Spittin Mick

There is no cannier, or more careful, man in racing than Sheriff Hutton trainer Mick Easterby, 76 this weekend. If he didn’t exist, Yorkshire would have to hew him out of Wensleydale stone. He says he would like to win the Lottery and spend all his days counting, not spending, the money. He collects farms the way other people collect Toby jugs or first-day covers. The sign on his office wall used to declare, and probably still does: ‘If I can’t take it with me, I don’t want to go’. True or not, the story they tell of the owner who called Mick Easterby and said he’d like to buy a nice four-year-old hurdler takes you to the essence of the man. ‘I’ve got just the ’oss for you’ was the reply. ‘Nice Roselier gelding, for £10,000.’ ‘Well, actually, the business has been going rather well lately, Mick, and I was thinking of something around the £20,000 mark,’ said the would-be purchaser.