Noel Daley, who left Australian shores nearly three decades ago and became one of North America’s most decorated harness racing trainers, is back home to stay.
And although his plans have been on the drawing board for some time, it took a short telephone chat to clear the way for him to come home to do what he does best – train winners.
“I’ve been saying I was coming back for probably the last five or six years; and now I’m pinching myself that it’s actually happened. I couldn’t be happier,” Daley said.
Daley said the path was cleared after talking with prominent owner and passionate industry participant Emilio Rosati and his wife Mary, of Sydney.
“I will be their private trainer and prepare a team at their new state-of-the-art facility at Luddenham – we decided that it would work well for all of us,” Daley said.
“I must be honest and say that at one stage I was thinking perhaps I might have to be an Uber driver when I got back to Australia. I wanted to return but didn’t quite know how I was going to do it.”
“It’s an exciting opportunity and I can’t wait to get into it. I’ve had a bit of a break now and I’m as keen as ever, and ready for next challenge.
“I have my six-year-old son Max with me, and he’s settled into things really well, so it couldn’t have worked out any better.”
During his time in the US, Daley was mostly based at “Magical Acres Farm” at Bordentown, a city in Burlington County, New Jersey, a little over an hour from New York.
He prepared a remarkable 2570 winners with earnings of more than $61 million. Only a handful of others, headed by Ron Burke, have won more money.
Not bad for a former Airlines baggage handler at Brisbane Airport, who, in fairness, did however have a love for horses.
“On all my days off from work and spare time, I’d been mucking around with horses with anyone who would let me help them,” Daley sad.
“I was about 18 or 19 years old and had the ‘bug’ so in hindsight I was always going to end up in the harness racing industry.”
Daley spent time working with Queensland horseman and friend Ian McMahon, before making the decision to head to the USA.
“I had intended to stay six months in California and that was going to be it, but I got a huge lucky break in landing a job with New Zealand trainer, Brett Pelling,” he said.
“Brett’s a legend of the sport over there and with prolific success has set the bar so high with earnings, race records and a bunch of other leading statistics.
“When I started out with him in 1990, he was just on the rise and about to make a huge impact. I was a groom and then became stable foreman.”
It was a heady era. Pelling went on to dominate Meadowlands, winning the training title six times and in 1998 performing one of the most remarkable feats the sport had ever seen, winning not only the world-renowned Little Brown Jug and Jugette finals at Delaware, Ohio, but all the eliminations, too.
That same season, Daley branched out on his own, starting off with two pacers. But his career went ahead in leaps and bounds after meeting businessman Adam Victor, who wanted to become involved in the sport, but was unsure of the process.
“I think we may have had six or seven ticking along by then, but in probably two years the stable numbers increased dramatically to 125 with 100 of these belonging to Adam and his son, Adam Jnr,” Daley said.
“They were my most loyal supporters all the way along,” he said.
When Adam Victor senior bought a trotter named Mr Muscleman, it was Daley’s springboard to success.
“They took a shot with the horse because he’d only faced the starter on one occasion and got beat in a maiden at a low standard country meeting,” Daley said.
“We obviously thought Mr Muscleman had real improvement in him because he was being trained around a little track on a farm,” he said.
Their $165,000 outlay culminated in the horse winning over $3.5 million, collecting three prestigious Dan Patch awards and the 2005 Trotter of the Year title.
“And that certainly led to so much more,” Daley said.
“I owe Mr Muscleman for really putting us on the map.”
Other Daley success stories include My Little Dragon, Broad Bahn, Cedar Dove, All Laid Out, Caviart Ally, Explosive Matter, All Speed Hanover, and Impressive Kemp, but Mr Muscleman was undoubtedly his best, retiring to become a big attraction at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Hall of
Champions.
Daley said competing in an Elitlopp in Sweden with Mr Muscleman and then in Milan in Italy with Explosive Matter were great trips.
“We tasted some success with both of them – it was a lot of fun,” he said.
The Daley-Rosati team will initially include a number of unraced two-year-olds, along with three performers from the US and a recently-acquired Kiwi pacer.
“It’s certainly going to be different competing at Menangle with the varying race distances and a few other things, but we’ll just play it by ear and hopefully it will all fall into place,” Daley said.
“I know I’m going to have to work hard as there’s a lot of good trainers up around here and even they are finding it tough at times,” he said.
“The Rosatis own nearly 30 broodmares so there’s going to be a constant stream of well-bred youngsters to work with.”
Emilio Rosati, who has been in harness racing for more than 40 years, said he was excited to have an experienced horseman in Daley preparing his team.
“I’ve loved the sport, right back from the early days when I lived probably 200 metres from the old Harold Park track,” he said.
“I remember going over to watch brilliant pacers such as Hondo Grattan, Welcome Advice, Paleface Adios, Mount Eden, Manoroa, to name just a few.”
Rosati said his very first horse, named Stride High, won 11 or 12 races for him.
“He was as game as they come. He had one very bad leg and between races his training regime was strictly swimming.
“A guy by the name of Neil Freeman was training him out of Joe Ilsley’s place and he did a fantastic job.”
Rosati’s horses carry the “Stride” prefix, in recognition of his first horse.
Emilio Rosati
The new property, on 130 acres, will feature a 1000-metre fastwork track, designed on the same turns and camber as Menangle, as well as a sand track. Other first-class facilities include a barn that allows horses access to their own turnout yard; a water walker and 40 fully fenced paddocks.
“Emilio has been doing all the planning and everything is coming together nicely. It’ll be great and hopefully I can get some results,” Daley said.
“We recently got three horses back from the States who have a bit going for them. Blue Moon Stride is a mare out of a half-sister to Bettors Delight; Mouska Stride looks a nice type, while Lily Stride is a 4yo trotter with a Breeders Crown win and stakes of $750,000 to her name,” he said.
Daley who, unbelievably, has never trained on his own in Australia, is raring to go.
“America was very good to me and I never thought for a moment I would have been there so long and able to have such success,” he said.
“Now it’s time for the next chapter and with a great setup and some well-bred horses, bring it on!”
Terry Gange
NewsAlert PR Mildura