LEAD STORY - RACING: Trainer with plenty of heart

ANENDRA SINGH
IN A hectic business schedule, it can be challenging to find time for pleasure.
Like the seasonal influenza, procrastination starts creeping in every time matters come to a head.
About this time last year Waipukurau horse trainer Kirsty Lawrence and then fiance, Steve, were finding it difficult to tie the knot.
``We had struggled to get sorted out and had put it off several times with lots of excuses,' Lawrence tells SportToday.
So when the opportunity arose on New Year's Day Lawrence's message to Steve left no room for ambiguity: ``Commit to this date or you will be scratched, buster!'
Steve showed up and the couple were blissfully married at the New Year's Day races at the Hawke's Bay Racecourse, in Hastings, in the parade ring before the punters got into a great day of racing.
But Lawrence is pretty fresh in the game. While her affinity of the equine kind can be traced back to her childhood, she has only been training horses for the past three seasons.
But don't mistake that freshness for a lack of know-how. She started out by reschooling racehorses off the track. When they reach the twilight of their careers, she also grooms them as show and dressage horses.
``I like to produce my racehorses to have good mouths so that they can go on after their racing careers and have another life. All my horses work on the arena and do dressage work as part of their training which helps with the balance required for racing and also adds in strengthening their muscles.'
She adds sport horses to her repertoire and is in the process of breaking several warmbloods destined for dressage careers.
Lawrence is a quick learner and is not averse to any suggestions that would improve her lot.
Retired Auckland trainer Colin Jillings, an ``amazing man and a great horseman', once told her: ``Enjoy the ups but be nice on the way up because you'll meet the same people on the way down.'
Lawrence's approach to training is simple. She metamorphoses into a kitchen sponge, soaking up information but using it to suit her requirements.
``You learn something new everyday as horses are different,' says the mother of 2-year-old Jessica and 13-year-old stepson Chris who breaks and pre-trains horses for herself and syndicates.
The former Hastings information technology worker took up fulltime training after her daughter was born. In between she also helps her parents, Charlie and Jacqui Hutchison, run their business, Homespun Horspital, in Waipukurau.
``I am living the dream. I was given the opportunity to run the Homespun Horspital as a complimentary part to training,' she says, tending to sick and recuperating horses with the blessing of veterinarians.
The purpose-built Horspital is a godsend. With the accessibility to several kilometres of closed roads, riverbanks, hills and the Waipukurau track she is able to offer a variable exercise programme to the horses.
She picks up horses many would probably not touch. Three-year-old colt Just Onemore, is a classic example. Nicknamed Zac, the horse was bought for $500 at the Cambridge Thoroughbred Lodge Sale in Wanganui.
To date Just Onemore has had nine starts for two wins, a second placing, three thirds, a fourth and a fifth, earning $30,900 and will race on New Year's Day in Hastings.
Lawrence says a few unlucky starts in premier races haven't helped their cause.
``Zac was gangly and I spent a year working him before he did any racing. He was trailing by six lengths and won [the $30,000 Te Rapa race on July 26].'
As races do not suit Just Onemore in Waipukurau, Lawrence has to take him to other meetings around the country.
Taking on horses one-to-one is pivotal for the trainer but her permit only enables her to train no more than six at any one time.
She feels the difference between trainers such as her and public trainers, who can train as many as they wish and for anyone, boils down to the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing licence fees.
``The rules of racing is a blooming 500-page document, then there's the vet side with drugs and also placing horses,' she says.
Employing anyone else to carry her workload will be a clear indicator that she is biting off more than she can chew and unfair to the horses who, she believes, require attention to detail.
``I can go to the paddock and tell you what a horse did yesterday,' says the woman who was into showjumping as a child.
Riding her own trackwork, akin to fellow Waipukurau trainers Kelly Burne and Penny Ebbett, makes them a rare species. Palmerston North trainer Lisa Latta for instance, she says, doesn't but there are advantages in what they are doing.
``I can go half way around a track and if I think things don't feel right I'll change and adjust,' says Lawrence, who has had no formal training as a jockey because she is too heavy.
The biggest thing for any trainer, Lawrence says, is to brace themselves for disappointments.
Visionary, for example, broke a knee recently and had to be retired and had eventually gone to stud.
``He was promising four years ago but it's all over now.'
It rankles with her that legendary Australian horse trainer, Bart Cummings, ``a freak', wasn't humble when his horse won the Melbourne Cup last month.
``It was just another race for him. The strike rate was not enough so he was disappointed. Oh, please!'
Lawrence is proud of the Waipukurau racecourse, which is irrigated and has a good set-up.
``I couldn't do it all without the support of owners and breeders and a great group of owners who are passionate about racing.
``The success of Just Onemore has attracted several new owners and the syndication of the new Postponed colt, Flash, has been filling quickly with local people, including several first-time owners,' says Lawrence, adding people in the syndicate are self-employed and simply wanting a break away from their businesses to enjoy the flutter of racing.