A MASTER TRAINER PLOTS HIS PATH AS HE SETS ABOUT BUILDING A NEW STABLE FROM SCRATCH

By Graham Potter | Thursday, June 3, 2021

John Moore, master race-horse trainer and one of racing’s absolute gentleman, was at Doomben yesterday where he was happy to discuss the challenges he faces as he looks to build a new solo stable from scratch after relocating to the Gold Coast from Sydney where he was in a training partnership with his brother Gary. Sydney was Moore’s first port of call on his return from Hong Kong.

Moore’s achievements in Hong Kong are legendary. He is a seven-time Hong Kong Champion Trainer (1985/86, 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1994/95, 2010/11, 2014/15), the Hong Kong record holder for all-time career prize money (HK$1.85 billion) and the Hong Kong record holder for overall career wins (1,678).

For the seven-year period from 2013 to 2019 Moore’s stable provided the seven Hong Kong Horse Of The Year winners, perhaps most notably the marvellous Beauty Generation who won the title twice. The list of star performers … whose careers Moore has guided … winning on huge international race-days goes on and on, so you can imagine a quiet Doomben midweek meeting provided a pretty peaceful background to the conversation.

“The Gold Coast Turf Club invited me up and gave me boxes,” said Moore. “We know that the development that will take place at the Gold Coast includes putting up new blocks of twenty stables and I’ve been given the green light with respect to getting either twenty of forty boxes when that happens.

“Setting up in the present environment has not been easy.

“In Hong Kong everything is done for you by the club. In Hong Kong trainers don’t have to sort out employing anybody. We don’t have to worry about owner’s paying their bills. They give you the stable. They give you the staff. They deal with the owner’s financial obligations. Everything is requisitioned … the feed, the gear … like I say, they virtually do everything for you leaving you to be able to fully focus on hopefully what you do best … and that is training horses.

“Back here, obviously, a whole different ball-game, but that is for us to cope with.

“You need a lot of money to set up a new stable … and you have to have workable gameplan into the future. Of course, the quality of horse you bring into the stable is paramount to that.

“We have been buying some nice yearlings over the past three to four months … real decent yearlings. They are just starting to come into the stable now … for three weeks and a gallop and then back out for spells.

“Then we will bring them back and just see which ones are the early ones and we will take it from there.

“I am already very well acquainted with Rosehill, and I have spoken to them with respect to bringing horses down for their better races. I know Rosehill. I know the track. I know the stables where we will be stabled … so that is all in place.

“We are obviously not there yet … but your planning has to be all-encompassing, so you are well prepared for all possibilities and that is what we are trying to do.

“So, there is very much more planning than racing going on at this stage for us.

“The bottom line for now is settling into the new stable and getting the babies up here, working out which ones are the early goers as against the ones which need time. I’ve currently got about fifteen to come up to Queensland. Most of them are at Greg Bennet’s at the moment … he broke some of them in and some of them he just pre-trained.

“The stable currently is essentially made up of yearlings that need time, so everybody who wants to follow the stable needs to be patient … just like the trainer and the staff.

“We all have to be patient and let the horses find their feet … and then I think we will be on our way.

“We are not looking at having a big stable … more of a boutique stable.

“If I could get around thirty to thirty-five horses, I would be very happy because we are aiming for some quality stock … as I said, we have buying a nice batch of horses that have decent pedigrees, good confirmation … as correct we can get it.

“So, yeah, I’m excited about the future.”

“I have passion for the game. I love being around horses and I just love the challenge.”

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