David Smith has been involved with horses for his whole life and, despite a diversion to the cattle industry for a period, he is now ensconced at Mudgee preparing a team of racehorses.

He has enjoyed considerable success with a small team of horses, travelling them west to Warren and east to Sydney as well as everywhere in between in search of a victory.

In April 2018, David rejuvenated former Godolphin-owned gelding Bezel from his new 19-hectare private training complex to win at Randwick and paying for the four-year-old in one hit. Backed by a syndicate of eight, Bezel was purchased by Smith at the 2017 Inglis December Thoroughbred Sale for just $22,000 and a short time later provided him with his biggest win to date.

While Bezel has a metropolitan win on his record, it is another horse, the Gooree Park Stud-bred Distinctive Look, who David credits for helping establish his fledgling business. Acquired as an unraced horse, Distinctive Look won his second start at Scone in September 2015 for the young trainer and, 12 months later, won back-to-back Highway Handicaps at Rosehill and Randwick.

Distinctive Look’s Highway victories and his triumph in the Central District Racing Association Country Championship qualifier at Wellington, David says, put him “on the map” and is forever grateful to the gelding.

David’s formative years were spent in country NSW at Dunedoo, which also the home of champion jockey Hugh Bowman, and was a regular at pony club growing up.He also worked in the cattle industry on completion of his schooling, but horses were never far away, and the lure of the thoroughbred took him to Scone.

He spent more than four years working for Vinery Stud in the Hunter Valley, handling stallions including remarkable shuttler More Than Ready and Australian star TestaRossa, the racing arch-rival of champion Redoute’s Choice.

A stint followed at Randwick with Group One-winning trainer John O’Shea, a period that confirmed to David that he should become a trainer in his own right.

During his four years based at Randwick, David had performed the role of foreman in O’Shea’s absence and was in charge of many of the stable’svaluable colts including Group One-winning sprinter and now successful stallionFoxwedge.

Since returning to the country and setting up base at Mudgee, David has also been involved at Gooree Park Stud by assisting in the pre-training of horses that sport the famous red and black colours of the Cojuangco family.

He had overseen the pre-training of horses such as Group One winner Prized Icon and Good Standing when the horses were prepared by James Cummings.

David also credits Cummings for providing valuable insight into the training of top-class horses and often implements that knowledge acquired in the training of his own horses.