Denis Pagan

Ben Dorries

AFL coaching legend Denis Pagan confesses he was hoping to have a low-key, no-fuss start to his new career as a horse trainer but realises that is probably long odds as he prepares to saddle up his first runner at Flemington on Saturday.

The 72-year-old two-time North Melbourne premiership coach knows his appearance in the training ranks will cause interest but jokes he will be trying to remain out of sight when two-year-old gelding Johnny Get Angry races at Victorian headquarters.

After serving a training apprenticeship of sorts under Troy and Leon Corstens, Pagan has been granted a training license and has half a dozen horses he will train out of Flemington from boxes sub-letted by the Corstens’.

They are all horses that Pagan owns himself – and will run in blue colours with white dots, white sleeves and a red cap that Pagan chose himself.

The AFL master coach insists he only wants a small team of horses and currently only wants to train his own horses – despite realising his public profile in Victoria will no doubt spark the interest of plenty of owners.

Pagan is keen to run his own race – so to speak – as he fulfils a desire to train horses that was sparked two years ago. 

“It is keeping me young and while I’m healthy and well and doing plenty of exercise, what else was I going to do?” Pagan said.

“I live close by to Flemington, it’s a two-minute drive in at 4am in the morning from my place to Flemington.

“I would have gone to the gym if I wasn’t going down to Flemington – but when you are going to the gym it doesn’t matter whether it is 4.45am or 5.30am as it doesn’t make any difference.

“But I know I have got to be down at Flemington by a certain time so I am in the first group.

“I keep waking up to check when my alarm is going off.

“Troy talked me into this two years ago and if it hadn’t have been for him it wouldn’t have happened – he helped me buy all my horses.

“I have already knocked some owners back but a pre-requisite of my license is I can only train for myself at this stage.

“I don’t want to be rude or anything but I’m not really into being a public trainer because I will have enough problems with my own horses at this stage of proceedings and I don’t want to be dealing with other people.”

Pagan raced horses for many years before taking the plunge into training – estimating he has owned “25 or 30” horses throughout his life.

A quick look at the form of his first runner Johnny Get Angry, which ran 13th of 14th behind Cherry Tortoni over 1420m at Flemington on June 20, might dissuade punters from thinking he has a hope as he makes his first appearance for Pagan on Saturday.

But as Johnny Get Angry races in Stakes grade in the $120,000 Listed Taj Rossi Series Final (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday, Pagan feels the gelding’s only career run to date was a forgive effort.

Having said that, he admits he will be “over the moon” if his galloper can get within three lengths of the unbeaten and highly promising Cherry Tortoni on Saturday.

“I like my horse – but he is going to be a bit more suited when he gets over 10 or 12 furlongs,” Pagan said.

“He had one run a couple of weeks ago at Flemington and was three-wide without any cover, I thought he did pretty well even though his result in the paper 13th out of 14 didn’t look any good.

“But if you watch the replay, a lot of good judges have said that it wasn’t a bad run.

“He has drawn a bit better Saturday (barrier five) and I cant see him beating Paddy Payne’s horse (Cherry Tortoni) but if he can get within three lengths of them I will be over the moon.”

Apprentice Lachlan King will ride Pagan’s first runner on Saturday.

Johnny Get Angry was posted as a $126 chance in opening markets on tab.com.au

If you want more information about Pagan's racing journey towards being a trainer, you can read Brad Waters' story which was published on Racenet in August last year by clicking HERE

Article Author

Brad Waters1:57PM, 26 August 2019