Harness trainers Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin swap camps for thoroughbred racing project
If you cannot beat them, then join them is the mantra harness trainers Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin have taken on board as they expand their operation to include thoroughbreds.
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Powerhouse harness trainers Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin have dropped a career bombshell on the eve of the comeback of one of their best pacers, Poster Boy.
After dominating Victoria and many of Australia’s major races for the past decade, Stewart and Tonkin are well advanced in plans to branch into thoroughbred racing.
Harness fans need not panic, the pair will continue training pacers and trotters, but just scale back over a period of time to split their future business between harness and thoroughbreds.
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Tonkin revealed they recently partnered with a few clients, most notably high-profile owner Justin Baker, to buy a large chunk of land neighbouring their harness property at Cardigan, near Ballarat.
“It’ll be a pre-training centre for thoroughbreds,” he said. “It’s a huge set-up, we’re pouring millions of dollars into it. It’ll be awesome and, hopefully, be operating by about July.”
It’s an astute long-range plan with Ballarat continue to grow rapidly as a training base for thoroughbreds and opportunities increasingly for pre-trainers.
“It’s about building a sustainable future and finding a way we don’t have to work as crazily hard as we do now,” Tonkin said.
“Don’t get me wrong, harness has been great to us, but we can’t keep going long term with so many horses and working these hours for the returns we get.
“We will keep training the pacers and trotters, but just not with the huge numbers we’ve got now.
“We’re really excited about the pre-training set-up and the early support we’re getting for it has been fantastic.”
On the harness front, stable star Poster Boy returns from almost a year out, after cheating death with pneumonia and some other tendon issues, at Melton on Saturday night.
“He got so sick, it was touch-and-go for a while, then when we pulled through that we found some issues with the tendons around a foot and had to rehab him for four months,” Tonkin said.
The stable’s other brightest star, Ride High, is also close to a return after a throat operation.
“It’ll be great to have him back, too. I think he’s our best horse, a bit of a freak really, while Emma (Stewart) thinks Poster Boy is our best. Hopefully they both comeback well and we get to find out,” Tonkin said.
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