KELLY SCHWEIDA - GOOD OWNERS MAKE A GOOD STABLE

By HRO | Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The ''Trainers in Queensland' listing offers the HRO reader the opportunity to find out more about the background, expertise 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.

Kelly Schweida tells his story.

There was only a little bit of family background in racing. My mother’s uncle rode out west … but there was not a lot of influence there. I became an apprentice jockey in 1972. I was only tiny. I was five stone eleven in my first ride in a race … 37.5 kilos. That was in Townsville. I went on to win three apprentice premierships there.

In my time, when you were an apprentice, you were groomed to learn everything about how a stable runs. We had a long apprenticeship. In those days it lasted until you were twenty-one. I started when I was fourteen so, off and on, I enjoyed about seven years of that valuable learning experience.

I was with the leading trainer up there … a bloke called Les Mclellan He was leading trainer for about twenty years in a row. He was a really smart man and I learnt a lot from him. I also rode for a lot of different people and saw how they trained their horses and that, but Mclellan was the one who helped me the most.

But then I had a bad car accident when I was nineteen. I was going up to ride a horse in the Innisfail Cup called Nipalong … and of course it won. I broke my arm badly. Both bones snapped out and the arm was behind my back. I was a year in plaster for that and that was obviously a big setback to my riding career.

I came back and rode for a while, but I was tall and I got too heavy. I probably rode for about another twelve months, but it was just too hard … I was too heavy … so I gave it away.

I took up training in about 1981 … still in Townsville. A bloke gave me a horse. I was a part-time trainer at that stage. I trained there and I worked for the Department of Defence for about ten years. I always had about twelve horses during that time and then I went training full time in 1990.

As I mentioned, I certainly benefitted from all of that experience I gained learning from Les Mclellan and that helped me a great deal when I started training.

Things took off from there. We won the trainers’ premiership in Townsville in ‘93. We trained winners of all the big races in Townsville.

In ’93 I also took a horse to Singapore for the first Argyle Millions, a million dollar race. The horse’s name was Quick Response. We ran third in that. That was quite an experience.

At around the same time we started coming down to Brisbane for a couple of months over Christmas time, because it just gets so hot in Townsville.

In November ’94 we decided to move to Brisbane. We decided to give it a go for five years. That was a big decision for me to make. You know, I had two little kids … yeah it was a big step.

You always hope that things go right and we were fortunate in that we had a lot of success when we first came here. We had handy horses and we probably won about twelve races in ten weeks which got attention and really gave us a kick-start.

I had a really good horse called Inside Edge. The horse won about six-in-a-row or something like that. I thought he could have won the Stradbroke if he got a run. He was second emergency with the one alley. He’d beaten the eventual Stradbroke winner a fortnight earlier in a race, but he didn’t get a run. That was just one that got away.

The move to Brisbane proved successful. The stable’s gone well over the years. We’ve always sort of been in the top ten since I’ve been here … and we have won a Group 1 which is pretty hard to come by. That was a very exciting day when Nova Star won the Winter Stakes.

I’ve got one photo hanging in my house. I’ve got a million photos but we don’t get any of them up, but the one photo I’ve got up is of Stathi Katsidis, between me and my wife … and it’s a Group 1!

We’ve never gone real big in numbers … probably about thirty is the maximum number of horses we will have or somewhere around that mark.

What’s perhaps more important to me is to have good owners. I’ve always had good owners and I’ve had them for a long time. I still train for a lot of people I used to train for in Townsville … that’s twenty years ago … which I think is really says something about the way we go about our business and the type of owners we attract.

As I trainer, I think it is my responsibility to be professional. I don’t step over the line which will take you away from that. I think you have just got to be fair and honest.

You know, personally, I could lose a hundred dollars betting on a race myself and not bat an eye-lid, but I couldn’t stand for somebody to rob me of a dollar. I expect the same two-way relationship with my owners. Once you step over that line you are gone!

Like I say, you have got to be fair. I try my best with the horse, but if the horse is no good you have to be honest. If it is no good I’ll tell them. It makes good business sense anyway. You don’t want owners just hanging around for a while. You want to try and work it out that they stay for a long time, and if you can build mutual respect though that fairness and honesty … well, that’s what I’m looking for in my trainer / owner relationship.

Anything else doesn’t last long. I think owners will see through any bullshit pretty well so that would be a waste of time for everyone. Like I say, I don’t step over that line. Hopefully, because of that, we have a pretty relaxed situation in terms of personal relationships within our stable.

Most of my owners are good losers, which is not always easy to come across. Not that we want to go there too often. Everyone is a good winner, but you have to take the good with the bad in this game and being a gracious loser will help you last the distance.

Our training setup is also sound in terms of the facilities we offer.

We’re stabled at Eagle Farm and we’ve also got a property at Burpengary with four paddocks. We can take horses out there after a race and give them a bit of a break from stable life. So the horses are basically in our direct care for most of the time.

The exception is that we use a very good place called Washpool Lodge. Kevin Thomas is probably the best horse-breaker I have ever come across. No change that … he would be the best by far.

I’ve dealt with a lot of people in forty years of racing … I started when I was fourteen and I’m fifty four … and he would be the best horse-breaker. He is a perfectionist. You send them there … from breaking them in … you know, he is just the whole package and that is probably the best part of it. I’d be buggered without him.

Working with Washpool is a huge positive for the stable and our owners. When our horses go there, which is the only time they are out of our direct care, they are in the best of hands. No doubt about that!

As far as our own stable setup is concerned, I have a good family who are all involved with the horses. My wife Vera is my backstop. She is my best-mate and I can’t do much without her. She does all of the accounts etc. She would be my mainstay.

My three daughters … Jody, Tina and little Samantha, who is seven … are all involved.

The beauty about all of my girls is that when the going gets tough, they get tougher. That’s the sort of people they are.

Everyone laughs at comments like that but, no bullshit, that is exactly the way they are. When the going gets tough, as it often does in this game, they get tougher and they provide an incredible support base for me. More often than not, people behind the scenes, like they are, just don’t get the recognition they deserve.

So, yeah, I think we have a nice mix on offer for anybody interested in owning a racehorse.

Anyone looking to join us can rest assured that they are joining an established stable with a solid record of success …a stable that prides itself on its honest dealings with its clients and goes about its business with a full commitment to achieving the best outcome for all concerned within a tried and tested training structure where our facilities balance every horses needs.

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