Time for new beginnings

David Payne has seen EI up close before and is taking a softly-softly approach, writes Craig Young.

David Payne is no prophet. Just a racehorse trainer reliving the horror associated with a hideous virus known as equine influenza.

In August, when EI first struck Australia, Payne warned race players, the relevant authorities and government bodies that horse racing would be maimed, hobbled like never before.

Any racetrack EI hit would be forced into immediate lockdown. Randwick racecourse, where Payne has stables, was the first struck. Payne's EI tip amounted to at least three months without racing at headquarters.

A quarter of a year is gone in the calendar and racing finally returns to the Sydney metropolitan area this weekend. Randwick plays host to the first Sydney thoroughbred meeting in three months.

Payne recalled a three-month break in South African racing when the bug bit there but is confident the return to competition at headquarters on Saturday will not resemble that which transpired in his home land after EI had been fended off.

"We never had barrier trials [after the break in South Africa] so we used to give the horses easy runs in races," Payne recounted this week with a bit of a chuckle. "We got into a bit of trouble. A few of us, the stewards called us in, 'Hey, boys, we know the horses are sick but you don't have to be so hot [in giving them quiet runs]'."

The five Payne runners down to resume at Randwick at the weekend were part of a big team the former champion South African trainer and one-time jockey sent to barrier trials at Randwick last Friday.

"All mine trialled good the other day," he said. "We've had jump-outs, too, but I reckon barrier trials are best. You've got the colours on, a crowd, commentating, it all adds to it."

Payne has no doubt the virus which struck South Africa was more vicious than the disease which hit Australia.

"In South Africa every horse had a snotty nose, they coughed for weeks and weeks and weeks," he said. "Here we had the cough but some got it very mildly.

"It was a different strain here, some here got it more severely than others, some hardly turned a hair, some got a temperature spike a couple of times but not that high."

Varying degrees of sickness doesn't mean it has been any easier with which to deal.

"You have to start from scratch again with the horses," Payne said. "It takes a couple of months to get them up and running again.

"Horses have trialled. Some you can get away with one trial, some need two.

"You've got to let them show you how they are coping. They've all come back in good. The ones that I put back into work that coughed again were put straight back out.

"The ones that were clean-winded kept working."

Payne said the horses seemed to be over the virus but were turned back out for a spell.

"They were telling us they were not ready so we put them out," he added. "The first time [back in work] they were given a trot, a canter, and [if] they coughed, we knew they had a problem."

The South African experience has Payne believing the vast majority of thoroughbreds will return to peak form despite encountering the debilitating disease.

"I'd say 98 per cent of my horses in South Africa came back as good as new," he said. "You might have had the odd one that didn't come back. I had about 60 horses in training when it hit me and I'd say 58 turned out as good as before, they carried on. There was no after-effects."

In Australian racing's time of greatest heartbreak Payne has supplied plenty of advice. Fellow trainers from all over NSW and into Queensland have called for a bit of EI guidance.

"It was a pleasure to give a little advice," Payne said. "You just pass on what you know to your mates. We'd been through it before, we know what drugs to use ... penicillin, things like that."

And a financial burden has been once again carried by the racehorse trainers.

Payne feels "sorry for the poor owners", though, because "they've had to bear the cost of everything when you come to think of it". "Their horses were locked in," he said. "They were being charged the same amount in training fees ... you've still got to feed the buggers, exercise them.

"The government assistance did help them a bit ..."

Payne was proud to have been able to keep all his 13 full-time employees in jobs but the trainer warned loss of vital industry regulars was yet to be felt.

"I know a couple of stables cut their staff down," he said. "They had to but after a couple of months it is hard to replace good people. If you lose them, once they go out of the game, get jobs elsewhere, they may not come back. That's why I kept my staff on, good people are hard to find.

"I trained for the 30 years in South Africa and most of my staff were with me for 18 to 20 years and I've had more staff in the six years I've been in Australia than I had in 30 years back home."

Payne points to fellow Randwick trainer Pat Webster, who employed a work rider named Tim Bone. "I would say he was the best rider at Randwick but he has moved on," Payne said. "He is not coming back. He was an asset to any stable but the flu has struck him out. That is a worry."

Fairfax Digital