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| Staff Writer |
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If you asked most racing fans in the Northern Hemisphere to name five Australian racehorse trainers, it is doubtful whether Mick Price would be on that list, not because he is not one of their greatest ever trainers, particularly with the younger horses, but because he doesn’t get the exposure that the new modern breed of trainers Chris Waller, James Cummings and the Maher/Eustace team do. Son of a Melbourne bookmaker, Price was one of nine children who “grew up at the races” and he loved the horses.
“I always wanted to be an employer always wanted to run my own business and I had to sort of pull my head in there for a while, but I did a thorough training apprenticeship because I thought, I'm just so dumb, and I'm not getting it. Towards the last two or three years, the light went on. I remember saying to my beautiful father, I said, I will be a good horse trainer,” says Price.
The now retired Lankan Rupee won eleven of his twenty-nine races including five Group One’s of which the Newmarket Handicap, the TJ Smith and the Manikato Stakes were all over 1200m. That is the distance of The Everest and shows that Price is more than capable of preparing a sprinter for the big day. He is currently in charge of Group One winning mare Odeum and the five-year-old gelding I’m Thunderstruck who is a dual Group 1 winner, most recently the Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington. The man knows what he is doing and is in a training partnership with Michael Kent Jnr from their training stables at Cranbourne and Warrnambool. Let’s hear from Mick now.
Mick Price trainer of Jacquinot is half of the famous Price Kent Racing partnership who are having so much success. With The Everest approaching it’s sixth running what did Price think when he first heard about this unorthodox race, and what are his thoughts now nearly six years later?
“I'll tell you what the number one thought was, this is an interesting concept. And you know the man behind it all in Australia, don’t you? He is a big-time player over here, Peter V’landys.
“I think Peter has got “the biggest set” in Australian racing admin! He could do racing admin anywhere in the world and he actually does the NRL too I don't know how they let him do that, but anyway, he also does a good job there.”
Price continues, “I think they got the idea from America and it has become a colossal race aimed at a sort of resurgence in the whole racing market in Australia and that is what V’landys is all about, he wants to appeal to a younger audience and make the whole race day an experience designed around what they want. If you go to the races and you're going into members, it's like God's waiting room in there, that is not what they want, we want more relaxed racing. We want the people to come and enjoy and embrace the whole occasion.
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“You know, the whole basis of how horse racing used to be was when a few farmers said, we work hard all week, we're going down to the paddocks, we're going to have a few beers, and we're going to run our horses. And I think that people have lost sight of the enjoyment of racing. You know, you try and get in the races in Australia sometimes and there's someone on a gate saying no because you don’t conform. The Everest was a sensational idea and if the if the constitution of Racing Australia wasn't broken, this would be a Group 1 race by now. Once it is fixed and that happens, the whole world will recognize it in a moment.”
“The race is for a ton of cash and that's why it's attracting these topflight horses, trainers, jockeys, owners and slot holders. That makes for a lot of fun. I believe the race is good because it should attract colts. I mean, we get a lot of geldings in this country, but I like my colts and we have a barn full of colts and I love to keep colts. I've sent a lot of colts on to stud. I’m 100% a horse trainer and I enjoy getting up in the morning, I enjoy the challenge of the colts. Any trainer can just go and “wop the nuts off” but there is a skill to turn an AUD$60,000 colt into a million dollar one.”
So, what of Jacquinot? How proud are you of him and the team? “I am a total optimist, and I hate negativity. I hate people telling me, I can't do something. When I get these colts, I have got a red folder there in the office and it starts off in the spring with probably 25 horses in it. Everything's timed per week, to culminate in these better races. I mean, you know, we're two months into the spring, and I'll probably bowl five or six horses out of that red folder for varying reasons, and I can be wrong, that's fine. But you know what, I saw that Golden Rose, I saw 1400 meters. I saw how difficult it was to win. But I didn't quite measure the improvement from that horse from his two-year-old year to three. But it's too late to measure it after the event. If you're an optimist you say what are the races I want to win, what are the races I think I can win? That horse went through as a yearling, he was unloved, unwanted?”
On the sale, he says “I don't know if he even got a bid. But Lindsay Maxsted is a really good owner, and he is actually chairman of Coolmore. He has got a good feel for the industry. He said, Mick, this is my family. I love this family and I'm not going to give this horse away. Nobody wanted him at the sale including me. He asked me and I said Lindsay, whatever you do get rid of this thing. He walked out of his box. He was tired. He was a bit close to the hocks and was loose walking. He was light-framed, and he just didn't belong in that sale. Had they waited until March and put him through another sale he would have been a lot better, but in the context of the Magic Millions sale, he got lost. But fair play to Lindsay he just said I'm keeping this horse would you like to train him, so I said I'd love to.”
How did the partnership with Michael come about? What does he bring to the table? And how do you guys balance each other out?
“Well, I'm 63 and he's 31 and he is a good fit young man. I saw him in Newmarket riding a horse when I was over there. I went on a yearling week, and he was there, he was quiet, but I thought he soaked in a lot of information and he's intelligent and very well educated. When I needed to re-jig and re-manage my whole business on moving to Cranbourne, I pulled him aside and said to him listen, do you want to be a horse trainer? If you do? Come back tomorrow, and we'll talk if you don't then good luck. He came back the next day! He's a very good organizer he's good behind the scenes and good with horses. Being able to not have to do the background stuff, the organising of the movements, the transport, etc. is great I can concentrate on the vet, the farrier, the work riders, the horses, the jockeys, the races and spend time with the horses all day. And, you know, it's just superb to be able to spend the time and train your horses.”
So, what will the agenda be for Jacquinot leading up to the Everest, and if things go well, where would you like to see him race afterward? “He's a horse with a bit of a light constitution and the traditional path would have been to go to Sydney two weeks before the Golden Rose, which is the standard way to do it. But I just thought you know, this horse is clean winded, lightly fleshed, keep him bright, keep him looking for something to do. He had one soft trial and leading in he had some gallops, but this is the beauty of being able to spend time with your horses, you look you see, you watch them during the day and we knew he would explode after four weeks. At the moment he is three weeks between runs and he has had a very soft week, he's very bright and he's not going to trial. This week, I didn't work with him for three days. He went in the sand roll, had a play around and he went in the pool at Rose Hill. He went on the walker and he's really starting to bounce back. You know, he's really showing us for this one. On Saturday, I might run what they call even time here, fifteen to the furlong and then I've got two weeks to prepare him, and then he's up and galloping. I’ll shorten his work up, keep the feed right up to him and make sure he's got some bounce in him.
When you look at this field, Nature Strip, Eduardo Masked Crusader, the list goes on and on. What type of race does Jacquinot need to show him at his best?
“I need speed on the first 600 meters, I need them to attack each other. I need that because he's not a horse that begins well, he takes 50 meters to get out of the gates, then he gets his stride going, he will be rear of midfield in the race. I need him to draw out I need a momentum run. I can't afford to have a traffic run. You know, he can't stop and start. But I need the speed on, if the speed is on he can close. If the speed is not on he'll be disadvantaged. I think they're gonna have a lot of fast horses and just hopefully, they're not reading this and they all attack each other. We will see what happens in the race before deciding his future.”