By Brad Kingsbury
RACING Victoria Limited (RVL) had better not underestimate the unwavering commitment of Pakenham thoroughbred trainers to continuing to prepare their horses at their home track.
The Pakenham Trainers Association (PTA) is more than keen to add another chapter to the ‘David and Goliath’ story after RVL suggested that Pakenham be closed as a training complex and all the trainers registered at the track shift to Cranbourne.
After a short period of outrage and disbelief at the plan, announced as part of the RVL future vision just before Christmas last year, the PTA did not let emotion get in the way of reality.
It developed an official response setting out a compelling case to be retained as a major player in the future preparation of racehorses.
And that is regardless of whether the Pakenham Racing Club remains at its current location, or moves to the new Nar Nar Goon facility.
PTA secretary Terry Ahern said that he could understand the initial anger, but there was no time for that to linger and the trainers quickly set about doing their sums and producing evidence that, not only refuted the RVL model, but also painted Pakenham as a leader under current funding criteria.
“It turns out that Pakenham is one of the most cost effective training centres in the state,” he said.
“RVL has not taken into account the amount of pre-training and breaking in work that goes on at Pakenham either. The case we made was very rational and addressed all the RVL criteria.
“The Pakenham trainers are more than happy with our presentation to RVL and we believe that we’ve made a strong and compelling case for the continuation of funding of Pakenham as a training centre.”
Ahern is typical of many of the Pakenham training community.
He breeds his own horses and had an owner-trainers licence from 1992 to 1995, but let it go until 2005 when he rejoined the group.
His mare Joystreet saluted in November last year, but his best horse to date was Mantlepiece that won 14 races including the Coongy Handicap, the Kilmore Cup and the Warrnambool Cup.
“The thing about Pakenham is that there’s lots of trainers like myself who just train the one or two horses and do it because we love it,” he said.
“You’re rubbing shoulders with like-minded people every morning.
“We work in well together. If you need help, anyone down there will help you and it’s a good atmosphere to train in and that’s what we would really miss if we were forced to relocate,” he said.
