'I was so lucky to have the job and I've enjoyed every second'

Spend a lovely sunny morning at Goodwood with clerk of the course Seamus Buckley a week before the Qatar-sponsored festival and it is easy to see why the Sussex track is often named as Britain's most picturesque.

Set 700 feet above sea level and framed by views of the Sussex Downs to the north and the Chichester Plain southwards – even the Isle of Wight, although not if the mist rolls in from the sea, when you can barely see the winning post, let alone the Solent – this is a country idyll. With the grandstands behind you, it's a vista supreme indeed, without any hint of the hustle and bustle set to descend. Glorious, you might say, although you wouldn't be the first.

"I suppose you do take it for granted to some extent but this is the most enjoyable part of the job, getting out on the course and away from the office and computers and telephones," says Buckley.

"Sunday mornings, when I can walk around on my own without the pressure, that's what I really enjoy," he adds. "I'm more relaxed then and I like to stroll and take it all in. It's lovely down there to the valley and I see all sorts of wildlife – foxes, deer and rabbits. I have to keep an eye out for moles down there in the chute."

There must be worse places to work, which is probably why Buckley, hugely popular and one of the most respected clerks in the business, admits to mixed emotions as he prepares for his 23rd festival at the helm, because this will be his last. Having recently turned 65, this stalwart is handing over his GoingStick at the end of the year to his successor Ed Arkell, who has been assisting for ten years during the festival meeting.

Buckley welcomes the appointment. But he gestures over the downs again and sighs. "This was my domain," he muses, using the past tense. "Every time I come out here I see something different. The times of the season . . . it's lovely in the autumn when the trees are changing.

"I was so lucky to have the job and I've enjoyed every second of it," he adds. "It hasn't been easy to make this decision and I'm sure I could have gone on a bit, but there's life outside work. I wouldn't be human if I wasn't a little bit sad – it's been my life, but the time has come to steady up a bit and do some things away from work."

Wearing a pedometer, Buckley once clocked himself at 57 miles of walking during one festival – "it sounds unbelievable but you're running on a high all week," he says. He must know every blade of grass. "Though not as well as Hughesie!" he grins, as we chat about a half-furlong from the winning post. His wooden stick – dare we label it 'trusty'? – comes out of the ground with about three inches of mud on it. "Perfect," he smiles. "I admit I was getting a bit worried a fortnight ago because it's been so dry and the grass got very stressed."

So perhaps did Buckley. "I was in a quandary last week – we've had a tremendously dry summer down here and temperatures well in the 30s," he says. "I always like to start the first two days on goodish ground but it's a big thing to water a racecourse like this – it takes a day and a half to put 10mm all over.

"Natural watering is always more effective so we just needed that rain. If you start here on good to firm, by the last race you'll probably be going towards firm and what a battle you've got then to get it back.

"You've got your main race on the Wednesday and you've got all that watering, and you're going to get firm ground! I don't like thinking about it. I'd feel very guilty if I produced firmish ground for Sussex Stakes day; I'd be a failure. I'd go out there myself and water it!"

Buckley, who lives a mile and a half from the course in the village of Singleton, is a member of an Irish racing family – brother Pat won the Grand National on Ayala and nephew Kevin is Coolmore's British representative. Injury curtailed Seamus's own riding career and he arrived at Goodwood after spells at Catterick, Wolverhampton and Epsom in other management roles.

Now he considers maintaining the racing surface and getting perfect turf – or, more precisely, safe turf – is the most important part of his job. "Being clerk means I'm the go-between between the racecourse and the BHA," he explains. He has a permanent groundstaff of eight, headed by longserving right-hand man Sean Martin. "We deal with all the horsey side of things, but if you haven't got the surface, then you've got nothing," adds Buckley.

Goodwood isn't the most straightforward, either. "That's because of the make-up of the ground," says Buckley. "You've got four or five inches of topsoil then straight on to solid chalk, which drains very quickly – it's a challenge. You've got to keep moisture in the ground at all times and you have to know how much it takes and where."

"Our bends are quite sharp and undulating so we've got to keep plenty of moisture so horses can get a grip round there. We've had incidents on the bends and any injury to a horse or a jockey is the worst thing you can think of; it rocks me to the core."

Seamus Buckley, who stands down as clerk of the course at the end of the year, prepares the temporary running rail that will be used for the first two days of the Qatar Goodwood FestivalCredit: Edward Whitaker

Buckley attends to the temporary rail, set five yards out from the far side. "Then we can have fresh ground for Thursday," he explains. "It's so important to try to keep moving it around because otherwise you're just banging and banging away on the same bit of ground every day," he grimaces.

"The bottom bend will be dolled out right the way round and we take that down on Thursday night for those big handicaps so we get lovely ground round the bend and up the straight.

"It's amazing how little space a field of racehorses takes up. They won't come any further than four horses out in the straight. The chap who loved that inside was Richard Quinn; he was good round here."

Surely, though, with a new strip opened up later in the week, it must be quite a task to ensure a level playing field for a race like the Stewards' Cup when they spread right across the track? Buckley chuckles, remembering Danetime's victory under Pat Eddery in 1997 for Neville Callaghan and Michael Tabor.

"I wasn't long here and I had endless phone calls from this fella for about a forngiht before the race," he recalls. "I didn't know who he was, but it was always the same questions: What's the ground like? Are you watering? How much? The usual sort of thing. Every day. Well, I realised there was a bit of a coup going on."

Come raceday, with good-to-firm going declared, Danetime was drawn 26 of 30 on the 'older' ground on the stands' side. "I know all the boys pretty well and Pat said to me, 'I'll probably win the Stewards' Cup today, Seamus, but I've a terrible draw and all the lads are saying it's really fast on the other side. I'm thinking about going over there.'

"I said, 'Don't you be so silly! You stay exactly where you are on the stands' side. There's no difference'. He won, they'd backed it off the boards, and Pat came in and said, 'Thank you very much!' They'd won thousands, I think."

Buckley has been involved in racing for 51 years and won the lifetime achievement award at the Racecourse Association's Showcase Awards in 2016. A genial character, he has a fund of memories: visit him in his office – described as a "broom cupboard" in a corner of the Sussex Stand – and you'll be greeted by a multitude of photographs and mementos, diplomas and certificates, plus the odd souvenir involving his two other great sporting loves, Leinster (rugby) and Wolves (football).

"The outstanding horse I've seen was Frankel, of course," he recalls. "It was marvellous to have a small part to play in him running in two Sussex Stakes.

"Then there's Double Trigger – we named the restaurant after him – and Yeats, and I love seeing maiden horses as two-year-olds. Sir Michael Stoute sent Workforce here as a two-year-old and he was so impressive in the paddock. North Light was another one who caught your eye – a lovely-moving horse. It's lovely to think in some little way you've been a part of that, preparing the course for these wonderful horses to race on. You do feel privileged."

Although clerks often come in for flak from jockeys and (especially) trainers, Buckley is rightly proud of his own relationships. "I have nothing but respect for them and I hope they've got a bit of respect for me," he says. "I just think you have to be honest. If Michael Stoute or John Gosden phone me and I say it's lovely ground and they walk down the road and it's like the road, what's the point of that? What kind of a fool would I be? I just tell the truth. If they're looking for soft ground and it's not, I tell them Goodwood's not the place for them."

That is not to say he has never been caught out. "On the whole people are very understanding, but I hate making mistakes," he says, repeating himself for emphasis. "I really, really hate it. It's easy in hindsight to know what you should've done, but with the real world out there you've got to get on with it."

Next year, though, this will all be someone else's problem, although Buckley won't be vanishing into thin air as he will be staying around in a part-time advisory capacity. "I've got to keep active," he says. "I've got a few things I'm keen to do – I don't want to seize up watching Racing UK in the afternoon!"

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