36 NT NEWS. Wednesday, January 8, 2014. www.ntnews.com.au

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Favourites snareMagic draw

FAVOURITES Unencumbered and Invisible havetightened their grip on the $2millionMagic Millions2YO Classic with ideal barrier draws. Unencumberedcame upwith barrier three, while Invisible drewseven in the summer’s richest race. Unencumberedconsolidated his position as $3.80 favourite for the1200m dash over the tricky Gold Coast circuit. Invisibleis a winner at his only start and has firmed from$51when the TABmarket opened to $4.50.

Ryanwary ofmount’s attitude

CHARLIE Boy’s physical fitness heading first-up into theMagic Millions Guineas is of no concern to Gerald Ryanbut the trainer admits the colt’s mental attitude can beaworry. The Danehill Stakeswinner steps out over1400m in Saturday’s $1million race at the Gold Coast inwhat will be his first start since early October. CharlieBoy has been given two barrier trials to get him ready,themost recent on Friday, with race jockeyMichaelRodd pleasedwith his third behind Number One Gun.

Smerdon puts Cooldini to test

MELBOURNE stayer Cooldini opens a campaign aimedat the Sydney Cupwith a first-up run in the ChesterManifold Stakes at Flemington on Saturday. Cooldinihas not raced beyond 2600m, but trainer RobertSmerdon believes the four-year-old gelding is matureenough to handle the full Cup distance of 3200m. TheSydney Cup is the only other Australian Group 1 raceleft over theMelbourne Cup distance and has beengiven a prizemoney boost to $1million this year.

New faces saddle up at top of Territory racing

Terry Hooton

HORSERACING

ByDOUGBOOTH

IT’S all change at the top ofthe Territory racing tree.

Chairman of StewardsLindsay Lane will leave thepost he has held for the pasttwo decades and sail off intothe sunset into retirement.

The announcement of anew chief executive officerfor the Darwin Turf Club isimminent with acting CEO

Keith Stacy thefirm favourite ina hotly contestedfield.

Meanwhile,Alice SpringsTurf Club chief

executive Terry Hooton isleaving the club after his fouryears at the helm to be re-placed by Des Friedrich onJanuary 27.

Hooton believes racing atPioneer Park is in a healthy

state after his time in thehot seat.

He also said he had noregrets during his tenure.

‘‘I’m leaving the club ingood health and good shapeand looking for the next rangeof opportunities that comesalong,’’ Hooton said.

He believes there aretwo distinct sides to the in-dustry — the racing and thesocial side.

‘‘The big highlight is in-

creasing the horse numbersand that’s been paramount toincreasing betting turnoverand attendances and thelike,’’ he said.

Watching the developmentof young jockeys such as KirkManoukian was also pleasingfor Hooton.

Manoukian is now continu-ing his racing career on themid-North coast of NSW.

‘‘It is a good opportunity asan educational grounding for

young jockeys,’’ he said.‘‘The other highlight has

been the social aspect of rac-ing in Alice.’’

Winning the Brolga for thebest festival or major event inthe NT last year made Hootonextremely proud.

Friedrich, meanwhile,brings more than 30 years’ ex-perience to the role.

His most recent major ap-pointment was as CEO of bothThoroughbred Racing NT and

the Darwin Turf Club be-tween 2003-2010.

Before that he held a num-ber of senior roles in NewZealand racing, includinghead of the Hawke’s Bay Rac-ing Club and for the past twoyears, he served as a memberof the Board of New ZealandThoroughbred Racing.

‘‘My first Alice Springs CupCarnival will come around inno time and I am relishing thechallenge,’’ he said.

Brown’s no rough diamondHORSERACING

ByDOUGBOOTH

Leading Darwin trainer Stephen Brown keeps an eye on Tornado Jack over the Christmasperiod as he takes a dip at the swimming pool at Fannie Bay Picture: ELISE DERWIN

Brown feels comfortable mixing it with the elite trainers at Flemington Picture: ANDREW TAUBER

They are just

ordinary people like

me, trainers you

know

AT almost six feet in the oldscale, Stephen Brown is tallfor a horseman.

And the Darwin trainer,who has firmly establishedhimself at racing’s head-quarters Flemington, is deter-mined to scale fresh heightsin 2014.

He is a man on a missionand his first target for 2014 isthe Blue Diamond Stakes atCaulfield on February 22.

Brown believes two-year-old Brown Coal has the poten-tial to be a contender in theGroup 1 1200m race.

That’s why he encouragedowner John Robinson to paythe $5000 late entry fee for theBig Brown-Logans Choicecolt. But as you would expectBrown’s sole entry facesstiff opposition from the lead-ing trainers.

The premier juvenile eventhas attracted 42 nominationsfrom Gai Waterhouse, aheadof David Hayes (41) andthe Caulfield-based pair ofMick Price and Peter Moody(29 each).

‘‘John Robinson owned thehorse that beat Sea Lord onMelbourne Cup day,’’ Brownsaid. ‘‘He has only just comeback in. I have said to him(Robinson) it will be a bit of abattle to get him ready.

‘‘He is only a young horseand he had his first gallopback the other day and hewent really well.’’

Brown said Brown Coal gal-loped with eight-year-oldgelding Canali before he wentfor a spell.

‘‘It was just a time thingwhether we were going toget him back for the BlueDiamond but I thought wecould so we talked him (Rob-inson) into nominating him,’’he said.

An entry in the Blue Dia-mond would be one of the topachievements to date inBrown’s training careerwhich has taken him fromDarwin to Macau and now onto Flemington.

He admits running the stab-les in Flemington and Darwinis a pretty big job.

‘‘But I get a lot of help from

my family. Elisha has herthumb on the things herewith (daughter) Alana, so itmakes it easier and I keep ontop of things in Melbourne.

‘‘Chris Nash, Alana’s part-ner, also does a good job. Hehas come in and become partof the family the last fewmonths. But I oversee every-thing that goes on.’’

Brown, who has 20 horsesin Darwin and 35 on the booksin Melbourne, admits he stillgets butterflies and goose-bumps when one of his horsesruns at Flemington orMoonee Valley.

‘‘It’s a really good feeling. Afew years ago we would prob-ably not have thought ofdoing that,’’ he said.

‘‘We did not think we couldmix it with them. They arejust ordinary people like me,trainers you know.

‘‘I have proven that we canmix it with them.’’

Brown said Canali, who hasnow won more than $500,000in prizemoney, proved that hecould mix it with the best.

‘‘Our first crack at it wasCanali who was beaten in aphoto by Rocking Force in theSwisse Stakes on Oaks Day acouple of years ago,’’ he said.

‘‘We had him in Perth andthen we flew him over.’’

But Brown admits there arecertain things in Victoria thathe has struggled with.

‘‘It (Flemington) really isdifferent to Darwin,’’ he said.

‘‘The training is basicallythe same but the track is verykind to horses (in Darwin)and they are half-spelling allthe time because they havebig sandyards.

‘‘The grass tracks take a lotout of the horses in Mel-bourne. They don’t seem to beable to stay up as long.

‘‘It’s very hard mentally ona horse in Melbourne.

‘‘I try and get them out ofthe stable as much as I canand then bring them back butthe grass track is very hardon their legs.’’

Rubbing shoulders with thebig names in racing such asMelbourne Cup winner GaiWaterhouse and Cups KingBart Cummings comes a loteasier now for the man fromDarwin.

‘‘Gai and I are pretty goodfriends.’’ he said.

‘‘Two seasons ago whenCanali got beaten on OaksDay we rented stables off Gai,so I know her and we get onquite well.’’

Brown said getting close toBart is not as easy.

‘‘I have sat down besideBart and had a chat with himwhen we were buying Canalioff him.

‘‘He was interested in it be-cause he owned the mare andbred Canali himself.’’

Brown said he would like tospend more time in Darwin.

‘‘I would really like to getout of Melbourne for the win-ter. I would like to be in Dar-win for three months,’’ hesaid. ‘‘It’s cruel on the horsesand I don’t handle the winterthat well.

‘‘The Big Steel is back inwork. He is going to have ashort preparation and a fewruns then we are going tobring him back to Darwin forthe Cup again.’’

Brown believes training inMacau helped to establishhim in Melbourne.

‘‘It was a tough school inMacau, for sure,’’ he said.

‘‘I trained for a bloke calledChoy Ching Moon. He ownedabout 30 horses.

‘‘I was only there for threeDerbies and we won two andwe were beaten a neck in theother one.

‘‘It was a huge learningcurve and very good forour children Alanna andStephen junior.’’

And Brown’s son is keen tofollow in his father and sis-ter’s footsteps.

‘‘He is riding trackwork atFlemington,’’ he said.

‘‘He knows what he wantsto do.

‘‘He is down the stables asmuch as he can be.’’