The Score: Ex-AFL coach Denis Pagan takes first step to achieving goal of becoming a horse trainer

After becoming one of the AFL’s most successful coaches in the modern era, Denis Pagan is now turning his hand to training horses.

Denis Pagan has taken the first step in his desire to become a horse trainer after being granted permission for a pre-trainer’s license.

The two-time Premiership coach with North Melbourne in 1996 and 1999 has most recently worked successfully with his son Ryan in the real estate agency after beginning his working life as an insurance clerk.

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Pagan, 71, has been a regular early-morning face at Flemington over the past nine months, working with trainer Troy Corstens who has taken him under his wing and agreed to sub-let him four boxes.

“I used to train under running coach John Toleman at Caulfield racecourse when jockey John Stocker tipped us How Now in the 1976 Caulfield Cup,” recalled Pagan.

“He got her from the outside barrier in one of the great rides to win the race and I was hooked from that day on.

“I own four horses who I can prepare to trial stage before they race under Troy Corstens name. I live up the road in Moonee Ponds and it’s a passion.

“I’m close friends with trainer John Sadler while people such as David Hayes, Tony McEvoy and Peter Snowden, have been very generous. I listen and hopefully learn.

“I’ve owned about 25 horses without much success, the best being Throw the King who won at Caulfield. My dream would be to one day train a horse that runs at Flemington.”

That could become reality in 12 months when Pagan is hopeful of gaining a training licence in his own right.

Former North Melbourne coach Denis Pagan is eyeing a career as a horse trainer.

For a young man from the small New Zealand township of Foxton, about an hour north of Wellington, meeting the Queen might just be about it for trainer Chris Waller.

Waller, 46, who arrived at Rosehill 19 years ago with little cash and a couple of maxed-out credit cards, presented Her Majesty with a racing plate from his mighty mare Winx, two weeks after the Queen received a signed copy of Winx (from our colleague Andrew Rule).

“It shows you can do it; it doesn’t matter what your bank balance is or where you’ve come from or what your experience is, anybody can do anything in life,” said Waller.

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THE WHISPER

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