It's in the sometimes cut-throat nature of the business that few horse trainers can leave a base after 19 years with nothing but friends, but the pistols-at-dawn elegance to David Oughton has allowed the Englishman to withdraw from Hong Kong with a hand shaken raw and a back bent only from the weight of good wishes.
The very model of a modern English horseman, the gentleman trainer ponders the future with equanimity.
'I don't know yet what I will do. It will be in racing, but it won't be training,' Oughton, 52, says. 'It's been funny waking up and not having to go to trackwork this week. I think I'll get used to it.'
He grew up around horses as an amateur rider in Findon, west Sussex, the son of successful training couple Alan and Diane Oughton. When Alan passed away in 1972, Diane took over the string and David did likewise on her death 10 years later.
The losses perhaps gave Oughton the freedom to choose Asia for himself, wife Jane and a young family.
'It was a step into the unknown, very much so. I was training 50-odd horses and training winners, but you know what it's like in England - the prize money's not good, the financial side is the hard part,' Oughton reflected. 'When the opportunity here came up I was young and it was a challenge more than anything. I honestly thought three to five years and we'd go back, but the children were very young so the time was right to give it a go.'
