Leigh Childs is happy to travel wherever his horses can win but he hopes the city success of Zlatan on C F Orr Stakes day at Caulfield is the start of more metropolitan excursions.
Cranbourne-based Childs, 32, has been successful with his past four starters, two of whom he took on a seven-hour trip to the Sapphire Coast in NSW last Sunday to win maidens.
Zlatan winning the BMW Melbourne Handicap at Caulfield - photo by Race Horse Photos Australia (Steven Dowden)
“I guess you’ve got to go where you can win and try to place them right,” Childs said.
Zlatan, who was coming off a win in the Hanging Rock Cup on Australia Day, led throughout to win Saturday’s BMW Melbourne Handicap (2000m) by three-quarters of a length over Whisper Downs with 1-3/4 lengths to Diamonds At Noon third.
“I’m proud of the horse, it was a big step up,” Childs said.
“It’s a long way from Hanging Rock to a city race like this.”
Childs, who started out as an apprentice for Mick Kent before getting “too big”, has been training for seven years and has six horses in work.
“I do it all myself, ride my own work. I’d eventually love to have staff and fill the stable and make a red-hot go of it,” he said.
He credited a short trip to Hong Kong to “virtually shadow” top trainer John Size a couple of years ago as changing him as a trainer.
“He’s a guy that absolutely blew my mind with his training methods. He was just passionate about the animal and it was just so refreshing to see that,” he said.
