How Tim Easterby ignored his parents' wishes and followed in the family way

He might come from one of racing's greatest dynasties, but Tim Easterby has said he ended up following father Peter and uncle Mick into the business simply because he "wasn't bright enough" to adhere to his parents' wishes of becoming a vet.

Easterby was speaking to the Racing Post as part of a major interview in Sunday's newspaper, in which he reflected on a remarkable season in which he has reached his fastest century of winners and won his first Group 1 since 2004 with the brilliant Winter Power in last month's Nunthorpe Stakes.

Yet things could have worked out very differently for the 58-year-old had he chosen the route preferred by his parents as a teenager.

"Dad never pushed me to do any of this," he said. "I think deep down they wanted me to go off to college and be a vet but I wasn't bright enough for that. Anyway, I was 16, and who wants to be a vet at 16 when they can be a jockey?

"That was what I wanted to do, and I was absolutely useless at anything else. Maybe farming, I could have done that, but nothing else, and anyway, I got to ride some bloody good horses."

Easterby's father trained two dual Champion Hurdle winners between 1976 and 1981 in Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon, and Easterby added: "Those horses were top of the tree, so it was a real inspiration to get to ride them out, and when you're younger you think you can do whatever you want to, but I wasn't encouraged to go professional and I never really had the will.

"I had a few bad falls and I thought I didn't want too many more, and by then I was very interested in the training side."

Having taken over the licence from Peter in 1996, Easterby is also now laying similar foundations with his own family, with daughter Emily and son William heavily involved.

"Having them alongside me makes a big difference. They're all keen to learn and get on and do the job, and my dad's still here at 92, watching all the gallops in the morning, watching all the races on the television in the afternoon, asking me what I was playing at if one runs bad. He still knows more than I do."

Read more from Tim Easterby in the Big Read, available online for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday or in Sunday's Racing Post newspaper. Join Members' Club here.

Members can read more great interviews here:

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Nicola Currie: 'Things need to improve but in the meantime you have to stand your ground'

Jason Watson: 'A lot has happened – you have to grow up fast in this game'

Oliver Greenall: 'We were in a sticky situation and it helped us get on the straight and narrow'

David Probert: 'I would have done justice to these better rides five years ago'

Kieran Shoemark: 'I put my family through hell – but I hope I've repaid them in some small way'

Marco Ghiani: 'I never expected to be a dad so young – it's a different kind of special'

Rossa Ryan: 'The day I accept being an everyday jockey will be the day I do something else'

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