Stuart Crawford is one of Northern Ireland’s most respected up-and-coming horse trainers. We travelled to his Newlands Farm base near Larne, County Antrim to find out more about the progressive family enterprise, Crawford Brothers Racing, which he runs alongside his three brothers.

County Antrim based trainer Stuart Crawford – whose earlier grounding was in eventing – first took out a full public license in 2011, having trained under permit for the preceding three years. He trains his horses on the well-appointed, family-run Newlands Farm, receiving assistance from brothers Steven, Ben (stable jockeys) and Ross, and has excelled in racing.

Stuart first hit the headlines in 2008, when he sent out ten-year-old mare Oh Jackie to register his first racecourse success in the prestigious La Touché Cup at the Punchestown Festival. The Antrim man’s experience in the eventing arena stood him in good stead, with the horses required to jump an array of fences including banks, timber and water jumps.

On May 1st of this year, Crawford Brothers Racing trained the progressive 20-1 shot Now Let Go to win the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association Premier Fillies Bumper at the Punchestown Festival under a positive ride from claimer Steven Clements. The Flemensfirth mare made all the running from halfway out to win by two-and-a-quarter lengths to claim the first prize fund of €24,500. At the same meeting, the Crawford Bros Racing quartet also picked up sixth place with Realta Horse Racing Club’s Danielle’s Journey under a good ride from Steven Crawford in a hard-fought 24-runner race.

In 2013, Stuart and Steven brought the curtain down in style on Ladies’ Day at Aintree when unbeaten Legacy Gold claimed the John Smith’s Mares’ National Hunt Flat Race by a-length-and-a-half. Those stunning victories for Now Let Go and Legacy Gold have provided the team at Crawford Brothers Racing with their most notable wins to date.

Other significant winners trained by S R B Crawford this summer include The Organist, Chitu and Run With The Wind at Perth in May, June and July respectively. Within a relatively-short space of time, Stuart and his brothers have earned a great reputation for themselves as one of the premier horse-training enterprises in Northern Ireland.

Reflecting on how he got involved in the sport of kings, the affable Antrim man notes: “My father farms at home and there were always ponies there and I was around them from a very young age. It was just a natural progression from there, really.”

Stuart started in the pony club and worked his way up to three-day eventing. He was good enough to represent Ireland at the World Equestrian Games [in 1998]. “But the eventing is more of a rich man’s hobby – there’s a lot of money tied up in it but not much to be made,” he reflects. “We made our money by selling our horses on in June, July, August time, which was obviously frustrating because you want to bring a horse on as far as you can yourself.

“In the winter, I started to do a bit of pre-training. I got my first point-to-point winner in 2005-2006 and it snowballed from there. I was still eventing but over the next three or four years the balance swung towards the thoroughbred and training. The last time I rode at an event was around 2009/2010 and the racing side of things has taken over completely since then.”

So would it be accurate to suggest that Stuart became a National Hunt trainer by accident rather than design? “No, it’s something I was always interested in, to be honest. Physically, I was probably a bit too tall to become a jockey but I loved the cross-country aspect of three-day eventing and I was lucky enough to win a Young Rider Team Gold Medal at European level in 1995. It just took off from a young age and I kept at it. But one thing led to another and the thoroughbred and racing side of things has just snowballed…”

Stuart has a particular penchant for breaking young, unproven horses. His selection and preparation of young horses is a rare talent that has resulted in numerous first-time winners on the racecourse, as highlighted when he landed the bumper on Super Saturday at the Down Royal Festival in 2012 with highly-regarded newcomer Gilt Shadow under a ride from Steven. That completed a Crawford double on the day with Latin Connection partnered by brother Ben (the 2012 Ulster Region point-to-point champion) winning the Tayto Hurdle earlier in the day.

Another brother, Ross, also travels with the Crawford runners and supervises on race days while Steven and Ben are normally in the saddle … but all four can be seen in action during early mornings on their excellent uphill woodchip gallop just outside the village of Glynn, where the 60-acre Newlands Farm boasts a sizeable, family run team dedicated to ensuring that all horses are superbly prepared for race days and well looked after.

“Since the beginning, I’ve never really got horses that knew their business,” says Stuart. “We started with young horses, did a bit of pre-training, then got a few of our own. We were working with three-year-olds and producing them. That was our bread and butter, but in the last three years we’ve started to attract better horses that people want us to keep on and take to the next level, and that’s a challenge that we relish.

“I like to see a horse do its best, whether we keep it or not. Ideally, you like to keep all the good ones and that would be great, but not every owner has the means to turn down good money.”

How does Stuart measure his success – in terms of the work that goes in and the progress that’s made behind the scenes or by the number of winners achieved? “You’re happy once the horses are making progress but obviously it’s great to be getting winners, be that mid-week at one of the smaller meetings that nobody sees or at Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown or Ayr. Those are the four of the five biggest National Hunt festivals and if you can hit the board at any of those meetings there is a bit more at stake. One win there is like 15 other wins…

“Fortunately, I’ve had a win at Aintree at the Grand National meeting and a couple of wins at Punchestown and that gives you a taste for more. Those are the ones everybody wants. Even to be competing there is great but winners at the big tracks can make or break your season.”

Does a big win give the trainer an appetite for more of the same? “Of course it does. I remember thinking I’d love to get third place at point-to-point; then you want a winner; gradually you keep shifting your goals; that’s what we have done and we have kept getting better. But the bottom line is keeping the business going and that’s easier when you are buying proven horses.”

In total, Crawford Brothers Racing can care for around 60 horses. At the time of writing, Stuart was looking after some 25 three-year-olds, which were being painstakingly broken, as well as a few older horses which were being kept in the stables over the summer. “The National Hunt season now starts earlier and runs later, so you only get a bit of a break,” he points out.

How difficult is it to generate a profit? Working with horses is all fine and well but it has to be a viable commercial enterprise, too – is this demanding? “At the end of the day, you love what you’re doing but you have to try to make a living out of it,” Stuart accepts. “There are two sides to it for us – training and also the buying and selling. You’d like to make money on both. There’s always a new gallop to fit or a horse walker to be fixed.

“A lot of trainers have been finding it very tight. The recession has resulted in fewer owners and fewer horses being trained, but we have been incredibly lucky in that out business has been growing for the past four or five years. You constantly do your best to upgrade each of the horses in your care.”

The results to date speak for themselves.

Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 8, September 2015

Horse, Stuart Crawford, Trainer