DEATH OF MR T J SMITH

3 September 1998

The Governor-General of Australia, Sir William Deane, today paid tribute to Mr T.J. Smith, who died in Sydney on Tuesday. Mr Smith had trained horses for Sir William and Lady Deane in previous years.

Sir William was speaking at Randwick Town Hall in the course of presenting the Navigators' Cup to Mr Peter Davis, whose yacht "Sagacious" won the Inaugural Blue Water Race which was staged last Australia Day as part of the Botany Bay Regatta.

Sir William said:

"It is appropriate that, on this sporting occasion at Randwick Town Hall, I make reference to the death yesterday of Mr Tommy Smith. As you all know, he spent much of his life in Randwick at his famous stables and on Royal Randwick Racecourse where he dominated for so many years.

Tommy Smith trained a number of racehorses for my wife and myself in the years before I went onto the Bench as a judge. One was an outstanding galloper called "Man About Town". The others were, I regret to say, not quite up to the usual T.J. Smith standard.

I have seen many laudatory comments about T.J. in this morning's newspapers which I agree with. Particularly the comments about his wonderful eye for horses and his memory of even the smallest details of their appearance, their movement and their characteristics. I would add to those comments, a tribute to his complete honesty. One often hears jokes about trainers leading owners on. That was never the case with T.J. Smith. Even when diplomacy about the short-comings of a horse possibly favoured a degree of sugar-coating, Tommy took the view that an owner, who was paying money to keep a horse in training, should be told the unqualified and unvarnished truth even to the extent of the sometimes unwelcome advice: "Get rid of it".

Tommy Smith was not only a wonderful horse trainer. He was an icon and ornament of Australian racing".