Silverwood has bit between his teeth

Chris Silverwood has an unusual way of spending his days off from playing cricket

Horses for courses is a phrase that is often used in conjunction with fast bowlers, but for Middlesex seamer Chris Silverwood it has an altogether different meaning.

With his wife Victoria, Silverwood runs a horse racing syndicate and breeding stables in Newmarket to keep himself occupied away from cricket.

“If you have had a hard day’s cricket and you come home and see the back garden and the horses, it’s lovely,” he told ecb.co.uk.

“On a day off I can go and do something totally different and it refreshes my mind. For me, I find it really relaxing just being around the horses.

“I’ve got to give the credit to Victoria. She is the brains behind the operation and the day-to-day-running of it behind the scenes. She does everything.”

It was Silverwood’s benefit year which prompted the pair to set up the Silver-Lining Cricketers' Syndicate, as a way of investing some of the money he received.

“Victoria has been involved with horses all her life,” Silverwood added. “When I met her she had a horse in her field at home and I suggested we put it in training for a laugh.

“She sent it down to Newmarket for training and I nearly fell over backwards when we got the bill through. I thought it would be like training a greyhound, but it wasn’t.

“I can remember watching her run for the first time and just falling in love with it. I think it’s great, and we have just gone from there.

“We started in 2004 when I bought three horses and the stable in Newmarket and put them in training. We did well with them and it has just gone from strength to strength.

“When we buy a horse, some of them have never even had a saddle on their back. So you are buying horses who you think have got the potential just by looking at them.

“Selecting the horses and getting them to be competitive so we can get them into training is a big ask. But all our horses are now trained by Henry Cecil. He is a legend in horse racing.

"We have got quite a few members now. We had a very successful flat season this year, so it has been great fun, really.”

Silverwood helps maintain his fitness levels by looking after his horses © Getty Images

Being part of the horse racing world has given the Yorkshireman the inevitable role of tipster to his team-mates.

“You can’t win because if you give them a tip and it doesn’t win, you are a villain,” he confirmed. “But if you don’t give them a tip and you do win, you are a villain again.

“I tend to keep my mouth shut a lot of the time.”

With a six-month off-season in the winter, Silverwood has plenty of time to muck out.

“Typically I go in and feed them and give them an hour or so to eat their breakfast, and then take them out and clean the stables out,” he said.

“Then I’d bring them back in at about half past two and feed them again at half-past three.

“All the racehorses are now over with Henry Cecil, and the mares that we breed from are at home with me. We had two foals last year and they are up at a stud farm at the moment, purely because we haven’t got time at the moment to look after them properly.”

The outdoor life clearly suits Silverwood, whilst also allowing him to maintain his fitness levels.

“There is quite a lot of physical work that goes in, obviously if you are moving the bales around and stuff like that,” he said.

“The great thing is that it gets you outside and it keeps you active. You are constantly doing, so I suppose it does help.”

However, Silverwood is not ready to call time on his cricketing career just yet.

“I have got no intention of giving up cricket any time soon,” he admitted. “I love being outside and I love playing cricket.

“I still feel I have got a lot of unfinished business with cricket. There’s a lot of things I’d still like to achieve before I retire.

“If I could go from cricket into racing that would be fantastic. I’d still be staying within sport and I’d be working outside.

“I think if I got stuck behind a desk, it would drive me potty.”