MARK PALMER - A VALUE BET IN THE TRAINING RANKS

By HRO | Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Today HRO kicks off a new series 'Trainers in Queensland' which offers the HRO reader the opportunity to find out more about the background and values of individual trainers in the state. Many will be familiar faces, but their detailed, personal profiles have remained relatively unknown to the larger audience ... until now.

Today, Beaudesert based trainer Mark Palmer tells his story.

"Every since I can remember racing has been part of my life … from a very young lad. My father used to love racing … and so did my mother.

"One day I got a little racing saddle for my birthday … I think I was about three or four years old … and I used to tie it to the chair and jump on it and go for it!

"As I moved along I grew up with show-jumping and things like that. I then went to the stables when I was about fourteen where I linked up with a very good, old trainer … Basil Conaghan … who taught me a great deal.

"He used to ride with Tommy Smith over the jumps before that. He was the one who educated Geoff Murphy, who was his foreman for twelve years before taking out a license in his own right, and he was a premier trainer at the time.

"Conaghan was a very hard task-master … very hard. We only used to only go out on Saturday nights at that time and he said to me, if you are home later than eight o’clock you will be grounded. One week I went to watch a movie and got home at ten past eight and he grounded me for about three weeks but, you know, he was a nice bloke. He treated me like a grandson.

"That grounding was just part of the discipline that he enforced. He was also very honest. He said to me one day, you are not going to be a champion jockey … so the best you can do in the game is to learn how to train racehorses.

"I didn’t take that advice badly, but I did leave his stable because my father still wanted me to be a jockey. I went away from Conaghan and rode up in the country. I went up to Benalla I had quite a lot of rides there and over the border in New South Wales.

"I rode around there in north-east Victoria for quite some time … a few years … and I also did a stint in Tassie for a little while.

"I rode against Higgins and White during my time in the saddle. I was a kid then … I’d only just got my license, but when I was growing up they were my idols I reckon. Dad used to take me to the races when I was ten years old to watch them ride, so to have ridden against them, even as a raw youngster, is still a great memory.

"I was never a polished rider but I always used to love riding. It probably wasn’t until my later years as a jockey that I started to ride well, but that coincided with me getting heavy. The weight problems helped persuade me to give it up … the weight and a lack of real ability as a race rider.

"I don’t mind admitting to that. You have got to call it as it is. I still ride track-work. I’m a good track-work rider. I can get a good feel for a horse.

"That type of honesty is one of the things I learnt during my time with Conaghan. He was honest enough with me and that showed me how you should be honest with other people … and you also have to be honest with yourself and your assessment of what is happening in your stable, which I always try to be.

"I also learnt all about being disciplined and having a good work ethic which serves me well today so, while I didn’t have a particularly successful riding career, I gained a lot of knowledge about riding and the different levels of jockeys’ expertise during that time that I now apply every day in my business as a trainer.

"For example, I realize they have got to be fit and hard … that’s why I like putting the top jocks on if I can. They are fit. They are hard and they make quick decisions and they are very polished in what they do. They are very professional.

"They make a mistake now and then, but generally next time they make up for it. I get more frustrated with jockeys that think they can ride and they ride ordinary races and then get off and say, oh I did nothing wrong. The good jockey will know when he has make an mistake and, importantly, he will also give you far better feedback information of how the horses felt in the run.

"In my book, and I allow everybody is different. I always tell owners that I start at the top of the list of riders and I work my way down … or, if I think a particular jockey suits a particular horse, I’ll use them.

"I’ll try and get the good jockeys first because I really think we have got a half-a-dozen, or a couple more maybe, in the riding ranks in Brisbane that are a length-and-a-half better than most other jockeys. If I don’t use them and give someone else that advantage I’d struggle to win a race.

"I’m not being critical. I’m just stating the facts as I see them.

"That’s why I pay track-work riders to ride my horses in work, so that I can put on who I want on race-day. I get a lot of offers … jockeys saying, I’m come out and ride your work and then will you put me on? I say, no!

"I just want the flexibility of putting who I want on.

"So, yeah, I’m a trainer now, just as Congahan suggested I could be all those years ago, but the path to becoming a trainer on my own took a while to come about.

"When I stopped riding I spent time with different trainers working their stables. I was foreman for Colin Little, who is a good trainer still. I was with Armanasco. I was also with Geoff Murphy for a while. I used to ride Chagamar in work. He ran second in a Melbourne Cup.

"Everywhere I went, I went with the intention of learning as much as I could from the trainer I was working for. I just tried to pick their brains and I watched everything they did to try to get the most benefit I could out of the experience.

"Then I came up here. I just had a regular job when a girl I knew saw an advert for a private trainer down at Burleigh Heads. She said, why don’t you go and apply for it. I did and the bloke gave me the job.

"He was a fella from England, Rob Mason … a really nice English fella. He had a hundred and seventy acres at Burleigh Heads on Ready Creek Road. He had it all set up beautifully. He had about eighteen horses on the property.

"I was there about a year. We had a few winners. Then he fell ill and wanted to give up the racing side of things and return to England.

"When that came to an end, I moved to Brisbane. I didn’t have any horses or anything. I tried to make a go of it. It was really happening for me at that time. Then I got married with kids and all that and I was working in a regular job … but, you know, I just love the horses and that love sort of dragged me back into racing.

"If you are passionate about it, it is a very difficult industry to leave.

"You will understand that you do worry financially about trying to make it as a trainer … always clinging to a job to try and makes ends meet which you have to do at particular stages of your life but, the kids grew up and I just thought it was time that I made a conscious decision to just train race horses if that was what I was ever going to do.

"I’ve only been doing that for three years now … full time … and I try to better myself every year. Things are starting to happen. I hope it’s going to continue. I think it could be a good time for owners to join the stable.

"What am I able to offer? I’ve already mentioned a few important aspects along the way … honesty and a solid work ethic. I don’t mind if the owners want to be involved with their horses. I certainly don’t mind if they want to visit the stable and have an interaction with their horse. If they want to have their say in where it runs next, I’m happy to listen to them and discuss the opinions. If I don’t think they are right I will tell them.

"I think owners will find I’m pretty good to deal with. Let’s be fair, I do know there are periods of frustration on the part of the owners sometimes when things are not happening and you are trying to work a horse out … you can see it on their faces … but if the lines of communication remain open and you are honest things do get resolved without fuss.

"Everything is not cut and dried in racing but, within that wide range of variables that can happen, it is my job to properly manage the horses in my care and owners will find I take that responsibility very seriously.

"In fact, that is probably the only time I will draw a line in the sand in my dealings with owners.

"Everything must be done in the horse’s best interest. Quite simply, you have to do what is best for the horse and, realistically the trainer is best placed to know what that is. That doesn’t mean the owners say doesn’t count because often there can be a range of options moving forward which would not affect the horse one way or the other.

"If there is an option which would adversely affect the horse though, I wouldn’t do it.

"I just love my horses, you know. Any owner who loves their horse will find a happy home here."

More articles