Southern homecoming for Waldron
Hailing from Otago, the former international eventer has returned to his home region to continue his training career after spending half a dozen years in Melbourne, and he is looking forward to plying his trade on home soil.
"The decision to come home was mainly based around wanting to come home. I was missing the New Zealand lifestyle and family and friends," he said.
Waldron also cited the increasingly competitive nature of racing in Australia as another major factor and felt the move back to New Zealand was the best choice to help further his training career.
"Australian racing is becoming more top-heavy every season. It is dominated by the big stables," he said.
"Realistically, you need to have 100 horses to be relevant, and I don't really have an ambition to train a huge team of horses.
"Training in New Zealand, especially down here, you can have a smaller team in work and still be competitive, which I am really looking forward to."
The New Zealand racing landscape has changed significantly since Waldron moved across the Tasman, and he said the growth in prizemoney was a massive lure to come home.
"Entain has been game-changing for racing here and it is going to be cool being a part of it going forward," he said.
Formerly based in Te Awamutu when initially training in New Zealand, Waldron said he felt the South Island was a better option for his return, and he has secured a dozen boxes at Wingatui.
"We think the horses that we have brought over will be really competitive racing around here," he said.
"They have all got good ratings where they should be able to win a couple of races.
"The prizemoney is very similar for those rating races [as the North Island] and we think our horses will slot in well."
The ODT Southern Mile Series is another massive drawcard, and Waldron believes he has a horse who will be ideal to target towards the $200,000 final next year.
"We have got one horse in particular, Awesome Lineup, who is probably the ideal horse for that Southern Mile Series," he said.
"It is really good prizemoney to be racing for."
Waldron is enjoying training out of Wingatui, where he said he has been warmly welcomed, and he is looking forward to building on his team of half a dozen.
"Everyone here is very welcoming, so it makes it very easy," he said.
"We have got 12 boxes here, which is a really nice number to kick off with. We don't really plan to get too much bigger than that this [coming] season. Maybe next year we can build if we have a bit of success.
"We have got six here in work at the moment and there are still a couple more to come in. Our first runners will be at Riccarton on August 6 with Carisbrook and Secret Beau, and we will go from there."
Waldron has been joined on his new venture by his partner, Sarah Fannin, who has a wealth of experience in racing, highlighted by her last role as assistant trainer at Lindsay Park Racing, where she led the Pakenham barn for the Victorian juggernaut.
"It is fantastic to have someone to bounce ideas off and I feel very lucky to have her," Waldron said.
''We both work really well together, which is cool."
While pleased to be back home, Waldron said he was grateful for his time training in Australia, which helped him grow as a horseman.
"It was a big learning curve," he said.
"The last 18 months I was over there I did a bit of work for Annabel and Rob Archibald and the Lindsay Park team alongside Sarah, my partner, who was running the Pakenham stable for them. It was cool seeing how they do things.
"I was lucky to learn from Murray [Baker] and Andrew [Forsman] while I was here [New Zealand], but you never stop learning in this game and it was fantastic to see how those guys do things too."
Racing has always been a big interest of Waldron's, but his first love was eventing, and he excelled in the sport, representing New Zealand several times before transitioning to racing and working as travelling foreman for Cambridge trainers Baker and Forsman several years ago.
"I come from a three-day eventing background and I represented New Zealand a couple of times eventing and in the young rider team and senior team," Waldron said.
"I always had a passion for racing and that led to riding a bit of trackwork, which led to the travelling role with Murray and Andrew, and it progressed from there.
"I always wanted to train myself and after a couple of years with them I kicked off at Waipa, we had a little bit of luck, and then had six years in Aussie."
The move back to New Zealand has been in the works for some time and Waldron is excited to finally be back on home soil and commence a new challenge.
"It has been a long time in the planning getting back here," he said.
"Sarah had such a good job in Melbourne, and we had a super season last year which kept us in Australia a little bit longer while they were earning good prizemoney.
"It's great to be back home and I am really looking forward to getting stuck into it here." — LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
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