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ANTHONY COSGRIFF |
Weblog: Chasing Cheltenham glory from Down Under
In movies veritas . . .
“SEE, that’s your problem,” says Harry to Sally in my favourite ever film. “Somewhere between 30 seconds and all night is your problem.”
There’s a similar proverb for Australian horse trainers that was offered to me when I first set up: “Somewhere between 7 horses and 30 horses is your problem.”
The rationale being that with 7 horses in work you can do nearly everything yourself, so your business is not crippled by staff wages.
You’ll be kept on the go, and never have a day off, race-days will be frantic, and you may have to work with a broken ankle now and again, but provided you can do most of the riding yourself, you’ll at least make a living with 7 horses.
With 30 in work your stable income should cover a significant staff infrastructure that allows for running the place properly, including busy race-days, holidays, sick days, sales trips etc.
But if your horse numbers fall into the black pit between, the cost of staff infrastructure tends to outweigh the profit the business makes, and you may well find yourself joining the ranks of small business owners the world over bemoaning the fact that their staff make a living while they do not.
Well that’s the theory as sometimes espoused here in Australia, although I doubt many trainers knock back horses on account of it –certainly we never have!
Racing is of course a numbers game, and in fact you really want more than 30 (and certainly more than 7!) in work at a time if you want a realistic chance of unearthing good horses.
But I thought about the 7-30 proverb recently after the announcement from legendary Australian trainer Brian Mayfield Smith that he is handing in his license, as running his stable of 17 horses at Flemington is costing him $6,000 a week!
It is hard to fathom that a trainer who scaled the heights Brian did, driving himself from a one-man stable in far north Queensland to ultimately win the Sydney trainers premiership 3 times, could find his business struggling to such a degree.
Human nature being what it is, I’ve got to admit part of me felt relieved at Brian’s commendably frank announcement, because if someone of his undoubted training talent and legendary reputation is battling to break even, then I guess I can stop beating myself up quite so much.
I can sense you’re too polite to ask, so I’ll jump in and tell you that we’re currently working eight horses, so with just a little part-time help of a morning (and the occasional mercy mission froma couple of family members) we fit into the lower range of the 7-30 proverb; heads above water and certainly no time to get bored.
I can report that stable star Gorge has come to hand quickly, and I may even take advantage of some unexpected juice in our tracks to give him a run soon.
With no chance of a hurdles run before leaving for the UK, we plan to give him a flat campaign to have him hard fit before flying out, and although he handles all surfaces I was slightly concerned that these lead-up runs would all be on hard tracks.
But a recent deluge and more rain forecast this week means we should be able to give him at least one wet track run. Gorge also seems to be getting crankier with age (could that be contagious?) and I think a run or two will actually keep his head straighter.
Big news on the sponsorship front as well, as I am delighted to announce that Totesport will be sponsoring the trip, meaning the whole venture is now very close to a reality.
Several times during the planning of this expedition we have nearly given up on it, as the logistical hurdles just seemed too much, but on each occasion someone has come through for us in the nick of time, and kept the dream alive.
Mark Johnston, Cheltenham and Aintree, Jessica Lamb arranging this blog, and now the crucial assistance of Totesport. Last week I also received a UK call from Roger Brookhouse, who I hadn’t spoken to for years, offering lodgings for Gorge if we needed them.
It reminds me of a very different film, the Elvis movie Kid Galahad, when the bad guys work out that the best way to beat the boxing champ (Elvis) is to cripple the fella who patches him up between rounds.
Now I can prance around and sing GI Blues to my heart’s content (and I can hear the laughter from Middleham there) but at the end of the day the most important thing is to have the right people in your corner. A big, big thank you all around.
Uh-huh!
STOP PRESS: Racing Victoria has just announced (as I was about to press “send” on this blog), that jumps racing in this state will end after 2010. Some spleen venting to come in next week’s blog –have the bleep button handy!!
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