Stable sends 42 horses to safety

To outsiders, its possibly easy to become numbed to the impacts of the latest floods in New South Wales – but for each of the many harness racing families caught up in the devastation, there’s no measuring the upheaval they’re facing.

But the scale of the operation rolled out by the Elder family of Maitland to manage the most recent floods quickly brings the reality of the impacts back into focus.

“Early last week we took the decision to move all 42 horses off the property – that’s our racehorses, along with broodmares and foals, and a few others as well,” Brad Elder said.

“We kept a pretty watchful eye on what was happening, so we were kind of prepared when the time came to get out of there, and we knew we had to get out,”

“The horses have ended up all over the place – some in Sydney and others in Goulburn. My brother-in-law Joe Taaffe and my sister Melanie took some, while Pete Neilson has a few and one of my uncles.

“We had some of the team entered to race well before our evacuation, but dad just decided it was best to scratch them all.”

Darren Elder, a respected and successful trainer in the region, has prepared over 422 winners, while his son Brad is a gifted young reinsman with a terrific strike rate. So far this season Darren has posted 31 wins and 57 placings from 208 runners, with Dollarsign (Million Dollar Cam), Jiggy Rhythm (Sportswriter), Lord Bazalup (Roll With Joe)and Mykindoffeeling (Mr Feelgood) being the leading lights.

Their property is on the Wallis Creek, which flows into the Hunter River, 30 kilometres west of Newcastle. It’s the third time since moving to the property in 2005 that the Elders have been forced to evacuate.

“The previous two floods weren’t quite as bad as this one.  We knew we had to get out because as soon as the Wallis Creek bursts its banks, we’re in trouble,” Brad said.

“The floodwater levels are slowly dropping, but it will be at least three or four weeks before we can go back.

“I’m staying at Nan and Pop’s place along with my parents— but I’m actually in isolation as well, because I picked up COVID along the way. I was pretty crook for the first few days, but I’m picking up a bit now.

“There will be a lot of cleaning to do when we get back home. There will be mud inside everywhere, but in the past, one of the biggest problems has been clearing up the rubbish that gets sent down in the floodwaters.”

Twenty-four-year-old Brad has 43 wins to his name so far this season, along with 69 placings, finishing in the top three 40 percent of the time. Last season was a standout for the young driver with 89 wins and 130 placings and bringing up his 400^th career victory with a quartet of wins at Newcastle in July.

“I feel like I haven’t been doing all that much driving so far this season, so hopefully it picks up in the remaining months, once we get over this problem,” Brad said.

“There’s not much we can do about it. Just keep our chin up and push on – but we did notice in the aerial pictures that our horse walker is now a water walker!” he joked.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink