A few weeks on crutches has given Joe Pride a fresh insight into his stable and boosted his confidence ahead of a major expansion.
Pride will take over the late Guy Walter’s main stable block at Warwick Farm next month with Walter’s wife Wendy deciding not to continue running the operation.
It means Pride will have an extra 29 boxes taking his numbers above 70 for the first time in his career.
Despite his Group One successes over the past decade, Pride has felt the need to keep the numbers down to maintain his hands-on approach.
A knee operation has forced the trainer to slow down over the past few weeks.
“One thing it has taught me is that I don’t need to be there every minute of the day. The staff can manage without me,” Pride said.
“Because I don’t come from a racing background, I’ve always felt I had to do everything myself to prove I could.
“Now I can go ahead and know that the systems I’ve got in place work.
“I have had two mentors in my life. John Size was the first and then he moved to Hong Kong, and Guy Walter was the other.
“It is an honour to be moving into his stable and as long as I am there they will always be Guy’s stables.
“It is a beautiful stable and you wouldn’t get a nicer environment for horses.”
While not all the horses will remain with Pride, Walter’s staff will continue to run the operation which is close to Pride’s main stable.
Pride, who had a winning double at Rosehill on Saturday, has also ventured into new territory in the past week or so with Destiny’s Kiss winning the Stayers Cup and Barachello successful at Canterbury on a two-day back-up.
“I’ve never had a 3200 metre winner before so that’s another box ticked,” Pride said.
“And I have never backed a horse up after two days. Sometimes you can get tied down doing what you always do and it’s good to do something unusual.”
Barachello ran fourth at Randwick last Monday before his Canterbury win.
Pride said he would not take Destiny’s Kiss north for the Queensland Cup (3200m) in two weeks.
“He will stay in Sydney,” he said.
“The obvious target is the Winter Cup over 2400 metres which he won last year but I will run him over any distance on a wet track.”
