Training complex draws huge response

Shepparton Harness Racing Club is facing an embarrassment of riches in its work to establish a training centre at its Kialla complex.

The centre, currently in the final stages of development, delivers the opportunity for trainers to access state-of-the-art new facilities in an area regarded as the heartland of the sport in Victoria.

Shepparton HRC Manager Ian McDonald said the training centre has capacity for nearly 70 horses, but there had been applications to place more than double that number of horses when expressions of interest closed three weeks ago.

“It’ll be a full house, well and truly!” McDonald said.

“We’ve had applications from 19 different trainers from every Australian State and even one from New Zealand – in total there were applications for 157 horses to be stabled here,” he said.

“We were confident there’d be a good response because the cost of setting up or buying private harness training complexes is just too much for many people, particularly young ones wanting to get into the sport.

“Centres like this lift one of the big barriers for new participants but the response certainly exceeded all our expectations by a big margin.”

The complex consists of three individual enclosed barns of 10 boxes each, 38 walk-in-walk-out boxes, two eight-horse walkers and access to three tracks.  Shepparton is located within 100 kilometres of a third of the meetings held in Victoria each year.

McDonald said the size of the response presented the Shepparton committee with some difficult decisions – but a problem they were happy to have.

“Certainly, the goal of applying for the funding to the Victorian Government to develop this complex was to allow younger and new participants to get into the industry, and we have done that – there are several young people who’ve applied who are wanting to start out or establish themselves,” he said.

“There’s also a huge percentage of the applicants who are from interstate or even overseas, which means a significant boost to the Victorian horse population.  It will be all new business coming to Victorian harness racing and that’s what the whole thing is about.

“The funding was tied to a set of criteria that we now need to consider the applications against – like whether they are a younger trainer or coming in from interstate. So now we’re getting back to the applicants individually and talking to them about costs, how many boxes they’re looking for and confirming their interest from there.

“We’ve had some holdups finishing off the work completely, but most of the site is close to ready, and we expect to be fully completed by early July.”

The first of the new trainers to set up at the Shepparton complex will be Conor Crook, who is relocating from Tasmania.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink