Matthew Dale has joined the exodus of trainers from Canberra and will start work from his new base of Goulburn this weekend.
Dale’s departure follows that of Luke Pepper , who relocated his operation from the nation’s capital to Scone earlier this year before talented horseman Nick Oliver followed suite, moving from Canberra to Queanbeyan in October.
The Greens, which have publicly declared their opposition to horse racing, are doing the local industry no favours, and combined with the increasing costs of workers’ compensation in the ACT, along with Canberra horses being disadvantaged under the Highway Handicap balloting system, Dale says he has little choice but to relocate.
He will officially move his business, including his string of horses, to the nearby NSW town of Goulburn this weekend.
“We’ve got on-course stabling there and we have also set up a spelling and pre-training operation right on the edge of Goulburn,” Dale told Sky Racing radio.
“It has been brewing over the last 12 months and this weekend the horses move and they will all have Goulburn next to their name from this weekend.”
Dale has been training out of Canberra for close to 20 years and while he didn’t want to leave, he felt he had little choice.
“I never wanted to move from Canberra but just the sustainability of training out of Canberra – as most people are well aware we were put to the bottom of the ballot in the Highways and extra insurance costs to train out of here – those two things combined make it unsustainable.”
Dale pointed to this Saturday’s Highway Handicap (1500m) at Rosehill as a prime example of his frustrations.
He paid up for two horses, Golden Gorge and Secretively, who with benchmarks of 76 and 72 respectively are the highest-rated horses in the field.
However, with Canberra-trained horses relegated to the bottom of the ballot, both were made reserves, Dale admitting “programming horses has just been a nightmare”.
“My two Highway runners this week would have been numbers one and two and they’re fifth and sixth emergencies,” Dale said.
Dale also has a property at Moruya on the NSW south coast where his horses can work on the beach and will retain that facility to complement his Goulburn operation.
