A reminder of back home has helped convince Kiwi’s Emma-Lee and David Browne of a relocation to Pakenham for the new racing season.
The New Zealand couple made their move permanent in the middle of 2022 and originally set up base at Cranbourne, but a change of lifestyle and the clubs new rise training track sealed the deal.
“We went for a look around the Pakenham track and I was very taken by it, the facilities are super,” Emma-Lee Browne said, who trains in partnership with husband David.
“They key one for us is the new rise track they’ve put up the back is almost identical to what we had in New Zealand.
“We put in a straight track like this at the bottom of the hill with a gentle rise and as soon as we saw that here we thought it would be so nice to have that again, so that’s what got us over the line.”
The Browne’s have acquired 20 boxes on course with a walker and treadmill and have moved the family to a property which can spell horses just outside Nar Nar Goon.
“We had been looking for a bit of land to have more space,” Browne explained.
“We’ve always lived on a farm and while it’s been a bit of a novelty living in Cranbourne in a town house the whole time we thought we’d just start there.”
The Browne’s trained their first winner from the new venue on Monday when Aseventy Seven saluted at Pakenham and are hoping their young horses can step up this spring in what’s been a changing of the guard for the stable and clientele.
“Losing Elephant to injury was a bit of a step back for us but we are lucky we’ve got nice horses and owners and hopefully we can kick off in the spring pretty strong,” Browne said.
“We’ve got some exciting ones coming through, a couple of our three-year-olds have stepped up at jump outs and will kick off in the next couple of weeks.
“We’ve picked up some good Australian owners and some bought into the horses we bought over and we’re start to build a relationship with syndicators too.”
One of those horses will carry the stables tradition of names in Zebra, while another fan favourite Rhinoceros is close to a return after two jump outs.
“We gelded him last year and that definitely knocked him around,” said Browne.
“He is doing really well and the horses seem to be thriving since we made the move, they love the new set up so hopefully he can get us off to a good start.”
