{"id":96685,"date":"2025-05-13T00:35:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T00:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/96685\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T00:35:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T00:35:52","slug":"horse-racing-news-2025-trainer-ben-smith-dead-at-42-after-lengthy-racing-nsw-suspensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/96685\/","title":{"rendered":"Horse racing news 2025, trainer Ben Smith dead at 42 after lengthy Racing NSW suspensions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New South Wales <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/horse-racing\" class=\"sc-jhZTHU HLpoC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">horse racing<\/a> community is mourning the sudden death of popular trainer Ben Smith at the age of 42.<\/p>\n<p>News Corp reports Newcastle police are investigating Smith&#8217;s death but there are believed to be no suspicious circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>He was a two-time Group 1 winning trainer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/state-of-origin\/state-of-origin-2025-cameron-smith-queensland-maroons-team-harry-grant-tom-dearden-billy-slater-20250512-p5lymq.html\" class=\"sc-jhZTHU HLpoC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Cameron Smith picks bolter among six Maroons changes<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/state-of-origin\/state-of-origin-2025-paul-gallen-nsw-blues-team-captain-nathan-cleary-latrell-mitchell-tom-trbojevic-terrell-may-20250512-p5lyh9.html\" class=\"sc-jhZTHU HLpoC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gould&#8217;s Turbo-sized problem with Gal&#8217;s NSW team<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/afl\/news-2025-fremantle-dockers-alex-pearce-paul-marsh-aflpa-ceo-tom-morris-exclusive-israel-palestine-gaza-20250512-p5lylr.html\" class=\"sc-jhZTHU HLpoC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>AFLPA chief defends Freo star amid ugly Gaza post saga<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Trainer Ben Smith poses with In Her Time in 2017.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1edb940790280cb3545a214c94195660b6a1e113.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-ixGGxD jVYTFW\">Trainer Ben Smith poses with In Her Time in 2017.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n<p>Smith won The Galaxy with In Her Time and won the ATC Sires Produce Stakes with El Dorado Dreaming, both in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>It was after those triumphs, when Smith was at the peak of his training powers, that his career was turned upside down.<\/p>\n<p>He was preparing In Her Time for a tilt at The Everest &#8211; the world&#8217;s richest horse race &#8211; when he was hit with a long suspension after being found guilty of cobalt and conduct offences.<\/p>\n<p>Smith had his licence suspended by Racing NSW for three years and nine months.<\/p>\n<p>He returned to training in 2022 and managed to score 17 winners across the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n<p>But in May last year he was hit with another lengthy suspension.<\/p>\n<p>He and one of his horses both tested positive for banned substances, and Racing NSW banned him for 13 months.<\/p>\n<p>Tragically, that suspension was nearing its end when he died.<\/p>\n<p>The racing community is now paying tribute to the once-promising Newcastle trainer.<\/p>\n<p>Kim Waugh wrote on X, &#8220;very sad&#8230; thinking of his family at this time&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New South Wales horse racing community is mourning the sudden death of popular trainer Ben Smith at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-96685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114497728259961535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}