Paddy Flood: Racing in Australia

With COVID 19 putting a stop to all racing in Europe, Australia is one of the only jurisdictions left where horse racing is still taking place.

Former jockey Paddy Flood writes a regular racing column for thetote.com and this week discusses his time in Australia and how their setup differs from Ireland and Britain.

"I spent nearly 4 seasons in Australia a couple of years back. During that time we were at the height of the recession in this country and I had broken my shoulder 4 times the year before, so I just wasn’t right. Bryan Cooper was riding a lot of winners in Dessie Hughes' at the time and I thought it would be very hard to get back in front of him. My initial plan was to go out for 6 months just to get fit and race riding again but like most people who go over, I stayed a lot longer than planned.

CLAIM TO FAME

I got a job with a stable called Malua Racing, headed by the father and son team of Leon and Troy Corstens who are based out of the racing centre at Flemington Racecourse. A lot of people may not know their names but they trained the top class sprinter Starspangledbanner before he moved to Ireland to be trained by Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle. His racing career was finished by the time I got down there but I did ride a few winners for Rosemount Stud Farm where he was based after coming back from Ireland due to infertility problems, I actually rode my first winner over there for them.

I rode a lot of nice winners during my time in Australia but probably didn’t get on a super star jumper as I was primarily based in a flat yard and with my visa I couldn’t go elsewhere for work. My claim to fame would have been riding the first ever jumps winner for Gai Waterhouse. She has continued to go from strength to strength since then and just last weekend she won the Golden Slipper which is the premier two-year-old race in Australia.

A SPELL IN HAY

The sheer volume of horses trained out of a stable there easily out weighs even the biggest operation in Ireland. The Malua yard had probably 200 horses and they wouldn’t have been considered a massively big yard. Prior to Darren Weir getting warned off, he would have had 600-700 horses in training.

Trainers would usually have their main stable and then some satellite farms which would be used to keep horses ticking over. Horses would never be fully out of training because there would always be a race or carnival for them. Obviously with the weather there wouldn’t be much lush grass like over here, so horses would tend not to go out to grass and would instead would have a “spell in hay”, which is when a horse would just tone down their regular routine, this seems to work well for them.

Most of our horses were trained on Flemington racetrack and while the weather there certainly beats a cold and wet afternoon in Thurles, the 4am start wasn’t that attractive. As Flemington is in the middle of the city of Melbourne safety was paramount, especially with loose horses. There would be a big team of officials manning different entrances and exits to the track. They watched every gallop because as it’s pitch dark they would need to let you know if something's coming or going. They also had the ability to breathalyse and drug test riders during this time which shows you how seriously they treated the safety of both horse and rider.

AUSTRALIAN JUMPS RACING

Most of the racing in Australia is flat and they race all year round. Christmas Day may be the only time there isn’t flat racing on. The jumps have about 70 odd meetings, but it would be very low key in comparison. Prior to the start of the jump season they would put on “highway flat races”, which are flat races for the jumps' boys. They would be like bad flat maidens that you would have up here, but I found them good to get my fitness up and tighten my riding in preparation for the season ahead.

Australian jumps racing had been wound up previously and was only starting to get back on its feet when I arrived. This was as a result of the authorities allowing the anti racing people in to deal with the stick, bringing in whip rules, and then banning jump racing outright. From what I gather they were trying their best to get the same done for two-year-old races and that was when the authorities pushed them to the side.

Then jump racing was reintroduced and new stricter rules put in place. Although these measures appeared to be very strict, they worked well and I never really got that bad of a fall during my time there.

The measures brought in meant that every horse had to do two jumps' trials before they could run. These trials had to be done in company and in front of the stewards. Even if a horse had run 20 jumps races in his career they would be required to run in these trials before the start of each season.

The maximum field allowed for any race is restricted to 12 runners which means that unlike up in this hemisphere, a stall start is used for all jumps racing. It does have its benefits, which include being very punter friendly. though if you were on a keen horse and had drawn an outside barrier you could be in a bit of trouble, but I will get to that a bit later.

The hurdles and fences are plastic making them a lot softer than even the Easy Fix hurdles up here. Australian horses tend not to jump like ours as they just try to get from A to B as quickly as possible, even if that means kicking the hurdle out of the ground which they can get away with a lot more.

One rule you may find very strange is that if you are not within say 10 lengths of the third placed horse you must pull up regardless of prize money or it’s a big suspension, it was a dangerous game trying to drop a horse out just in case you got too far back.

BREEDING

Most national hunt horses in Australian come from the flat and I never rode a horse who didn’t have a previous flat career. There are no jumps stallions out there or any real staying stallions, which is probably why their Melbourne Cup is often won by European bred horses.

All the breeding in Australia is geared towards two-year-olds, so nearly all the jumps horses have run from that age before they get into jumps training. The average age for a horse to go jumping would be 4-5 years old. This is because there is very little for horses over 3 years of age on the flat, all the good races such as the Slippers and Blue Diamonds etc are for 2- and 3-year-olds.

However, the system is good out there for owners. You can probably win 3-4 races before you get to the City Meetings, but the prize money is so good, a horse will easily pay its way. A City Meeting would be like stepping up from say a Dundalk race to a Curragh one. The prize money is also top notch for riders, even if you are just riding in the country tracks you could make a good living. When I was over there we would be getting nearly $500 a ride and the minimum we were racing for would be $20,000, while at the time I was getting about €160 in Ireland and that was before you paid your taxes etc, it didn’t add up to a whole pile.

The main national hunt trip is 2 miles and that probably makes up 90% of their jumping calendar. Most of the horses just about get the 2 miles. I never rode a horse that ran through the line and got me thinking this will be a nice chaser or 3-mile horse down the line. However, there are a lot of good 2-mile races they can aim them at, some worth as much as $250,000.

YOU NEED TO BE DRAWN IN THE FIRST FIVE

It is very different to ride down there both on the flat and over jumps. They pack very tight in running because that’s how the horses are used to racing. If you ride on the flat and have no cover you just don’t win, it’s as simple as that. For anyone who is having a look at or having a bet on Australian racing it is worth noting that you would probably need to be drawn in the first five otherwise you have no chance, it is that important. For instance in Ireland if you get posted 3 wide in a jumps race it may not mean a whole pile to you as our horses are trained to breath and relax and are used to the wide open spaces. However in Australia such a draw would mean you just can’t win. The horses just aren’t trained to relax the same way, they are trained to sit in and sprint late. A lot of them wouldn’t even get lit up or pull, they just basically give up because they are doing a little more work than they should be, and they just know themselves they shouldn’t be there.

Another point of note is that when racing in say, Melbourne, for instance you only go left-handed, so all horses are trained on a bend going left-handed which means leading on their inside leg. They could then go to Sydney where they only race right-handed. They teach them how to sprint off their lead leg, inside for left-handed or vice versa. It is hard for a horse to adapt to a switch like that. You would never think of that for an Irish horse because they are going every way, it never really comes into consideration.

BIG BLUE AT CHELTENHAM

Some of you may have noticed the Ciaron Maher trained Big Blue on these shores at Naas before running at the Cheltenham Festival. I don’t know how much of a gauge we got but he had won their big 2-mile race last year and was the best of their crop, but he wasn’t mapped over here.

Ciaron is a serious trainer and fair play to him for bringing him over, to have a runner at Cheltenham was massive. The Australians are now really clued into Cheltenham and know how big it is and it just seems to be growing in popularity.

There are plenty of Irish based down there including Shane Jackson, Tom Ryan and Martin Kelly who have all ridden around Cheltenham and had winners at the Festival. Even their champion jockey Steve Pateman would have had a stint over here based with Willie Mullins, so the importance of Prestbury Park for the jumps' fraternity would be well drilled home. If any of them had half a chance of getting another one over I would have no doubt that they would try it again. However, like with most things money is a big factor. You would in all likelihood need some sort of bonus scheme where you could tie a few races together and invite them over to compete.

Ciaron was also behind getting Ruby Walsh to come down to ride in their Grand National at Ballarat. He rode Bashboy to his historic third victory in the race and it was a great advertisement to get someone of his calibre to take the mount. It gave a huge lift to the jumps game down there.

The home of jumps racing in Australia is the unique track at Warrnambool which is about 3 hours away from Melbourne. It is a very tricky course in that it is shaped like a figure of 8 and goes up and down hills. It’s a very testing sort of place as you go right-handed for one circuit and left-handed for the other It can catch a lot of horses out. You certainly need your wits about you.

One for the bucket list for any racing fan would be the annual Warrnambool Carnival which takes place every May. It is a lot like Galway with a mix of flat and jumps racings. It’s a great week of racing and craic and I couldn’t recommend it enough!

Upcoming fixtures in Australia can be found here and you can bet into their tote pools with thetote.com.