Heath Connors

INDUSTRY LESSON IN CONNERS DEPARTURE

March 18, 2019 5:29 pm

For Heath Conners, there was nothing bitter-sweet or ironic about his last runner being an impressive winner at Flemington at carnival time.

The dye had been cast and a Flemington winner wasn’t going to change Conner’s mind or the enduring factors that prompted his decision to walk away.

There is a stern lesson for the racing industry – those eternal flames that keep the wagering fires burning – in the Heath Conners story.

First, he’s not the only one to burn out, just the latest.

The industry then never sleeps doesn’t even make the dominators rich. Darren Weir once famously said he never looked at the stable books because the thought of it terrified him. The bigger the team, the bigger the costs.

The most in-jeopardy are the ones like Conners; not big enough to keep earnings a nose in front of costs but not small enough to be considered a low-return, low-cost cottage industry where principal income is earned via something else.

The racing industry is becoming bigger and bigger, with night and day holes plugged, and those that aren’t soon to be.

Trainers must keep up or perish. Competition is so intense that those who pursue lifestyle over career run an almighty risk.

Conners had been a successful trainer but the periods of prosperity were never consistent. He’d trained good horses like Con’s Amy, At the Oasis, Heavenly Pun, Loyal Lauren, Davcon and Chasm but to stay afloat these days, you need horses like that all at the same time not spread decades apart.

Conners had come to realise all of this as he saddled up Villa Sarchi at Flemington and nothing had changed after the horse won, bar for a nice sense of closure.

“No sadness, I couldn’t ask for a better day for it to end,” he told Racing Pulse.

Conners said seven day per week racing, including days of multiple meetings, made it impossible for him to be both a committed trainer and committed parent to three young kids.

“You still want to live a life and watch your kids grow up,” he said.

Conners said staff costs had become prohibitive and erratic. If you lose a horse or two, you’d have to lay off staff, he said.

Asked if trainers at his small-medium scale could make a living, he said: “You can’t, no.”

He said he’d have walked away years ago had his love of horses, and racing, not been so strong.

He said he’d loved horses from the time he was a kid, when his granddad, Clarry Snr would, put together sixty feeds each morning and evening. “I just loved the smell of it,” he said.

But the time came.

“I sat down with my wife and three beautiful kids … I want to watch them grow up over the next 15 years and I want to know at the end of the day that I’ve done the right thing,” he said.

He has no idea what he will do next but Conners is pretty sure others are in a similar boat. He said there were “a lot” of trainers and increasingly thinning horse numbers.

He said his old man, Clarry Jnr, was at first shocked by his decision but said Clarry quickly realised his son had no option.

Both father and son were in tears after Heath rang his dad straight after Villa Sarchi’s win.

“He couldn’t have been happier for me and he couldn’t have been prouder. He knew I did what I had to do.”

BY: Matt Stewart RSN Racing Editor

I do feel sorry for all smaller stables and country and provincial stables doing it hard.

The racing administrators have shown that they either do not care or are actually oblivious to the hard life of training racehorses.

If you are a small stable you at least need a constant source of horses. If you can get a relationship with a breeder or stud, who cthen gives you some of the stock they could not sell at the sales, then you are dead in the water.

Clarry Jr, was doing it tough, before he had some success for Newhaven and then the family individually and that is how he got Research who kicked him into the big time.

I wish him all the best in his future endeavours!

RACING NEVER RICHER; SO WHY ARE SO MANY TRAINERS SO POOR?

March 19, 2019 9:36 am

For an industry that is so rich, Victorian horse racing has a big middle tier of trainers who struggle to make ends meet.

They are trainers like Heath Conners, who announced this week that he was quitting because the burden of training had become too great.

Australian Trainers Association chief executive Andrew Nicholl describes them as “Tier B trainers.”

“These are the ones getting left behind, the ones really struggling to make a living,” Nicholls said. “They’re the ones who worry me.”

Of the 850-odd trainers in Victoria, these are the 130-350 bracket; not big enough to be successfully “corporate”, as Nicholls describes them, and too big and exposed to be regarded as hobbyists.

“They’re a bit old world. They’ve got 25-30 horses in work, they float the horses to the track once or twice a week for a gallop, they usually live away from sophisticated tracks with treadmills and so on but they have heavy reliance on vets, supplements; because our racing schedule is “busy”, their horses have constant niggles that need to be addressed and this costs money.

“These guys are struggling because it still costs about $60,000 a year and they rely on the food chain of costs down the line. They’re often robbing Peter to pay Paul to keep things moving.”

The story of Heath Conners created interest and sympathy, including from within the training ranks.

One city trainer who didn’t want to be named said wages and overheads meant many trainers – even those regarded as successful – struggled to make ends meet.

He said it cost $99 to rent a box at Flemington, which meant even trainers at our most prestigious track were scrambling.

“They are working poor in a rich industry,” he said, adding many trainers should accept they cannot make a living running their own business and go work for wages.

“Then they’ll at least get some lifestyle; a set amount of hours per week and some semblance of a family life,” he said.

The Flemington trainer and Nicholls agreed there were almost certainly too many trainers in Victoria. Nicholls said it was now more difficult to gain a licence than in previous times.

Nicholls said 87 per cent of Victorian stake money was taken by the top 100 trainers and he said a large percentage of that had been distributed among the top four trainers; Darren Weir, Team Hayes and Mick Price.

He said the automatic replacement of Weir with the expanded Ciaron Maher/Dave Eustace stable meant there would be minimal trickle down to trainers who needed it.

“We are hoping against hope that the removal of Weir will create a more even spread but all that seems to have happened is that most of his 600 horses have been distributed to the mega-trainers just below him,” he said.

Nicholl said Victoria’s spectacular stake money levels did not assist the trainers that most needed it. He said desperation among trainers created an environment where some still “pushed the envelope” despite stiff penalties for breaches of the rules.

Nicholl said this year was crucial in a three-year plan mapped out by the ATA and Racing Victoria.

“The first two years were about increasing stake money and this year the focus has to be about how best to distribute it, how to shave costs that affect all trainers,” he said.

 

BY: Matt Stewart RSN Racing Editor

Goes out a winner.
Bendigo R7

Clearly they are not charging enough.

At the risk of boring you we had horses at Epsom in Melbourne, then spent 20 years in Canberra, 18 in Wangaratta, and are now in Bendigo.  With horses in work at all these places, chatting and socializing with trainers.

Second Chance wrote: $99 to rent a box at Flemington. What period of time does that cover?

Would be a week. $10/day in lots of better metro tracks

Open to goers?? What do you mean?

Naivity can cause that as well if your gullible enough or mix with wrong crowd , one golden rule when starting off imo is never undervalue yourself , don't worry about the good horse, find the Good client before, Don't hang on to Slow horses or you will sink to their level, if your married make sure she has some horse knowledge lol or more money than you have, and if your in the grip of a mortgage pray that it won't go to 18% or19% ever again, learn several ways to cook bake beans and if you own a stopwatch chuck it in the river , it's a waste of money.

I heard Heathcote is partnering with Chris Anderson. Maybe a lifestyle thing for heathcote. Partnerships are growing and might be a good way to tackle the increased pressure for trainers

The fact than many trainers have ill-bred stock or that more than a few get stiffed for training fees doesn't come into the poverty equation?

Second Chance wrote: The fact than many trainers have ill-bred stock or that more than a few get stiffed for training fees doesn't come into the poverty equation?

Two variables that are well within the trainers control.

Carioca wrote: Naivity can cause that as well if your gullible enough or mix with wrong crowd , one golden rule when starting off imo is never undervalue yourself , don't worry about the good horse, find the Good client before, Don't hang on to Slow horses or you will sink to their level, if your married make sure she has some horse knowledge lol or more money than you have, and if your in the grip of a mortgage pray that it won't go to 18% or19% ever again, learn several ways to cook bake beans and if you own a stopwatch chuck it in the river , it's a waste of money.

Well described .       > For the inexperienced re Training,One has
to wonder where all the money comes from, to finance these crazy $10 million races.   Increased take from the Punters Pool, isn't finding it's way to the right places, it would appear.

Second Chance wrote: How do small to medium sized trainers get hold of a stable of well bred stock? As for debt recovery, try telling that to the majority of trainers with the arss out of their pants.