Clive Smith, owner of jumps titans Kauto Star and Master Minded, dies aged 82

Clive Smith, the owner whose distinctive yellow, green and purple silks were carried by jump racing superstars Kauto Star and Master Minded, has died following a short illness. He was 82.

Smith qualified as an accountant and worked for Chrysler and Ford before the keen golfer formed his own business designing and building golf courses. This included buying the former Hawthorn Hill racecourse near Maidenhead in Berkshire, which he later sold for £8 million to Japanese investors after its repurposing.

By that time Smith had entered racehorse ownership, having purchased a horse he would call Hawthorn Hill Lad. Trained by Jenny Pitman, he won three races and set Smith off on a path that eventually led to Kauto Star.

Smith went on to have horses with David Elsworth and Martin Pipe, who trained the owner’s first two major winners, Rainbow Frontier in the 1998 Swinton Hurdle and Royal Auclair in the Cathcart Chase at the 2002 Cheltenham Festival.

The following year Smith became an owner with Paul Nicholls. Explaining the move in an interview with the Racing Post in 2007, Smith said: “Martin had [leading owner] David Johnson in the yard and David got first chance at the good horses. I wanted to get a bit more serious, increase my number of horses and get some nice ones to see me through my 60s, when I can really get out and enjoy them.

“I wanted a trainer who would be relaxed, friendly and open with me, and from what I’d seen of Paul, I thought he was the right man.”

Clive Smith (second left) walks in with Kauto Star after the 2007 Cheltenham Gold Cup

In 2004 Smith bought Kauto Star from France for a reported €400,000. Over the next eight years, the son of Village Star would establish himself as one of the finest jumps horses to have raced in Europe with 16 Grade 1 victories and a peak Racing Post Racing of 191.

Kauto Star claimed a record five successes in the King George VI Chase at Kempton and was involved in a number of memorable clashes with stablemate Denman in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which he won in 2007 and then regained in 2009, becoming the only horse to do so.

Kauto Star’s first Gold Cup win came at the end of an extraordinary season in which Smith played no small part, insisting that his star chaser drop in trip to contest the Grade 1 Tingle Creek Chase between his wins in the Betfair Chase and the King George.

Master Minded also carried Smith’s colours to success in eight Grade 1s, including two victories in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the festival.

Following Kauto Star’s retirement from racing in 2012, Smith switched the horse to event rider Laura Collett with the ambition of retraining him for a second career in equestrianism.

The move precipitated a breakdown in the relationship between Nicholls and Smith, who had his final runners as an owner in late 2012. However, Smith continued to attend racing events such as those commemorating the achievements of previous Gold Cup winners.