Trainer exodus has Canberra Racing in crisis

Matthew Dale, Luke Pepper, Joseph Ible and Doug Gorrel are part of a growing list of Canberra trainers who have left or are in the process of leaving the capital.

Even the iconic Joseph and Jones Racing were looking at winding down their Canberra operations to make their satellite Sapphire Coast stable their primary base.

It's mostly due to the rising cost of workers compensation insurance and a lack of access to the lucrative Highway Handicap series, but the deterioration of the synthetic Acton track was also part of the problem.

Canberra's biggest trainers face workers comp bills of more than $90,000, which they can slash down to about $3000 simply by moving across the border to NSW.

That's due to several factors, including unlimited liability in the ACT - it's capped in NSW - the smaller pool size of workers in Canberra and the fact Racing NSW subsidise the insurance cost of their trainers.

With trainers getting 10 per cent of prizemoney, that means those in Canberra need to win up to $900,000 more just to cover their insurance bill.

They're also struggling to attract horses to their stables because they're largely missing out on the Highway races in Sydney.

Racing NSW gives priority to NSW-based horses for the series, which offers $100,000 in prizemoney almost every week in the Harbour City.

Canberra trainers can't count on getting a run as they're regularly balloted out of the field.

Dale's already moved his family to Goulburn and was just waiting on council approval to start building stables at the track there.

He said he'd never pictured himself training anywhere else, but he faced a choice of having to stop training or move interstate.

His insurance bill will drop from about $80,000-$90,000 down to about $3000.

"The workers comp and the issues with not being in Highway races have been an issue for many years now," Dale said.

"It's been a slow death that if these things weren't rectified it was going to be very quickly unviable to continue training in Canberra."

Pepper moved to Scone a month ago and estimated he was instantly $35,000 better off.

He started his racing career in Canberra as a 16-year-old and didn't want to move, but instantly had more owners offering him horses to train.

Gorrel's moving to his home town of Wagga Wagga next Saturday, while Ible shifted to Kembla Grange last year.

Jones said they normally based most of their horses at Canberra, with fewer at the Sapphire Coast, but they were looking at switching that around - which would obviously lead to job losses in the ACT.

While the insurance and Highway issues were problems, Gorrel said the condition of the Acton track was a bigger concern for him.

It's been out of action all winter and needed to be replaced, with rocks now throughout the surface.

"The Canberra track is the big issue. That synthetic needs to be ripped up and replaced with a new artificial track," Gorrel said.

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"It's next to useless now ... so the big thing is the track, but certainly the Highways and the workers comp [were issues]. It's just unattractive to train at Canberra."

Canberra Racing acting chief executive Matt Kolek admitted they were facing an uphill battle, but were doing everything they could to help the trainers.

They offer a $200 subsidy for every Canberra-based horse that runs at the track, which could equate to about $10,000-$12,000 per year, but they were unable to offer any more.

Kolek said they were doing everything they could to fix the Acton track.

He said they would continue to work with the government to ensure the long-term viability of Canberra racing.

"It's a major concern for the club. We want to do everything we can to support the trainers as best we can," Kolek said.

"We are obviously in discussions with the ACT government with the best way we can do that.

"Given time we hope we can get to a point where we can help them as much as we can.

"We'd like to think the industry would continue in Canberra. There are some significant challenges currently, but we're looking at working with the government to come up with a solution where we've got a much better, viable, stable industry in the ACT."

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