Champion trainer Brian Mayfield-Smith has been honoured with induction into the Queensland Racing Hall Of Fame.
Mayfield-Smith began his career in far north Queensland and rose to the top in Sydney and Melbourne before going into early retirement, twice.
He began his racing career in 1967 as a strapper in Brisbane then learned more about his craft in Sydney under Jack Denham.
Mayfield-Smith took out his licence in 1971 and won his first race with Gay Meld at Mareeba in April that year. He moved to Brisbane in 1974 and then in 1976 went to Sydney.
His first horse of real note was Tiger Town which held the distinction of being beaten in two Group One races by 100-1 chances – La Neige in the 1976 Epsom and Sir Wisp in the 1977 Stradbroke Handicap.
In 1978, Mayfield-Smith became private trainer for Millie Fox in Sydney and in 1980 he claimed his first Group One win with Brindisi in the Metropolitan Handicap.
When Robert Sangster and Bob Lapointe took over the ownership of Fox’s Nebo Lodge in 1984 they appointed Mayfield-Smith as their trainer.
In the 1985-86 season, Mayfield-Smith ended TJ Smith’s 33-year monopoly on the Sydney premiership with the first of three titles and the following year trained Marauding to win the Golden Slipper.
Mayfield-Smith stunned the racing world when he quit the industry in 1995 to move to Africa to work as a wildlife conservationist.
He was back home after two years and resumed training in Melbourne where he prepared Group One winners Rubitano (twice), Oliver Twist (twice), Sudurka and Special Dane.
Mayfield-Smith has trained more than 30 Group One winners and despite retiring again almost two years ago, he is now licensed and training a couple of horses out of his Victorian country property.
AAP TURF
