There is an air of uncertainty as to when racing will return to New Zealand tracks as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, leading South Island trainer Michael Pitman has a clear picture of what it should look like upon its return.
“We might have to race for a bag of peanuts, but we would have to have open entry penalty-free racing just to get racing back on the agenda. That’s the main thing,” Pitman said.
“We could be racing over 800m and 1000m for $2,000, but it needs to be penalty-free.”
Pitman, who trains more than 60 horses in partnership with his son Matthew, admits that he is a little bit frustrated watching racing continue in Australia during New Zealand’s Level 4 lockdown, but he hopes these measures will help quicken the return to racing.
“If they are out for a month it should only take about six weeks for horses to be fit enough to be competitive. In a perfect world I can see racing returning around July,” he said.
Pitman is lamenting what could have been this season, with his team set to fire over the coming months.
The Pitmans currently sit fourth on the New Zealand Trainers’ Premiership, with 42 wins, and Pitman felt they were in line to quickly add to that tally.
“The hardest thing is we were targeting autumn racing with most of our team,” he said.
“We had won 13 races in the last four weeks prior to the shutdown, so we have got a lot of last start winners in the team and unfortunately the game has been shut down.”
Along with penalty-free racing, Pitman also believes the industry should focus on isolating racing to three major hubs in order to fast-track the return of racing.
“We could have measures in place where races were undertaken at Matamata for Waikato-trained horses, Awapuni for Central Districts horses, and Riccarton for horses down here (South Island),” Pitman said.
Pitman has turned out his entire 60-strong team and said he is lucky that he has his Yaldhurst property as well as his stables at Riccarton Park in these times.
“Fortunately we run two stables and we are running them independent from each other,” he said.
“I have still got the ability to work horses at home, but because of what has happened we have given all of our horses two weeks off and then we are looking to start lightly working them again in the hope that racing does kick-off around July.”
Pitman said it’s the toughest time the racing industry has faced in his time training, but he is looking to Australia’s recovery from Equine Influenza as a beacon of hope.
“I have 60-odd horses on the books, a dozen staff, and 150 owners. It’s the biggest challenge I have faced in my time in training.
“But you look across the Tasman, and EI (Equine Influenza) affected horses more than people and yet they came back after a four or five month break and look how strong Sydney and Melbourne racing is now.”
While he is facing uncertain times ahead, Pitman is looking positively towards the future and is hoping a plan to take a trio of his stable runners north to compete for North Island spoils in spring comes to fruition.
“We have put a lot of the horses out who don’t like wet tracks, including Son Of Maher, Enzo’s Lad and Sensei,” Pitman said.
“They have gone out for a spell and they will come back in around June or July to get them up and going for racing in Waikato and Hawke’s Bay.”
