Horse Racing: Cameron in shock move to Aussie

By Michael Guerin

The South Island's most successful horse trainer is turning his back on New Zealand.

Robert Cameron is relocating his training operation to Victoria next week in a move that will leave an enormous hole in the southern harness racing.

Cameron is the south's leading trainer and until last season the biggest yearling sales buyer among the southern training ranks.

He is also a former world driving champion, a member of the elite 1000 win drivers club and an icon in the industry.

But the 60-year-old says he can not stand by and watch the New Zealand industry run down any further.

"Costs keeping going up but the stakes don't and you have to ask how much longer we can stand by and watch that happen," said Cameron yesterday.

"The stakes in Australia are going up and we can't compete here. I really have to go."

Cameron will take 10 horses with him next week and be based in Melton, on a property next to leading Victorian horseman Gavin Lang, who will do the stable driving when he returns from suspension on July 1.

The move is a joint venture between Cameron and his biggest owner Kypros Kotzikas, the Christchurch fish processing millionaire who has bankrolled Cameron's resurgence in the 1990s.

"We will take 10 horses over for a start because they are all ready to race and then we will pre-train the rest in New Zealand before they come over too," Cameron said.

Those staying behind - including stable star Iraklis - will be pre-trained by Cameron's stable foreman Dennis Smolenski before heading to Victoria. It is not expected any of them will race in New Zealand beforehand.

"Basically, apart from horses we bring back for big races I can't see me lining up another horse in New Zealand."

The move comes at a time when stakes in Victoria and New South Wales are set to rise further, following significant increases in the past two years.

Racing in both states has been dramatically boosted by profits from the privatisation of their state TABs, so much so that Friday night metropolitan races at Harold Park next season are expected to have a minimum stake of $A20,000.

Cameron admits harness racing in New Zealand had been more profitable for him in recent years than most trainers.

"When Kypros and I sat down and worked it out we realised we had done OK," said Cameron.

"But for what we have spent and what we have achieved we should have done three times better financially.

"I don't know if it is the fault of administrators over here or whether the industry's problems are bigger than that. But something has to be done to compete with Australia."

Cameron's move must be particularly worrying for southern harness racing officials.

While he has only trained 16 winners this season he races his team very selectively, still has a remarkable strike rate and his horses are always well supported.

"It will be a new challenge for me and I hope we can do even better over there than we have in New Zealand," he said.

"But I don't really feel like I am leaving New Zealand. It is only three hours away and I can always come back. This is really just a business thing."

While those words will send a shiver down the spine of any harness racing official, they will also provide cold comfort for leading southern driver Ricky May, who until now was the first-choice driver for Cameron.