Hatch Arrival a Coup for Townsville Racing

A new arrival in Townsville’s training ranks is set to give northern racing its biggest boost in years.

Highly respected Toowoomba trainer Lindsay Hatch has announced plans to establish a northern base in Townsville after taking over as principal trainer for ARES Racing.

Hatch has been one of the leading trainers in the Toowoomba area for the past few seasons with a team of around 40 horses and is excited about the stable’s expansion into the north.

The 59-year-old trainer has already made a number of trips to Townsville over the past month to finalise arrangements with ARES boss John Horan and oversee changes at their Wulguru stables.

“John approached me at the track one day and asked me if I’d be interested and I didn’t think much of it. Then after a phone call a week later I started to think long and hard and could see the potential of it being a good move and here we are,” Hatch said.

“John’s been very good. He’s let me go through the horses, and recommend the ones I think are worth keeping, and get things set up here the way we want.

“You can’t do it unless you get the right people in place. It’s important you have people you can trust and who follow your protocols to a tee.

“I have two very good staff who’ll be here – Martin Haley and David Nash - and we’re well into getting things set up.

“I’ll be coming up a few times a month - doing overnighters or race meetings. I’ll do work sheets from Toowoomba and run it from my office and be talking to Marty regularly so we can’t see a problem.”

Horan said securing Hatch to take over from Chris Attard at ARES was a major boost for northern racing.

“Chris was given the opportunity to move back home to be closer to his family at Hawkesbury and he’s taken a good job with John O’Shea,” Horan said.

“His father was still pretty sick from his accident with a horse so it was a good time to go back home.

“It’s also a good opportunity for him to develop his skills – he’s still pretty young - and become an even better trainer.

“Getting someone of Lindsay’s quality to come here is great news for us. It’s the equivalent of getting someone like Wayne Bennett to come to North Queensland to be a footy coach.

“It’s great not just for our horses but for the wider industry up here.

“The new partnership gives our good horses two stables to operate from now – Townsville and Toowoomba - and an opportunity to race in SEQ and escape the hot summer. It certainly helps us place them easier along with bringing SEQ owners to North Queensland.”

While the main focus will be on ARES horses, Hatch sees an opportunity to shuttle horses from his Toowoomba stables north for suitable races.

He expects to have 12 to 14 horses in work initially but plans to race sparingly through the peak of summer and build numbers back up to over 20 by March ahead of the carnivals.

“We think it will be a good move not just for North Queensland owners but owners already with us whose horses will be better placed up here,” Hatch said.

“The QTIS money is as good here as it is in Toowoomba and the provincials down there so we’ll be looking at the right horses to ferry backwards and forwards.

“But we’ve already picked up a few new owners which is good and we’ll be trying to build that up.

“It’s unfortunate I’m here coming into the hot, tough weather. I really don’t want to have many horses in work in those really hot couple of months around Christmas.

“I don’t like racing horses in it. I’d rather send them down to Toowoomba to spell and get them ready there and then load up back here around March to get ready for the carnivals.

“We’re not here to set the world on fire. We’re here to run a business and give horses every opportunity – and don’t worry we’ll struggle for the first six to eight months to get things going.”

Pictured: ARES Racing boss John Horan (left) and leading trainer Lindsay Hatch (right) looking over their Wulguru stables.

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