With four wins from his debut season Thomas Easterby would be a good bet to win the next Highflyer Bloodstock-sponsored male novice riders’ championship.
However, he’s been too darned good at riding winners on the Flat, his four successes in that sphere making him ineligible for novice status on the point-to-point circuit.
Undeterred the 17-year-old Yorkshireman (pictured above) is looking forward to the new campaign which opens in November. He says: “We have a few more horses to go point-to-pointing this season, including some stores that we hope to start off in maiden races. My brother [former Yorkshire champion Will] buys foals and then sells them at whichever stage they get to. Will is a lot more experienced than me and we will talk about which horses suit which rider and make a plan from there.
“My parents have been great in supporting me, and while the pointers run in Will’s name my sister Emily is head of the yard and is brilliant at what she does.”
It was inevitable that with the surname Easterby, one that is synonymous with racing success, Thomas would be inhaling the smell of horses long before he started school. His older siblings Will and Emily ride in races, his father Tim is a Classic-winning trainer and his mum Sarah has been a national champion trainer on the point-to-point circuit. Going further out into the family you find his grandfather Peter, a three-time champion Jump trainer who handled the immortal hurdlers Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon, and great-uncle Mick, the Sheriff Hutton trainer for whom time stands still and the winners keep flowing in partnership with his son David. Heading off into second-cousin territory you find Cowards and Masons and enough names to create a racing family tree big enough to fill a stable wall.
Yet Thomas was not set on the saddle from birth. He says: “I rode from a young age, but when I was about ten I stopped riding and wanted to focus on other sports. I played rugby and cricket for a couple of years and got up to regional, but not county level. Then I got back into ponies and followed that up with some eventing, before getting my amateur licence last year in order to ride on the Flat. Point-to-pointing followed on from that.
Easterby (orange cap) riding Ask To Dance when the pair finished second in the Grimthorpe Gold Cup (Ce)
“I think being competitive is a good trait. It means you want to get stuck in and have a go at things, and I had such a love for the game [racing] that I didn’t think I could love it any more. Then I had a go at pointing and thought ‘yes, this is what I want to do’.
“I enjoyed riding on the Flat, but riding in points is a lot more exciting. The feel of a horse jumping and travelling is the best.
“I was lucky in my first season that I had some horses that Will, Dad and Mum had bought, and I had my first winner on Crossgalesfamegame at Askham Bryan. I followed that up with a double at Hutton Rudby, but with myself and Will riding we ran out of horses as the season progressed. The dream of being national novice champion fell out.
“I was leading for a long time, but the northern circuits don’t run as late as down south and I just had to sit and watch the results and see other novices riding winners. It was frustrating, but that’s the way it goes.
“The moment from my first season that gives me the biggest sense of pride came when winning on Ask To Dance at Hutton. Will had bought him as a foal and rode him the year before, getting him from a maiden to an open horse. He wasn’t the easiest horse to ride [Thomas was placed on Ask To Dance three times before their victory] and he was lazy during the race, but getting him over the line in front was amazing.”