Brett Cavanough eases monster workload

Brett Cavanough is happily devoting more quality time to The Monstar and his growing band of stablemates since convincing former trainer Kerry Jordan to lend a helping hand.

Jordan joined the Scone trainer as racing manager a fortnight ago, having previously worked with Racing NSW since 2009.

“Kerry’s doing the placement and the jockey work. It’s probably given me another 10 hours a week straight off the bat,” Cavanough said.

“I’ve never had that help. I’ve pretty much done it myself.”

When Cavanough moved from NSW Southern Districts to Scone seven months ago the workload was manageable but the work involved placing provincial horses and sifting through options as the stable expanded to 60 horses proved onerous.

“It was doing my head in. I was spending 10-15 hours a week just on noms late at night and I wanted to concentrate on my horses.”

Group One-winning trainer Jordan closed his Rosehill stable in 2003 and joined Racing NSW to manage the introduction of the organisation’s benchmarking system.

“I thought Kerry was the right person because he’d been there since the rating system came in,” Cavanough said.

“I want to give it a red hot crack in Scone and get to a hundred horses so I’m very fortunate to have Kerry’s experience.”

Cavanough is also hoping the predicted rain arrives for The Monstar who is entered for the Listed Starlight Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill on Saturday.

Any downgrade from good would enhance the seven-year-old’s prospects.

“Kerry’s pretty much on weather watch with him,” Cavanough said.

The Monstar is also adept on top of the ground, running third in the Group Two Linlithgow (1200m) at Flemington on November 4.

“He’s not a superstar. He’s a wet-track specialist and he travelled down to Melbourne and raced super. He’s going to win one soon,” Cavanough said.