ROSS / ANDREW TRAINING PARTNERSHIP PLAN IS OVER

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, October 25, 2022

The Les Ross / Brenton Andrew training partnership is no more!

Les Ross has trained successfully for several years for the Mishani Enterprises racing and breeding operation, headed by Mike Crooks, and the decision to offer Andrew a co-trainer position with Ross was agreed upon in July, with Andrew moving from Gatton soon after that, where he had been training in his own right, to the Mishani property base at Beaudesert.

Going into the arrangement it was seemingly a good mix … the blend of youth and experience … but it didn’t take long before the walls came tumbling down bringing the training partnership to an unfortunate and abrupt halt, with Andrew moving out and moving on to plot a new path for his future.

“I didn’t understand Brenton’s decision to leave to be honest,” said Ross, “because I really don’t know the reason for it.

“He just sent me a text saying he no longer works for Mishani.

“It happened suddenly. He was there one morning … and then he was gone.

“He was there for seven weeks and he and I never had an argument … never had a blue.

“There is certainly no bad blood with me. It was just very disappointing.”

Andrew, for his part, was reluctant to go into any specific details when approached about the reasons for his departure from Mishani Enterprises, but he did offer an overview of why he left.

“The easiest way to explain it was that it wasn’t what we anticipated,” said Andrew. “It just wasn’t!

“We gave up our life to move there and I wanted it to work one hundred percent but, unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.

“We weren’t happy. At one stage Billy (Brenton’s wife) and I discussed it, and we were going to try and tough it out, but our unhappiness quickly got to the point where I thought it would be in the best thing for my family to take them away from that situation … and that’s what I did … and now we are back at Gatton trying to pick up the pieces.

“I understand everyone is different and have got their own goals, but it certainly wasn’t the right mix for me and Billy,” concluded Andrew.

It would appear that both parties have been at least slightly compromised in the short-term … Andrew clearly more so than Mishani … with the dissolution of the partnership plan.

“We probably won’t go a training partnership route way again at this stage,” said Ross.

“I put up my hand and said I’ll do it for a couple of more years … so, I’m guessing we’ll just go back to what we were doing before Brenton came on board.”

For his part, Andrew’s own decision has temporarily left him somewhat in no man’s land.

“When we knew we were going to Mishani, we moved some of the horses on that we had in our stable … some of them went to other trainers, so we do have to rebuild,” said Andrew.

“We have a few horses now … but we basically have to restart, and it is going to take at least a good couple of weeks to get up and running, because I’ve also got a lot of other things on my plate at the moment … now … and leading into the new year,” said Andrew.

That leaves Mishani and Andrew now set on very different paths.

In spite of the hiccup, it can be expected that Mishani Enterprises will hardly break stride in their all-out quest to qualify as many runners for the $2 million Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic as possible, while Andrew, by contrast, will look to looking to slowly get his stable back into stride again in a far more low-key sense as he looks to get his solo training career back on track.