The racing community in Newmarket has lost one of its most popular members with the death of former trainer Tony Hide at the age of 85.
Tony Hide's lifelong love of and commitment to racing started in childhood as his father William was a trainer near Ludlow in Shropshire. Both Tony and his elder brother Edward were apprenticed to their father and, while Edward went on to become a multiple Classic-winning rider and 'Cock o' the North' on numerous occasions, Tony's race-riding career (from 1954 to 1968) was less high profile. His biggest win came in the Thirsk Hunt Cup and once his seven-year apprenticeship had finished he combined the roles of second jockey to his father with that of assistant and head lad.
When he had finished race-riding, Tony Hide moved on to become assistant firstly to Major Peter Nelson in Lambourn and then to Bruce Hobbs in Newmarket, a role which led to him being appointed in 1973 to the job as private trainer in Italy to Razza Dormello-Olgiata, the stud founded by the late Federico Tesio. After three and a half years in Italy, he returned to England and began training there, establishing himself as a consistent supplier of winners from his base at Machell Place in Newmarket's Old Station Road.
Having saddled the winners of several big races in Italy including the G1 Premio Parioli (Italian 2,000 Guineas) and the G1 Premio Presidente della Republica (twice), Tony Hide won further feature races on the continent from his Newmarket base with the high-class sprinter Celestial Dancer (Ire) (Godswalk) whom he sent abroad to take both the G2 Goldene Peitsche at Baden Baden and the G3 Prix de Meautry at Deauville in 1984, ridden on each occasion by the trainer's brother Edward. Celestial Dancer's wins in England included both the Northumberland Sprint Trophy at Newcastle and the Hamilton Handicap at Newmarket in 1983, while he twice ran very well at Royal Ascot, finishing second in the G3 Cork & Orrery Stakes (now G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes) and fourth in the G1 King's Stand Stakes.
Celestial Dancer went on to become an outstandingly prolific sire of winners in Australia from his base at Lyndhurst Stud in Queensland, setting a new world record in 1995/'96 for the greatest number of individual winners in a season (239) and coming close to matching that total the following term when 234 of his sons and daughters saluted the judge.
Tony Hide retired from training in 1997. Since then, much of the pleasure which he and his wife Sue derived from racing came via the involvement of their three children Philip, Tim and Lucy, all of whom have built good careers in the sport, as has their son-in-law, the Newmarket trainer Sean Woods. As liked as he was respected, Tony Hide, a man of absolute integrity, will be missed by many, and the TDN sends our condolences to Sue, their children and wider family.
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