The move is on … destination Pakenham!
The latest chapter in the Meagher family racing history is underway with Dan Meagher returning to Australia, not without a touch of sadness after the closure of racing in Singapore, and Chris Meagher picking up stumps in Brisbane, after spending the last three years in the Sunshine State, with the brothers both about to head for their new base at Pakenham.
The curtain came down on racing in Singapore on October 5, where Dan Meagher signed off with a close-up second place finish from one of his stable star’s Lim’s Saltoro in the Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup, and Chris Meagher also bowed out of Brisbane with the runner-up finish of Tambourine Man in a mid-week meeting at Doomben … two vastly different settings, but with both results bringing a pause to the Meagher racing action before the ushering in of a new era for a family name so richly entrenched in racing history.
“My horses will go leave Brisbane next Thursday. They’ll go down and get there on Saturday,” said Chris Meagher. “There will be five going down … all of the others have gone to the paddock or gone elsewhere.
“Dan had six horses in quarantine yesterday and he had four in there already. They’ll be two weeks in quarantine there and two weeks at Melbourne … and then I think they are probably going to go to the paddock until they start up again,” added Meagher, for whom a move is certainly not a new experience.
“I’ve been in Brisbane three years this stint,” offered Meagher. “I came here in 2012 with my old man (Melbourne Cup winning trainer John Meagher) and brother. Then, in 2017, I went back to Singapore with Daniel … and then I came back in about six months time and ran two stables. Then I left Melbourne in 2021 … and I’m been in Brisbane from then until now.
“Every three or four years I seem to move, but I think that is good mentally. Going somewhere new … learning something new … doing the same thing in the same surroundings everyday just gets a bit monotonous after a while. I do believe a change is as good as a holiday.
“I’ll be instrumental in setting up the new stable, but I’ll also be waiting for Dan to arrive before we decide certain things. I’ll be right down there and right into it whereas Dan will take a little break … probably only a week … then he’s going to New Zealand for the Ready-To-Runs, and then he will be straight back to set up late in November.
“We’ve got a fair bit of experience and, if we put two heads together, I’m sure we’ll come up with the right answers. We shouldn’t have any major issues that’s for sure.
“We honestly haven’t worked out the finer points of just how we will set the business up yet. We’ve spoken about it a fair bit.
“Obviously I am going down on a visiting trainer’s license initially. Dan will have his license probably late November … and then we’ll decide whether we go into a training partnership, or whether I work as his assistant … or whether we both take out our separate licenses and train under one roof basically.”
By coincidence, in terms of the timing, Chris Meagher’s stable apprentice Melea Castle comes out of her time on Saturday, and she too will be heading down south for a change of scenery, in the short term at least.
“She’s probably a little bit like us … looking for a change,” said Meagher. “It’s Spring Carnival time. Even though we won’t be competing it’s a good time to be down there, learning, seeing different tracks, meeting different people … so I think it do her the world of good.
“Fair to say, I think we are both pretty much looking forward to it.”
