TRAINER DAN MEAGHER - FROM KRANJI TO PAKENHAM - A NEW CAREER CHAPTER TAKES SHAPE
By Graham Potter | Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Times have been tough, but trainer Dan Meagher hasn’t been sitting on his hands.
The multiple Group 1 winning trainer has been busy maxing out the number of stable wins he can achieve and continuing to make as many memories as possible in Singapore where racing is now, sadly. on its last, fast slide towards a crashing halt on October 5 … the day the 180-year-old story of Singapore racing will forever be confined to the history books and only referred to in the past tense.
After that, it will never quite be business as usual for Meagher, whose association with Singapore is deeply seated, both professionally and personally. Afterall, he has been a fixture of Singapore racing scene for eighteen years … ten years with his father, Melbourne Cup winning trainer John Meagher, and, later, for eight years, training in his own right since 2016.
“It was obviously a shock at the time the closure was announced,” said Meagher, ‘It was the carpet being pulled from under all of us, but we are past that angry stage and it is probably got to the sad stage now, because the closure is only six weeks away.”
Like all of those affected by the Singapore’s Government’s decision to close down racing, Meagher has had no option but to prepare to move on … but what has remained in his control is where he takes his training career next, and what focus he will bring with that move in terms of creating a strong mindset capable of embracing the new challenge that he now faces.
Where to go next?
Meagher explored several options but, in the end, one option towered above all others with Pakenham getting its number into the frame after Meagher locked Pakenham in as his new training base for the next stage of his career.
“Talk about welcoming me with open arms … but the people at Southside Racing (who look after Pakenham and Cranbourne) have been more than just welcoming. They are building stables for me and are asking where do I want this, where do I want that … basically, just whatever I need,” explained Meagher. “Their setup is amazing.
“While I thought I was able to bring something to the table, not everybody had the same welcoming response to my enquiries … in fact some of that process was disappointing … but, most importantly, I wanted to go to a professional setup because I want to give my team the best opportunity and Pakenham fitted the bill in a variety of ways.
“It is just so refreshing, knowing they have got your back. They want you to come. They want you to do well. If you do well, their business grows and the story gets better for everyone, so you are all on the same page.”
“It should be good timing. I should be able to walk into my stables about the middle of December and hopefully have about fifteen horses there when I walk in.
“In the meantime, there are a lot of logistics to think of … closing the business here, moving back … all that type of stuff.
“It will just be a process, and I won’t have to worry about training horses for a couple of months after the last Singapore meeting. I don’t think that is a bad thing. We are all mentally a bit flat. It’s been a pretty long eighteen months with what has been hanging over our heads.
“Mentally, it has been very challenging, but, in one way, it has been good for the future in the sense that you know you have dealt with it … you’ve had to continue to run the business, you’ve had to keep your staff happy. You’ve had to keep your family happy … and the main thing is that you had to keep getting results, because, obviously, the thing about moving home is you have got to try do it with as big a bank balance as possible.
“There were other people who were leaving early and who mentally said no I can’t stay here.
“So, I thought this was an opportunity to really kick some goals because there was still money to be made, and my wife, Sabrina, has been very supportive, letting me do what I wanted to do.
“I’ve got the utmost respect for all of the trainers here, but I thought I can’t do that … I can’t struggle, I’ve just got to refocus and make the most of it … so I never took my foot off the accelerator … and this year has been amazing. The last two seasons have been amazing for us to be honest.
“It’s all coming to an end now, but it has been a fantastic ride.
“I can tell you one thing … we’ll always remember this place, that’s for sure.”
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For all of the helpful beginning that the Pakenham setup is set to provide, Meagher is well aware of the fact that a lot of hard work lies ahead.
“Victoria is bloody tough racing … I’m under no illusion about that … but I settled on Victoria because I feel that you should back yourself and if you are good enough in your trade, you’ll make a fist of it.
“You’ve just got to be focused and have a decent crack and put yourself in there.
“As I said we’ve had a great last two, three or even four seasons really. I felt like I was just coming out of my own shell as a trainer, with a good team, a great ownership group and having some really good horses … and then having to survive the upcoming closure … all of that has given me confidence that I can train good horses and win big races.
“You obviously never stop learning in this game. I learnt a lot from my father, and I’ve learnt so much in my time training in Singapore. When I came back to train by myself, things had changed. I literally had three horses, but those numbers, thankfully, did improve and mount up very quickly.
“I look back at my time in Brisbane before that when I was with my father and my brother. I was very green. I look back at those years and I go ‘wow’ … I knew nothing.
“Like I said, getting though that first stint by myself and then, again, coming through this latest difficulty has given me confidence. I’d never trained a good horse and then, all of a sudden, I’ve had four over the last four seasons … so I thought, ok, we can do this. I now also know so much more about the foundation, or the structure that is needed to be in place to get the job done.
“I’ve travelled horses … I’ve been to Hong Kong. That was a great experience. I’ve met a lot of great people, so I think I have filled these last eight years with a lot. I believe that.”
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“I don’t care where they win … as long as they win. They win … the owners reinvest, and everybody is happy,” continued Meagher.
“I’ve got eight horses going from here (Singapore). I’ve got about six or seven that are in Australia now … with owners who are going to join me when I get there … and then I’ve got to try and create some more business.
Meagher’s two current stable stars, Lim’s Kosciuszko and Lim’s Saltoro, will be amongst the eight runners who will arrive from Singapore.
Either one could give Meagher a big send off on October 5 with Meagher penciling both their names on the prospective team-sheet for Singapore’s final feature race, the Singapore Gold Cup on October 5.
The Group 1 winning seven-year-old Lim’s Kosciuszko certainly needs no introduction having saluted twenty-one times with four runner-up finishes from twenty-eight starts … while the five-year-old Lim’s Saltoro, who claimed the final running of the Singapore Derby in July to become only the second horse in history to land Singapore’s four-year-old Triple Crown, has ten wins and one place to his credit from only eleven starts.
That’s thirty-one wins from thirty-nine starts between these two runners, results which stand as a solid testament to Meagher’s training expertise.
“Lim’s Kosciuszko has been an amazing horse for me, but I think he is coming towards the end of his career, which is the reality, although I have an eye on the Quokka and the Stradbroke as two good races for him if he is well and sound and we still have the mindset to run him,” said Meagher.
“Saltoro, on the other hand, is a completely different horse. He is two years younger. He is an absolute machine. He just keeps winning. From his Maiden through to his Group 1, he only wins by a short margin. I don’t know why. That’s just him.
“He might just be a bit of a flag-bearer for me in Australia.”
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And last but certainly not least, in fact more important than anything else, it is all good on the Meagher family front.
Meagher and his wife Sabrina have three children aged nine, six and one … and they are more than happy to undertake this new adventure … in particular one family member.
“My nine-year-old son, Caiden, is really entrenched into this racing caper,” said Meagher. “He is absolutely a mastermind of form and race tactics … but he has never been to a race meeting before because you have got to be eighteen and above to attend a meeting in Singapore.
“When I said to him, mate, we are going to go home … we are going to start a new life … going to live in a good area … you will go to a new school … you will make new friends … but … you can come to the races, he was all over it.
“His disappointment of what he was leaving behind changed pretty quickly, now that he can go to the races and ride ponies in his grandma’s back yard.
“An adventure … that’s absolutely what it is now.
“They’ve all come to terms with it, which was the most scary part going into it, because you always worry about your kids and how they are going to fit into a new environment … from Singapore to Melbourne is a completely different environment .
"I’m confident we’ll handle it.”
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