Inglis proudly bring you:
Nick Mitchell – Bought Back His First City Winner
By John Curtis
NICK Mitchell had made up his mind.
So determined was he to buy Lot 45 at the 2018 Inglis Scone broodmare sale that he drove out of his Gosford base on the morning of May 18, towing a float behind.
“I wasn’t coming home without the mare, and I was able to buy her for $2000,” Mitchell said.
“It was fantastic to get her back.”
Mitchell’s mission becomes totally understandable when you realise the mare in question was Dream Lane, his first city winner.
Especially when he got her after she had been rejected by a couple of other trainers.
“Dream Lane injured herself before she raced, and she had been sent to Cobbitty Lodge,” Mitchell explained.
“She was one of two horses I looked at the day I visited the property, and chose her.
“I didn’t have many owners at the time, and Cobbitty Lodge virtually filled the syndicate to race her on lease by arranging for some of their staff and clients to become involved.
“Dream Lane was a terrific mare to us. She was placed at four of her first six starts before breaking through at Kembla Grange in a 1400m Maiden (September 29, 2015).
“She also won at Canberra 12 months later before finishing fourth to Famous Seamus (Group 1 winner) in the Ladies Day Cup at Hawkesbury, and then won 16 days later at Rosehill Gardens in a Benchmark 78 Handicap (1200m) at $10.
“Christian Reith rode her, and my first city success was all the more special as my eldest son Bart (then nine years of age) was with me to share the moment.
“When Dream Lane finished her racing career, we made what we felt was a good offer for her but it was to no avail.
“Subsequently, I found her looking through the catalogue for the Scone sale, and some of the guys who raced her stayed in her when I brought her home.
“She was in foal to Mulaazem at the time, and has since had foals by Headwater, Smart Missile and Dissident.”
Trainer Nick Mitchell. Photo: The Entertainment Grounds
Mitchell has the yet unraced Headwater two-year-old named Headstart in work, and naturally is hoping he can follow in his dam’s hoofbeats.
Along with her Rosehill victory, Dream Lane also qualified for two Provincial Championships Finals and, in fact, her trainer did an outstanding job to have representatives in the first three Finals of the series.
His former stable stalwart Radical Impact (who died last year) made the inaugural 2015 Final, and then Dream Lane followed in 2016 and 2017.
Radical Impact won eight races, and also was placed on 27 occasions, earning nearly $300,000 – and it would have been fitting if he had given Mitchell his first city success, which his trainer thought had occurred.
The gelding “won” at Canterbury in June, 2015, but lost the race on protest.
Radical Impact was one of the first two horses in Mitchell’s stable when he kicked off his training career – and understandably he says he wishes he had a few more like him.
Expat Englishman Mitchell, who has called Gosford home since the spring of 2017 after initially training at Hawkesbury, was born on the south coast of England at Eastbourne, and grew up around the famous training district of Newmarket, where his late father Pat trained with some success.
Whilst he was always too heavy to pursue a riding career, he rode work for one of the country’s leading trainers Ed Dunlop (well known to Australian racing fans through the Melbourne Cup deeds of thrice runner-up Red Cadeaux and fourth placegetter Trip To Paris).
“Ed was a great bloke to work for, and I did so for a couple of years,” Mitchell said.
“I got an opportunity in the late 1990s to go to either Dubai or Japan, and I chose the latter,” he said.
“Quite a few people thought I was mad not going to Dubai, but I knew it was hot there and Japan appealed to me as it was something different and exciting.”
It was all that and more! Mitchell initially planned on a 12 months’ visit, and ended up staying for 11 years.
He got a job as an assistant manager at a pre-training farm just outside Tokyo.
“We had 20 to 30 horses when I started there, and the number gradually increased to around 140,” he explained.
“We often pre-trained them right up until race day.”
Mitchell’s return to his homeland lasted only 12 months. His father had passed away, and he never really settled back in.
“It was very unmotivating being back in England; there was no get up and go and it didn’t sit right with me,” he explained.
“I made enquiries about going to either Australia or America, and Australia just got in first.”
Mitchell spent four years as then Rosehill trainer Tim Martin’s foreman, and one of the clients he got to know was New Zealander John Thompson (who won the 2000 Caulfield Cup with the late George Hanlon’s Diatribe).
“When I decided to branch out on my own, I contacted John to let him know I was training.
“He was my first owner, and continues to be a great supporter of my stable.
“Winning my first race for him with Kipuka (Tommy Berry) at Kembla Grange in June, 2015 was a terrific thrill.”
Advocacy (Blake Spriggs) was Mitchell’s first winner – over 2300m at Newcastle in September, 2014 – and he also won a city race held at Wyong with his old favorite Radical Impact in April, 2017 at $31.
And he’s won races at Gosford and Newcastle this year with lightly-raced Nicconi filly Miss Checkoni.
He had an unsuccessful throw at the stumps attempting to qualify her in the expanded Provincial-Midway Championships, and she finished a creditable sixth to series favorite Never Talk at Newcastle on March 17.
Whilst Mitchell began his career at Hawkesbury and had no problems there, he says the move to Gosford arose because it was better financially – and luck was on his side.
“The owners of the stables across the road from the racecourse gates bought the property to build apartments, but it was zoned as non-residential,” he said.
Mitchell has a full team, comprising a lot of young horses, in work and says his mission is to do the very best with each horse for his owners.
He also has another couple of very important two-legged youngsters to look after with his partner Katie Collins.
“We have a boy and a girl; Ollie is three and Ava is one,” Mitchell said.
“Katie is the backbone of the stable. She works very hard, and I couldn’t do this without her.
“We are engaged, and haven’t had time to officially get married. But it will happen.”
