“We’re testing the waters over there and it is very exciting and hopefully I can make it work logistically.”
With those words, talking to Racing.com, New Zealand trainer Andrew Forsman, confirmed the proposed expansion of his stable into Victoria where he has secured boxes at the state-of-the art Macedon Lodge facility from which his extended stable will operate from in the future in a satellite stable format, with that setup likely to only be completed later in the year.
While stressing the point that Cambridge would continue to be his stable’s main base, Forsman added, “I have been looking for a while, but for a satellite stable it’s not straight forward to try and find the right fit,” continued Forsman.
“This opportunity presented itself and was well worth looking into and I’m keen to give it a go.
“We will probably be doing it on a trial basis for six months or so and we’ll start off with a small team and see if we can make it work. It will be later into the autumn that I would be looking to move any horses.
“Initially I will be looking to have about 10 horses there and there will be room to expand if it is all working okay,” Forsman said.
With Macedon Lodge itself heaped in a history of Group 1 glory when owned by Lloyd Williams, particularly the Melbourne Cup wins from the likes of Efficient, Green Moon and Almandin, Forsman can present an honour-roll list of his own, which is particularly impressive.
With twenty-five Group 1 wins behind his name when training in partnership with Murray Baker, Forsman has already ticked the box as a Group 1 winner in his own right and the options that the proposed stable expansion will give him moving forward … even though that will still be a work in progress for some time yet … are only likely to be beneficial to him in his quest to claim more success at the elite level.
