It is a case of Western Australia’s loss being South Australia’s gain as trainer Indianna Weinert prepares to relocate her stable from Albany to Adelaide.
It’s a bold move by the young, progressive trainer, one obviously buoyed by the results achieved by the stable star Smooth Chino whose win in the Northam Cup on Sunday was his seventh win in only nine outings, but it also does show the fragility of Racing WA in terms of keeping their better players, both trainer and horse-wise, in their fight to fend off the lure of riches elsewhere.
While still slightly removed from the main action, Weinert’s new base, which will be at the Gawler racetrack, will give her easier access to the many lucrative options up and down the East Coast and she will be tackling those opportunities and weighing up the decisions she makes with the likes of Smooth Chino … a lightly raced four-year-old whose performances could help attract more horses to the stable … still being firmly under her name.
At the opposite end of that, Weinert has confirmed that some of her clients have chosen not to move their horse’s interstate … a decision she says she fully understands.
So, having come so far in a relatively short space of time, it will all be about both building on that foundation and breaking new ground for the stable for Weinhert, whose is, in a way breaking the mould here, by moving away from Western Australia and taking her best horse with her.
Joker’s Grin is the latest example of a top performing horse in Western Australia changing stables to accommodate East Coast ambitions. The son of Maschino was taken to nine wins from thirteen starts by the Hopeland based trainer Bernie Miller In Western Australia before the horse was removed from his care and relocated to the Chris Waller yard.
By making the decision to relocate to South Australia, Weinert, who is in the ownership group of Sweet Chino, is placing her own prospects in her own hands.
Like anything else in racing, it is taking a gamble, but you have to push the envelope sometimes to see how far you can go.
Afterall, Chris Waller did just that when he moved from New Zealand to Australia and we all know how that turned out.
