Diane Andersen spent the best part of two decades away from training, but she is loving being back.
The Waikato horsewoman previously trained for 16 seasons before a change of career path, and she is excited to have returned to the thoroughbred industry in a full-time capacity.
“I used to train and I have been out of it for a while,” Andersen said. “I went and got an accounting degree and spent 20 years as an accountant. I got offered voluntary redundancy and it looked like a good opportunity to take up and we were in a position to put more into the horses.”
Andersen is pleased she took the leap and dived back into racing, and she has been rewarded in her first season back in the training ranks with two victories, both recorded by her homebred Jack In The Box, who doubled his winning tally in the Tribute To ‘Tony Lee’ The Legend Handicap (2100m) at Hastings on Saturday.
“I was thrilled for him because he is such an honest horse, but he is a ratbag of a horse, he owes me a few because he has ripped off about five covers off his mate in the last week. He is a hard case horse and everybody loves him,” Andersen said.
Jack In The Box took a runner-up result into his weekend assignment and Andersen’s confidence levels rose when the rain came at Hastings.
“I know he is an honest horse and I had him right,” she said. “When it rained, I was probably the only one at Hastings that was still smiling. He seems to go on any track, so it wasn’t like he needed the rain, but everything fell into his hands.”
The $350,000 carrot of the Remutaka Classic (1600m) at Trentham later this month is in the crosshairs although Andersen said it will be very competitive to gain a berth in the inaugural running of the race.
“We are just quietly looking at what else is around. There is a big race at Trentham (Remutaka Classic) and he fits the conditions for that, so we might have a look at that. No doubt there will be a lot of other horses heading for the same race.”
Andersen is enjoying working her small team of horses out of Te Rapa, which she floats to every day from her Waikato property.
“We are about half an hour away, so it is great,” she said. “It is quiet, the facilities are great, and the staff are pretty accommodating,” she said.
While enjoying being back training, Andersen is also being kept busy preparing her half-dozen draft for New Zealand Bloodstock’s Book 2 Yearling Sale, which she will offer under her Platinum Bloodstock banner.
“We are fairly new, we are just getting cranked up,” she said.
“The first year we took one to Book 3 and we topped Book 3 with him and the last couple of sales we have taken three and four yearlings, and this year we have six.”
Andersen is happy with all six of her yearlings ahead of the sale but highlighted lot 948, the Tivaci half-brother to stakes winners Sergio and Windsor, as a standout in her draft.
“There is a Tivaci colt that is a half-brother to a couple of stakes winners. He is a nice colt,” she said.
