Bradley Calls Time on Training Career at 86

Veteran trainer Milton Bradley, who made a career out of turning moderately-priced racehorses into serial winners, has decided to call time on a training career spanning more than 50 years with immediate effect.

Associated with a string of prolific winners initially over jumps and then on the flat, including The Tatling, Brevity, Sooty Tern, Grey Dolphin, and Offa's Mead, Bradley's license expired over the weekend and he has chosen not to renew it after finding it increasingly difficult to place his horses. 

The 86-year-old has sent out more than 1,000 winners from his farm at Sedbury on the doorstep of Chepstow Racecourse but a few hundred yards on the Gloucestershire side of the Welsh border since taking out a full license in 1969, but his involvement in racing stretches much further having held a permit and trained point-to-pointers after graduating from pony racing. 

"I've called it a day at last," said Bradley Jan. 31. "I've had 50 years of it and had over 1,000 winners on the flat, and a lot of jumps winners as well.

"The top and bottom is they haven't got enough races for lower-rated horses, and the reason they've got so many lower-rated horses is because the handicapper is dropping them down the handicap even if they've had a wide draw in a race or they suffer trouble in running.

"It's never been like this in the 50 years I've been training and it's made me feel really despondent. I called race planning the other day and said I have a horse rated 54 and you haven't got a 55 or 60 (rated) race for four weeks. 

"It makes no sense—you can't say to an owner your horse is in form but can't get in a race for four weeks, and you might get balloted out when the four weeks is up."

Fearing the lack of opportunities is driving "middle of the road" owners away, Bradley added: "Nowadays it's so ridiculous. You go to Wolverhampton and you see a horse in there costing £100,000 running for two or three grand. What is the sense in that?

"It's upsetting hundreds of owners and the people who have sold their horses aren't getting another. When you go and win a race at the bottom of the tree you're talking £2,000—what will that pay? Nothing. I couldn't see any future in asking people to buy horses."

Having trained a team of 90 at his peak, Bradley has been down to around 10 horses in recent months and those that remain have gone to his granddaughter Hayley and her husband, trainer Charlie Wallis, in Essex.  

Despite ending on a slightly negative note, Bradley has many fond memories to look back on, and singled out the achievements of The Tatling, Brevity, and Offa's Mead as three who gave him abundant pleasure.

"I claimed The Tatling for £15,000 and he won nearly £700,000, including the King's Stand (G2)," he said. "I gave £3,500 for Brevity and he won eight races in one year, and I won the Bovis Handicap at Ascot with Offa's Mead who cost me £100!

"I've never bought a horse for more than £25,000, but have won the King's Stand at Royal Ascot and the Bovis with horses who cost buttons."     

With three children, 10 grandchildren, and four great grandchildren, not to mention a working farm to pitch in with, he is unlikely to be stuck for things to do to pass the time.

"At 86 I don't want too much work," he said. "I've got a very good family and we farm probably 450 acres. My wife Ruth has been the backbone of our racing stable all of our lives, and I couldn't wish for anything better."