ROB'S SHOUT - SINGING IN THE RAIN

By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, October 14, 2010

Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the premiership winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO.

I recently commented on how the 'new racing season' and the start of spring each year is one of my 'favourite' times of the year for a number of reasons.

This year however has been an exception due to the unseasonal rain which has deluged South East Queensland.

August dumped over a 100mm followed by about the same in September and already October has given us over 200mm of rain.

This has certainly made life difficult for us horse trainers and our staff for a number of reasons and it is very disruptive to the training program of the horses.

We are fortunate at Eagle Farm having the use of the dirt training track which copes extremely well with the rainfall as no doubt the synthetic tracks at Caloundra and Toowoomba have done.

It’s certainly a huge tick for the Cushion track during the 'big wet', both for training and also for racing with a few race meetings saved that otherwise would have been washouts on the turf.

I don't personally like racing on that surface, but the tracks have a place as a replacement venue for washouts and they are excellent training tracks!

Our dirt training track at Eagle Farm copes very well, but as the rain continually fell each morning, it also deteriorated … so it was essential to get the main gallopers out of the way early in their gallop mornings.

The actual training of the horses has not been disrupted too much at all and whilst it is very uncomfortable for the riders and staff working in the continuous rainfall, the horses don't seem to mind it too much.

It can be extremely uncomfortable working in the continuous rain and extreme care has to be taken, especially by the riders and I take my hat off to them for their efforts as it is still very important to work the horses each day and maintain a regular routine and not to get their 'system' too out of balance.

It’s a key factor in my opinion, keeping a regular routine during the unsettled weather whilst safety is very much a concern for both the horses and riders when it is raining.

It is quite a challenge for us to try and get all of the gear dry. Each morning the saddles and packing and towels etc all get drenched. At times it is just not possible to get it dry, so we are constantly working with wet gear.

I have yet to find wet weather clothing which actually works as we always seemed to end up getting drenched each work session.

The horses bedding, whist mostly under cover and sheltered, always seems to get soaked as well which makes the cleaning of the boxes and bedding more
difficult and, I might add, adds to the cost of the operation.

The constant wet weather is also quite a concern with regards to the horses feet.

Constantly being wet tends to soften their feet and cause an increase in bruising and foot related problems, such as stone bruises.

Sure and certain, the rain seems to expose the stones and rocks on the walkways which is a concern and another headache we don't need.

I know of at least three stables at Eagle Farm who needed an ARK during the recent deluge as they were totally flooded out!

I would think this biggest factor concerning me personally as a trainer during such prolonged periods of wet weather is the 'UNCERTAINTY' that it all creates.

Not knowing exactly where we are headed with each horse and to not be able to plan and advise the owners where we are headed … into which race, or for that matter whether the races are even going to be on … is a real problem.

Not being able to accurately plan a program for each horse, including upcoming trials and jump-outs, adversely effects the connections and adds further frustrations to everyone as well as to the costs involved as the training carries on with only limited racing.

This indecision flows right down the line to even the horses that are spelling and in pre-training as it brings to bear pressure on horses looking for boxes to resume their training programs from spells and let-ups?

Of course cancelled race meetings are also very costly to all in the industry.

Only recently we lost a meeting where I was quite confident we could win a couple of races and just this Saturday another race as been canned - in a decision which is indirectly associated with the bad weather - where I would have had the favourite.

I am a huge believer in having a high staff morale in and around the stables and its does get a bit tough at times for my staff to keep the smile on their face when it’s pissing down with rain and they are already wet through to the bones!

The continued wet over the last ten weeks has now created a 'back-log' of horses all looking for runs now. That, coupled with Racing Queensland recent decision to delete a race out of many meetings, means we will see capacity fields for a while, with many horses missing out on runs, adding further frustration to owners and trainers across the board!

The turnover re the betting is no doubt affected on wet tracks as it’s tougher to do the form and the results can reflect a lower confidence in the betting public.

I have always been a believer that some wet tracks are vastly different to others. You should always be very forgiving of any horses which race on seriously rain affected tracks.

So many things can simply go wrong and the incidences of horses straining muscles is always so much higher!

The betting turnover which is often referred to as the life-blood of the industry just has to be affected, but that's information that industry participants don't seem to get too involved in.

I'm not too sure if it makes that much difference to us at all anymore as the industry seems to be running out of money!

Anyway, there's racing on again right across Australia over the weekend.

There will be highs and many lows.

Winners and losers and looking at the weather forecast … looks like it’s gonna be wet again.

Just what we needed!

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