By Kate Watts
Just a day out from his return to the training ranks after a four-year break, Peter Moody said he couldn’t wait to “get back on the tools”.
“Very much looking forward to it, we kick off this weekend down at Pakenham,” he said on After The Last.
“We’ve got a 40-horse barn there – I’ve leased the Lindsay Park complex.
“We’ll kick off with about 15 to 20 horses that will come in over the next four or five days and we’ll just sort of slowly build from there.
“We’ll probably look to build the numbers around that, we’ve got about 50 to 60 horses on the books, most of those are yearlings.
“A few of the horses that will come to me are horses that I actually own myself with my family and a few of those are actually in race condition, so there’s a chance we’ll have a runner or two during the month of May, but we won’t have a glut of runners at all until getting towards spring.“
The champion trainer already has his eye on some of the leading jockeys who helped him get to the top, in Linda Meech and Luke Nolen, but confirmed sentimentality won’t win out if the pair aren’t at their peak.
“I told Luke Nolen I wanted him to buy a couple of houses so he’s got a big mortgage hanging over his head because he’s got to drop about four or five kilos, he couldn’t ride one of mine at 56kg last week so that will have to change very quickly,“ he said
“Linda’s settled out at Stawell now, so she’s getting a little bit further away.“
This story first appeared on Racing.com on 29 April and has been republished with permission.
