Luck, legacy and a hot dog: Kiwi trainer’s winning recipe

Pam Gerard is superstitious to a fault.

When the spectacular Matamata horse coach is at Ellerslie Racecourse on Saturday earlier than two of her horses contest New Zealand’s richest race, the NZB Kiwi, look forward to finding her around the again of the stands with a scorching canine in her hand.

It’s a practice that started together with her mentor and coaching companion, the late Mike Moroney — the pair sneaking out earlier than the primary race at conferences on both facet of the Tasman, Gerard’s three children in tow. And it’s a ritual she’s decided to proceed in Moroney’s reminiscence, after he died all of the sudden final 12 months.

She can also be sporting the pink and white outfit that introduced her luck in November when her star three-year-olds Affirmative Motion and Romanoff fought out a spectacular picture end within the New Zealand 2000 Guineas at Riccarton.

“Sure, superstitions and traditions are enormous with me – you’ve obtained no concept how vital it’s. Horse racing is an enormous sport of luck,” she says from her Ballymore Racing stables. “All of us snigger about it as a result of it’s actually foolish, however I believe there’s slightly one thing in it.

“From the second I’m going residence and have my bathe, I discover myself pondering, I’ve obtained to do that this manner or that manner. If you put the horse within the stall a distinct manner, get out of the automobile a distinct manner, you assume, ‘Oh no my day is doomed!’

“I had a fortunate costume as soon as and I needed to put on it to each race assembly after that, till I hated it.

“I don’t assume I’m nervous, as a result of no matter occurs, occurs. However you assume, ‘What did I do after I gained that good race?’ There will likely be little belongings you’ll do alongside the best way which may simply assist.”

Currently, Gerard’s luck has seemed quite a bit like kind.

Having two horses line up on this weekend’s $4 million slot race on Champion’s Day reinforces Gerard’s standing amongst New Zealand’s prime trainers.

“I don’t assume it’s more durable to arrange two horses for this race; the toughest factor is getting one in there,” she says. “You simply keep on together with your job, attempting to get the most effective outcomes out of the horses.”

Affirmative Motion will signify Auckland Thoroughbred Racing within the 1500m slot race, whereas Romanoff fills the Canterbury Jockey Membership’s slot after beating his stablemate within the $700,000 Guineas showdown by the barest of margins.

“It’s an enormous achievement for the group at Ballymore. The final piece of the puzzle is getting them into the race,” Gerard says. “There’s no ‘I’ in my life, it’s ‘we’. At all times has been, at all times will likely be.”

Gerard has round 15 full-time workers at Ballymore, in addition to observe work riders and part-timers. The steady containers are virtually at all times full, with 45 to 50 horses engaged on the property.

She admits she’s come a great distance from two naked paddocks on the Canterbury Plains.

Rising up on a farm, Gerard had a pony. “My grandparents and my dad raced horses, I had cousins who had been jockeys. My mum used to experience horses to highschool,” she says. “We didn’t have Playstations – should you needed one thing to do, you needed to go and experience your pony. However then I went to boarding faculty, so it was laborious to be a aggressive rider.

“However my entire life has been about animals.”

A eager hockey participant, Gerard needed to check to grow to be a PE instructor. Then she met Cindy Hampton, who pre-trained horses for profitable trainers Daybreak and Peter Williams, using them on the roads round Methven. After travelling abroad together with her then companion, a ski coach, she returned residence to work for the Williams of their Ashburton stables.

Gerard then went to Japan to interrupt in younger horses, incomes sufficient cash to purchase her personal land in Methven – nonetheless in her mid-twenties. As she grew to become a highly-respected horsewoman, Gerard purchased a bigger property in Ashburton, the place she educated 91 winners.

In 2011 she moved north to Matamata together with her companion – former main jumps jockey Tom Hazlett – to affix Te Akau Racing as an assistant coach. 5 years later she shifted to Ballymore Stables beneath Australian Mike Moroney, turning into its New Zealand-based coach, earlier than taking sole cost of the Matamata operation in 2024.

She admits it took her a while to recognise a very good horse. “In my mid-20s, I believed each horse seemed lovely,” she laughs. “When you get into the sport slightly extra, you study this one is nicer as a result of it strikes higher, it’s obtained a greater mindset, or it’s stronger with extra muscle. You’re feeling beneath you when you will have a very good horse.”

She credit Moroney and his youthful brother, Paul, a bloodstock guide, with serving to her select good horses from the gross sales.

“A significant a part of success is what you purchase within the sale ring,” she says. “Then there’s the schooling, attending to know the horse and attempting to get the most effective outcome out of it as fast as doable.”

Gerard additionally has a system of coaching her horses by means of winter, in order that they have success earlier within the spring racing season. “It’s a bit sluggish and tedious working them by means of these colder months, however you get to know your horses they usually get to know your system,” she says.

Within the 2024-25 season, Gerard guided standout colt Savaglee by means of a profitable spring marketing campaign, profitable the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas. He was the favorite to win final 12 months’s inaugural NZB Kiwi, till his homeowners determined he’d be higher off working in Australia – the place he was a powerful second within the Australian Guineas at Flemington.

However final weekend, the four-year-old stallion prospect was retired from racing, following a irritating 12 months, and can now go to stud. Gerard is aware of that’s the powerful actuality of horse racing.

By all the highs and lows of their careers, Gerard and Hazlett raised three youngsters. All of them helped out within the stables rising up – although none have ambitions to experience or prepare horses.

“Sadly, they had been introduced up in an period in New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing when children weren’t allowed to be across the horses out the again [of racecourses],” she says. “They introduced in strict tips for well being and security, which I perceive. However they misplaced an entire technology of younger folks coming into the business. My children needed to be concerned, they liked the horses.

“But, even now that they’re at college or working, they textual content me in the course of the day and say ‘Mum, that one went good; that one didn’t go so good’. My daughter at Lincoln messaged the opposite day to say, ‘The horses aren’t coming from behind right now – you must be on tempo’. It’s fairly cool they nonetheless know the way a lot is concerned in it.”

Their daughter, Meg Hazlett, has gone down a distinct sporting route – representing New Zealand on the world U20 lacrosse world championships.