By MIKE DILLON
Think of Keith Hawtin and you can't help imagining a cigarette.
A fag is rarely far away.
But that was until yesterday.
At last night's Racing Writers' black tie dinner Hawtin smoked what he swears is his last cigarette.
That is because, he says, the pressure has come off. The pressure of winning his first trainers' premiership in partnership with Graeme Rogerson.
"I told everyone two months ago, at the time we got serious about having a crack at the premiership, that I would have my last smoke on the last day of the racing season."
On the surface Hawtin has always been unflappable, a pleasure to deal with, but he talks a lot about pressure. It made him take up smoking again a couple of years ago.
"There is no denying that training a big team is pressure. When you have 80 horses in work and 99 per cent of them are running down the track and you have to ring the owners and explain what happened, that's pressure.
"If you have 20 horses and you are only racing four a month, that's a lot less owners to ring and a lot less pressure."
Diagnosis of a heart problem a few years ago got Hawtin off the smokes originally, and these days he tries to take things easily.
But that's almost impossible. Don't make the mistake of thinking it is uncomplicated to set yourself to win the New Zealand trainers' premiership.
A major factor in this win is that, unquestionably of all of New Zealand's training establishments, no one has put together a better overall team and been able to maintain that team better than Graeme Rogerson.
If Rogerson is remembered for only one factor, it will be that.
"Alongside both Graeme and I are my son Brendon, former jockey Ali Robinson, Ray Peterson and Gail Patterson, all trainers in their own right," said Hawtin.
"And we've got another team doing the pre-training of 20 horses in another part of the complex.
"The whole exercise is about teamwork."
Hawtin is not sure what the next 10 years holds. His main focus is on promoting his son, who Graeme Rogerson has indicated he will take into partnership within the next 18 months.
"Everything I do now is for Brendon.
"It's been suggested that once Brendon goes into partnership with Graeme, I might do a year up in Graeme's stable in Dubai."
Because he values himself as a team member, Hawtin says he has avoided setting himself goals.
"Graeme has been the goal-setter and I've helped him achieve those goals.
"If I went out training on my own I'd set my own goals.
"At the moment I'm happy just training more winners.
"I love the horse as an animal and I'm happy with that."
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