regretted the move for a moment. “It’s on a par with anything in the state as far as facilities are concerned,” says the veteran horseman. “We’ve got regular meetings at home and at Gosford. It’s a short run to Newcastle and an easy trip to the Hunter and mid north coast.”
Beaver is an amazingly philosophical bloke. There’s not a bitter bone in his body, and he has the enviable ability to look at the things that go right, rather than the things that go wrong. “How lucky am I at 63 to be riding horses and doing the job I like best, following some awful accidents,” said the man who visited the winner’s circle 1000 times as a jockey.
“No complaints here mate,” were his parting words.
Despite lengthy periods on the sidelines "Beaver" posted 1000 career wins - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
(Banner Image - Schofield in one of his 9 wins on Rendoo - Rosehill 1986 - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.)