Pat Duff has still got it!
“I’ve been training for just on sixty years now,” said the veteran trainer when pressed about his longevity in the game, although, the last thing he would ever want to do is talk about himself.
There was a twinkle in his eye when he offered that information, along with a cool and quiet demeanour which is the way Pat Duff always carries himself.
No fanfare … but behind that placid appearance lies a mind as sharp as any and more knowledgeable than most with regard to racing matters … which means that when he offers an opinion, it is based on great insight, and not fantasy, with its quietly spoken delivery offering a firm, but always fair, commentary on any matter at hand.
And on top of all of that … he is an absolute gentleman.
Just short of sixty years with a trainer’s license … how do you think most people would be doing at that stage of their respective training careers, if indeed they ever get to take it that far?
I’d venture to suggest … not better than Duff.
In his last twelve runners, Duff has saddled four winners from the last four successive race meetings in which he had runners. That’s a 33.3 percent strike-rate … and if you think that is too small and condensed a number of runs to sample, if you go back over Duff’s last fifty runners you will find a total of nine winners, ie an 18 percent strike rate which would do any trainer proud. (*Chris Waller’s last fifty runners have produced six winners).
Apprentice Wendy Peel has been very much part of that success riding three of those last four Duff trained winners, and five of the nine winners mentioned (and was in a nostril of a sixth win).
“Wendy is going well. She is a very capable apprentice,” said Duff … and that is no small measure of praise from a man who has mentored the likes Mick Dittman, Michael Pelling and Jim Byrne, amongst others, when they were attached to his stable as apprentices.
But, typically, Duff finds a way to deflect the spotlight when asked about his own recent run of success.
“Luck’s been my way,” said Duff, “but, that’s racing. I always say, it is like any field of gambling … when your luck is in, it is in. When it’s out, it’s out.
“Mine’s in at the moment. Let’s hope it can hold on for a while.
But there was also some words of wisdom from Duff in terms of how you can help turn your stable runners into winners.
“The man who taught me a lot about racing, Jim Sheehan, told me training them is one thing … placing them is everything. Putting them in the right races … and that’s how I try to go about things.
“I took a trainer’s licence out when I was twenty-one … because you had to be twenty-one then … and I’ve had one ever since.
“I can proudly say that I’ve never been suspended, and I’ve never been fined for any misdemeanour.”
All of the above makes the perfect role model for the youngsters in the industry.
In this day and age, the tag of a supposed role model often seems to fall on someone of high-profile with a gushing audience of fans but, so often, underneath all of that glare, the role model aura is really misplaced and misguided.
Not so with Pat Duff.
An unlikely hero maybe, but a role model he certainly is … that is, for anybody wise enough to pay attention.
