Brian Pelling, Hawthorne`s leading trainer, knows that Australia and New Zealand mean more than koala bears and kiwi birds.
After he moved to the U.S. from New Zealand in the early 1980s, Pelling would go back to his homeland and Australia to buy harness horses at bargain prices.
After the standardbreds became acclimated to American racing, Pelling reaped enormous dividends from his investments because of the substantially higher purses.
”I used to get great bargains buying horses Down Under, but I don`t anymore,” said the 47-year-old trainer-driver. ”Now, I get treated like an American. People down there woke up. Today I have to do all my buying through an agent.”
Nevertheless, Pelling has continued to import horses from New Zealand and Australia.
”It`s not so much that they have a better class of horse Down Under,”
he explained. ”It`s a case of horses here having it very hard in their 2- and 3-year-old seasons. There they go easy on younger horses. Lots of times you will see a 4- or 5-year-old with only 14 or 15 lifetime starts.
”They won`t have the bad knees and ankles that horses in this country will have at the same age, and they aren`t burned out.
”Also, sometimes horses from there will just move up because they like the style of racing here better after they`ve acclimated to the change in climate and their exposure to all the new viruses and diseases. Other times, I`ve bought horses who I thought were real good and they turned out to be nothing. They couldn`t adapt.”
Pelling has helped his own adjustment by incorporating the training techniques of New Zealand and Australia into his North American repertoire. Horses in Australia and New Zealand do training on the farm and come to the track only to race.
It`s the same with Pelling`s horses at Hawthorne. His horses make their home at his 38-acre farm in Lockport, where swimming is an integral part of the program, and are vanned to the track for races.
”The swimming is great in this winter weather,” he said. ”When it`s too cold to train them on our half-mile track on the farm, we give them extra time in the pool. It helps their lungs and their muscles, gets them off their legs and gives them variety.
”In Australia and New Zealand, all trainers swim their horses.”
Another way in which Pelling is trying to blend the best of both worlds is by playing cupid to standardbreds, importing New Zealand mares for Illinois stallions.
