Barry Baldwin didn’t manage to round off his six-decade training career with a winner at Ipswich on Wednesday where his sole … and last … runner Shadow Cruiser finished fourth, just 0.60 lengths behind the winner after coming from last, all of eight lengths back, and hitting the line hard.
The weight of good will that Shadow Cruiser carried was enormous. In racing you can’t write your own script. A win would have been nice and put a smile on a lot of people’s faces, but an honest effort was a satisfying result for the seasoned trainer.
“I was happy with that,” offered Baldwin, given his typically balanced perspective. “If he’d run last that would have been disappointing, but he raced well.”
Baldwin, who trained the 2006 Stradbroke winner La Montagna, had previously announced that he would be closing shop as a trainer in his own right at the end of November so, by his own design, he knew what was coming and there were no surprises on the day. But, even knowing the time and place of the end-game, how did he feel saddling up his last runner?
“It was a bit sad, but your make the decision … and it is not as though I am getting away from horses, so I’ve still got that up my sleeve.”
But, at least, surely that means that now the alarm doesn’t have to go off at three o’clock in the morning?
“I’ll have to see what the new boss says,” answered Baldwin with a twinkle in his eye, “but I think I’ll be able to sleep in a bit longer … and I don’t think I’ll be working every day.
“That will be a big change from working seven days a week which I did for so long.”
Trainer Chris Anderson, the ‘new boss’ Baldwin referred to above, is rapt to have Baldwin on his team.
“Barry is just such an asset to us a stable,” said Anderson. “To have somebody who has got sixty years’ experience to come in and continue to learn from … what an amazing asset that is, not just for me, but for my owners too that they are going to have someone like Barry looking over their horses on almost a daily basis.
“Barry can come and go as he likes, because I know there will be just so much I can learn from him whenever he does come to the stable. It will be an on-going dialog on a frequent basis.
“Horse trainers … we don’t have coaches. Often, we have just got to go on our gut and do what we believe is right, so to have someone like Barry who you can runs things by … get an informed second opinion from … or just knock ideas around is a wonderful thing.
“It’s not only about horses performing well on the day. It’s all encompassing … pre and post-race care, rehabilitation when required … any sort of secrets of the trade that only experience can give you, I suppose.
“That expertise, which Barry brings to the table, is invaluable.”
And if you thought Baldwin might take a couple of days off before transitioning to his new role … you would have been wrong.
Baldwin was in Anderson’s office on Thursday morning, less than twenty-four hours after saddling is last runner.
“Yes, he came in the very next day,” confirmed Anderson. “There are a few horses from his stable coming across to us and we are really keen to explain to him things about the horses in our stable.
“He has been keeping up with them over the past few weeks so he could get a bit of a more in-depth knowledge of them.
“So, the new setup is underway. And, by the way, there is no ‘boss’,” quipped Anderson.
“We’re just good mates looking forward to the future together.”
