TRAINER Simon Earle has opened his heart for the first time over the ‘horrendous’ Milton Harris bullying ordeal and admitted: “I was on the brink of losing everything.”
The former jump jockey was harassed for three and a half years by the disgraced Harris, who was booted out of the sport for good in January.
In a behind-closed doors hearing earlier in the year, the BHA’s disciplinary panel heard shocking details of Harris’ conduct towards Earle, who he shared training facilities with in Wiltshire.
Having grown sick of the abuse, Earle secretly recorded some of the verbal attacks made by the Grade 1 winner, who trained more than 100 horses at the time of his disqualification.
Officials said his ‘threatening’ and ‘intimidating’ behaviour started in July 2020 after Earle raised concerns about the state of the gallops, which Harris was responsible for maintaining.
And it carried on until November last year, and in one expletive-laden exchange on a shared gallop Harris said: “You’re a nobody. You’re a kept man, you c*cksucker.
“Mummy’s little boy. You’re f*****g useless. Pathetic.”
He even challenged Earle to a fist fight ‘under Queensberry Rules’ on the gallops to settle a dispute.
Harris was described as ‘ungovernable’ and ‘not a fit and proper person’ by racing chiefs, who also found he had behaved inappropriately towards two young female members of staff.
The ongoing ordeal, combined with a struggle to make ends meet, took a toll on Earle’s mental health.
He reached a point where he’d simply had enough and reported Harris to the BHA.
Earle has not spoken out since Harris was stripped of his license, but he told Sun Racing he had been pushed to the edge of financial and personal disaster.
Earle said: “I was facing ruin – in more ways than one.
“I can’t tell you how horrendous it was for a long time. Some of the stuff that went on… it was an absolute shocker.
“Some of it was hard to get your head around, you just can’t work out how people can behave in such a way.
“It was a huge gamble moving to the yard in the first place. I was very close to giving up training and I knew I had to try and make this new venture work.
“It was a dairy farm and I put a huge amount of effort and time into turning it into a smart racing yard.
“But it was the last roll of the dice really, I faced losing everything and the prospect of giving up training was a horrible one.
“So there was already a lot of pressure going in, and for the first year or two it was fine. Things got bad pretty quickly and it added a lot more stress to the situation.”
Earle, who was audibly emotional when talking of the support he had received, added: “It was a relief when it was brought to a close and I’ve got some amazing people around me and I cannot tell you how supportive people in racing have been.
“It’s honestly been so amazing. It’s quite overwhelming.”
But Earle will leave Harris and his troubles behind him when he moves 40 miles north to a new yard at Barbury Castle on June 1.
He is renting the former satellite yard of trainer Alan King and he has been loading up on new horses at the sales in Doncaster this week.
He headed back down the M1 with six new recruits, worth a combined £172,000, and he is excited to start a new chapter in his career.
Earle said: “When we start out we are probably going to have 20 horses, which is a huge improvement on where I was five or six years ago.
“I went to the old yard with two horses and we leave for the new one with 18, with some new ones on the way.
“The facilities at Barbury are incredible and the place has a rich history. Alan has been great to deal with and the staff on the estate are top-class.
“I’ve had backing from my existing owners. The horses have been running well which gave us the confidence to give it a good go.
“When the opportunity came up there was no hesitation to go for it. It’s a fresh start and a dream come true, in all honesty. I can’t wait to get going.”
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