By DAVID NAGEL
CRANBOURNE trainer Robbie Laing was once considered the best jumps trainer in Australia.
But don’t be fooled – he’s never been just a one-trick pony.
Laing’s growing reputation as a big-race player was enhanced on Saturday, when his bargain buy stayer Polanski upstaged racing royalty with a runaway win in the time-honoured $1.5million Group 1 AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington.
It was the 54-year-old’s biggest win in racing and confirmed his switch in training philosophy … from quantity to quality … was indeed a masterstroke of a decision to make.
“I won every major jumping race in Australia, but I definitely sacrificed my own career to be the number one jumps trainer,” Laing said at track-work on Wednesday.
“Jumps racing was teetering when I came in– Jim Houlahan was 90 and Eric Musgrove was basically carrying the sport, I got behind it so the fields could stay up.
“Horses like Sir Pentire, Mazzacano, Hasta Manana, Manzeal and Busby Glenn had success and were plastered all over the paper … and I was dubbed a jumps trainer. I remember going to Warrnambool with 28 runners and I’d still have 10 at home.”
Laing still has his hands full when he arrives at the track at 4am each morning, but the transformation of his team makes getting out of bed just that little bit easier.
“Have a look at the autumn of last year, I had five horses to break in, Direct Charge, Lord of the Sky, Dark Thunder, New York Rain and of course Polanski, they’ve all won, they’re all city class, and when you add up their prize money they’ve won over $1.5 million,” Laing says with the hint of giggle and a cheeky grin … but still no tears.
“I surprised myself after the race,” he said.
“My mates are all knock-about blokes and they’ve seen trainers like Peter Snowden, Chris Waller and even Mick Price, in tears after these big races, and they threatened that if I ever sooked up after winning a big one, they’d put me in a headlock.
“I must have had that in the back of (my) mind, because I kept my composure well.”
Laing said he was extremely confident heading into the big race and that confidence grew as the race unfolded.
“The fact the horse had trained on so well from his win in the Norman Robinson and the fact we didn’t have to go interstate like the other contenders was a plus,” he said.
“He’d won at Flemington, he drew barrier one, we had Hugh Bowman on board and his blood count was perfect, you could see your face in his skin he was so well.
“He began slowly but half a mile later it was perfect because there was a lot of false pace in the race, my bloke was all by himself and there was a long way back to the favourites. They got within a length at the 400 but he hadn’t gone for my bloke yet, at the clock-tower he just gapped them.”
And his plans for the future?
“He’s a serious horse, it won’t stop here,” he said.
“Hughie said he’ll measure up as a weight-for-age horse in the autumn and he might win you a Caulfield Cup or a Cox Plate in the spring.”
This is no one-trick pony. For more on Polanski’s big win, turn to Sport.
