No letting up for Newmarket farriers with over 50 classics to their credit
Alan Smith
Hitting the nail on the head is an absolute necessity for Mark and Simon Curtis. They have to get it right. The brothers are farriers and own Newmarket’s oldest- established company.
Their late father Don established the business in 1949 and it has shod more than 50 British classic winners, including 12 Derby heroes.
“A horse’s foot is like a human fingernail or toenail. It’s very delicate,” says Mark (45). “It is only three-eighths of an inch in depth so there is little to aim at. If a nail punctures the soft tissue it would make a horse bleed and prevent it working for a couple of days or a week, causing the loss of vital fitness.
“Another problem is termed ‘nail-bind’, whereby a nail gets too close to the sensitive tissue. The damage would not show up immediately but does so later, leaving a horse lame.
“Racehorses would generally be shod once every three or four weeks. But where horses do a lot of roadwork, which can cause hooves to break up, they may have to be done about every 14 days, which is not ideal. We shoe them two or three days before they are due to race.
“There must be a bond of trust between farrier and trainer. It’s the farrier’s job early in the morning before horses work to check that shoes are fitted properly and horses go out on four wheels and return with the same number.
“If the shoes are fitted properly there’s less chance of anything going wrong.”
After spending a day with the brothers at their forge just off Newmarket High Street, it was evident how much damage even one nail – of an inch and three- quarters or an inch and five-eighths in depth – could inflict if not put in properly.
A classic dream could go astray, a big handicap or seller might go amiss. Most owners get few clear-cut chances, so the farrier’s role is vital.
While the dangers to horses are plentiful, farriers must always be aware. “I’ve been lucky,” says Mark, whose one Derby winner was Kahyasi. “I’ve had only one bad kick in 30 years. It helped that my father instilled in us that a horse can bite and kick. Fortunately, we soon get to know the difficult ones.”
Simon (42), who lectures and runs clinics in the United States, Australia and Ireland as well as Britain, rates Clive Brittain’s champion filly Pebbles the best he has shod. He added: “A farrier’s role is to make a horse feel comfortable and to keep its feet in good order so it can be trained to its optimum.
“The fitter the horse, the more relaxed and easy it is to shoe. Before the season starts we can give a difficult horse a tranquilliser because it would not matter if it showed up in the system, but when the season opens we can, if necessary, administer the drug Domosedan, which takes four days to clear the system.”
The Curtises’ current clients include Newmarket trainers Luca Cumani, Ed Dunlop, Michael Jarvis and Neville Callaghan. One of the main problems all trainers fear are quarter cracks in hooves. Simon explained: “They happen mainly because of hoof imbalance and firm going, and can also occur when high-class horses put pressure on their hooves.
“Geoff Wragg’s Group One winner Pentire, in particular, was a horse with that problem whom I worked on. There are two ways of treatment. We can either use composite material or go the old- fashioned way, which I prefer, with screws and marine fibreglass.”
In addition to racing work, the family shoe for several studs, including the National Stud, Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Shadwell and Peter Stanley’s New England and his brother Lord Derby’s Woodlands Stud.
Mark added: “We get great pleasure from helping horses through their careers at all levels.
“My most memorable day’s work came when I shod three Derby winners at the National Stud, Mill Reef, Grundy and Blakeney, plus the Arc winner Star Appeal, then went over to Egerton Stud and did the immortal Brigadier Gerard.”
Farriers must come through a testing four-year apprenticeship – they have had just one female apprentice so far – but young qualifiers can earn 25E000 a year.
There is a downside to the job – farriers will eventually suffer back problems. Mark explained: “I’ve had my head between my legs for 30 years, so back troubles are inevitable.”
The next time you back a winner then praise the trainer, jockey and, hopefully, stable staff, it might just prick your conscience that another dedicated professional has played an unseen but major part in the victory – the man who tapped in those vital 32 nails.
ENDS