Racing: NZ gallops fast becoming feeder industry

Hastings trainer John Bary says the NZ gallops industry is fast becoming a supplier of goods and services overseas. PHOTO/FILE

New Zealand is in danger of becoming an assembly line for horses, jockeys and trainers, if it already isn't one already, according to John Bary.

"We are just a factory to make the good ones and then they just go whether they are jockeys, trainers, horses or whatever," says the Hastings trainer after Taranaki counterpart Allan Sharrock indicated last month he was jetting off to greener pastures in Australia in search of lucrative prize money.

"We'll always send our horsemen overseas because they need to go there to make good money as a trainer or a jockey," says Bary, adding traditionally protagonists have had to sell quality horses to survive in New Zealand.

"We don't have the population and we don't have government support.

"Until we get government support and it realises this is an industry that does as much for the GDP as what winery and fishery does otherwise we're in trouble," he says.

"They're not willing to help so we're just having to fight our way through it but you just can't blame a guy like Sharrock wanting to go overseas and do well."

Cambridge trainer Andrew Forsman, who co-trains with Murray Baker, echoes Bary's sentiments.

"It's a little bit disappointing the way the racing board employed more staff and incurred more cost with less return to the industry," says Forsman.

"The people at the coalface who are providing the product are getting nothing with people creaming money off the top so that's really frustrating, you know, for the people who stump up from the property owners, the trainers, the staff and everyone else who puts it in with no returns.

"It's only natural [the exodus] people who have to look after themselves and if they put in a lot of hard work for no returns it's a no brainer if there's options to [Australia] or anywhere else you've got to look at it," says Forsman whose horse, Bonneval, won the $70,000 Little Avondale Lowlands Stakes feature race on Thursday.

Bary believes Sharrock is in the process of trying to find the right stables before making his move across the ditch.

"You've got to remember Allan's done everything you can do in New Zealand so he has nothing left to prove," he says, suspecting Sharrock is exploring new horizons that offer bigger prize money.

Sharrock, he says, has built a rapport with faithful owners for a long time.

"I think they have indicated to him let's go over there where we can run for some real money."

Bary says a lot of trainers who have intentions of making that transition will be doing it regardless.

He knows Kiwi counterparts, such as Trent Busuttin and Bjorn Baker, who have gone to ply their trade successfully but also is aware of others who haven't done as well, including jockeys.

The group 3 Thursday race in Hastings would normally have been on a Saturday but he saw merit in Hawke's Bay Racing moving the feature race to a mid-week meeting to entice some good jockeys.

"That's great, with a minimum of $10,000 races, but it's a start and a small start but we need to race with $40,000 to $50,000 minimum on a Saturday so if you win one of those you can cover your training costs to go forward."

It's $20,000 on a standard Saturday now at best, barring the big race days at elite venues such as Ellerslie, Auckland, and Trentham, Wellington, for a 65 to 75 rating horse.

"It's very tough to try to entice owners into racing. Why would they want to?

"I've got owners who have been racing for 30 to 50 years, a couple of them, and they have indicated when their horses are done they're out and that is sad.

"It's really sad because it's a blight on the industry," laments Bary.