By David Nagel
PRECEDE
Gazette Sports Editor DAVID NAGEL and gun photographer Stewart Chambers spend a morning at the Pakenham Racing Club as preparations continue for Saturday’s $300,000 Listed Sportsbet Pakenham Cup (2500m).
By David Nagel
It’s hard to know which way to look at 5.30am on a beautiful Thursday morning at the Pakenham Racing Club (PRC).
The unmistakeable sound of hooves hitting hard ground, steam rising from the nostrils of horses, and jockey’s helmets blinking with bright lights as daylight takes over from dawn.
And the hearty sound of snorting…for a lover of horse racing…it’s simply magical.
“Hi, I’m Kath, how can I help you?”
After weaving a path from the car park, through the stalls, to the First-Aid Room at Pakenham, Racing Services Lead Kath Browne welcomes us with open arms.
But she’s also on point.
“We need to get you a flouro.”
As Kath makes the short trip from first-aid to the equine pool, a quick glance around a wall sees medic Ernie Di Pietro active on his laptop.
With all due respect Ernie…no-one wants to see you busy this morning!
Flouro on, we continue our chat with Kath.
“I’m the Racing Services Lead at Pakenham and help the track-work supervisors,” she explains.
“We have three supervisors, in the tower, the tunnel hut and the pool, and we just monitor the day-to-day running of training.
“We make sure everything is running smoothly and take care of anything that is not.
“There are rules for every industry and we make sure they’re being adhered to, but they’re all a pretty good bunch out here.
“We make sure we look after the basics, and if everyone is doing that then we’re happy.
“As long as everybody walks out of here at 9am every morning, our job is done.”
Kath and the team arrive at 3am, and have the track and surrounding areas ready to go for up to 400 horses by 4am.
Tuesday, Saturday and Thursday are the busiest days of the week, in that order.
Over at the pool supervisor Bridget Flynn has already had a busy morning, dealing with the panic of a young horse, and is keeping a close eye on things.
Trainer Charlotte Littlefield is preparing two of her horses for a swim, while leading trainer Phillip Stokes wanders by, riding on one horse while leading the walk of another.
Meanwhile, just metres away, the lead pony at Pakenham helps a young horse improve his barrier manners.
Trainer Mick Huglin also walks by.
“We’re stabled on course and we can access the pool and water walker from here so it’s really good for what we do,” Huglin said.
“We have 34 horses in work and we’ve been here nearly three years now.
“We moved from Cranbourne.
“It’s nice and roomy and very, very quiet here, it’s a great place to train horses.
“(Phillip) Stokes was here when I first came along and then (Peter) Moody and about 10 others came on board after that.
“It’s a little bit busier, but you still don’t notice it because there’s so much room out here.”
Huglin’s grandparents bred and raced horses and he learnt his craft working for prominent trainers such as Robert Smerdon, Mick Price and Luke Oliver.
He lives 200 metres from Moody in Belgrave South and has a similar on-course training set up.
“Obviously it’s a new facility that’s growing, and at the moment it’s good, but it’s going to get better shortly when we get our hill-tracks and trail-tracks out the back,” he said.
“Once those two things are done, we’re bolting because it’s already a good place to train horses.”
Huglin gives his jockeys instructions before wandering off with a nod.
Horses from the Moody and John Sadler camps trot by as they make their way down the main walkway to the track, while former jockey Dale Short – Kath Browne’s partner – does his own work and trots out Rippleview Lad for a gallop.
Jockey Sheridan Clarke, and the emerging Sage Duric, daughter of Vlad, also head to the track with horses from the Stokes’ yard.
It’s now 6.50am, and Kath tells us to wait as she takes us to the entrance to the tunnel as a siren begins to sound in the distance.
“There’s a loose one out there,” says former jockey and today’s tunnel-hut supervisor Adam Bodey.
The siren subsides, everyone is safe.
On first appearances, from a naïve perspective, it appears Bodey has a huge responsibility.
Horses funnel from the main stables at Pakenham, and from on-course stables, to the entrance to a tunnel that provides access to the inside tracks for trackwork.
It’s Pakenham’s equivalent of the corner of Swanston and Bourke Streets.
Bodey dominated the picnic tracks in his day, six times riding five winners on the one program.
“My last race ride was 2016, Australia Day, the Balnarring Cup,” Bodey recalls clearly.
“I started the supervisor position 16 months ago.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do post riding and training.
“This came up and I thought it gives me the opportunity to do something that keeps me in the game.
“We man our stations, whether that be the tower, the pool or the hut.
“They’re all different roles.
“This role here is to mainly man the trotting ring and the entrance to the tunnel.
“If loose horses come through here, we need to deal with it.”
Bodey is a character who loves banter, and often reminds the up-and-coming jockeys of his deeds.
But his passion and experience provide a great sounding board for the jocks that are starting out their careers.
“Yeah, I tend to tell them how good I was,” Bodey says with a laugh.
“But I love seeing them come through and improve, I love it.
“I’ve been here for 16 months and seen these kids improve, the improvement is monumental, and I get a real kick out of it.”
By chance, and with immaculate timing that hopefully defines his career, Thomas Prebble – the son of gun-jockey Brett – emerges from the tunnel after trackwork.
Prebble, apprenticed to Peter Moody, is due to have his first race-ride on Wednesday 30 November on the Moody-trained Hollywood Park at Geelong.
The trip back from the tunnel-hut to the main stables is taken down walkways named after PRC committee-members, Rick Tyrrell and Max Mitchell.
Once there, Mel Reeve and Sydney Wenn pay great attention to horses of Allison Sheehan, while Karen Marshall, who works for trainer Simon Lee, washes down ‘Fonzie’.
Lee only recently trained his first winner when Fancylanski saluted on his home track at Pakenham on November 10.
Most of Lee’s stable are sired by former Victoria Derby winner Polanski.
A quick phone call is made and a short walk is taken to Peter Moody’s on-course stables.
Moody is in Japan, leaving his assistant Katherine Coleman to carry out training duties.
Coleman poses for a photo; we have a friendly chat and then leave.
It’s time to go, but one thought races through the mind as we run into trainer Colin Scott on the way out.
“Oh, bugger it, I forgot to give Kath her flouro back.”
