Racing: Bary bares soul after losing Recite

DARK TIMES: Hastings trainer John Bary says he and his staff put on a brave face but it hurts to have lost Recite. PHOTOS/Warren Buckland

IT'S ALMOST a month since the demise of class mare Recite but it still cuts deep like a razor for Hastings trainer John Bary.

"You have to put on a brave face but it hurts, it hurts a lot to ... ," says Bary, his tear ducts that bottled the emotions for several minutes eventually breaking their banks as words desert him.

The chilled beer in his hand fails to deliver on its promise as well in perhaps helping him to take the edge off his sorrow. He looks away, wipes his eyes, regathers himself and carries on.

Recite was euthanised at Te Aroha on April 9 during the 1600m group one NZ Breeders Stakes when she broke an ankle.

"You bury it. You talk behind closed doors with your wife but I'm the head of the operation and you have 10 staff here," says the 46-year-old from his Timoti Farm stables.

In the truck drive from Te Aroha to here that night after the race, Bary says strapper Sue Hall, who spent a lot of time with Recite and had been to Australia with her, was hurting as much as him.

"I don't think there were more than four words spoken on the float on our way home so it just takes time to get over it.

"People might say you're over dramatic but it is, you know," he says.

The 5-year-old mare, who was resident at his Timoti Farms stables in Hastings for four years, was the subject of numerous racing scribes in the past few weeks, but he spurned them for interviews.

"You know all the idiosyncrasies of her and she had been to Australia twice with us," says Bary, in breaking his self-imposed silence in exorcising not only his demons but also shedding light on something considered sacrosanct in the industry.

"It just leaves a massive hole in the stable and just rips your heart out, you know."

The staff are not exempt from the gut-wrenching experience, either.

In fact, they have presented a photo of Recite to him that has pride of place on the wall of the smoko room, next to the framed photos of champion stallion Jimmy Choux Bary trained. Jockey Rosie Myers is in the saddle, heading for a start in a Trenthham race this season.

HAPPY MEMORIES: The staff presented John Bary a photo of Recite that has pride of place on the wall of the smoko room.

"It was totally unexpected but you always remember those horses because you remember the good ones.

"You have a few breakfasts to perk everyone up but it's still there at the surface, simmering. It takes time because time heals all wounds."

Bary believes things will get better but it doesn't make it any easier.

They are sentiments he's willing to share through the media because industry playmakers tend to bottle up emotions in such cases.

They are integral parts of trainers' lives because those horses put them in the spotlight.

"Indirectly they are responsible for getting out other horses to train because they [winners] are good and people say if you can do that [succeed] with that horse then others can, too."

While horses such as Recite influence lives of the people directly involved with them, it's always the bigger picture.

"For people and staff it's about the horse. It's not about the money, fame and glory.

"If you add up what we get paid for all the hours we work here you wouldn't do it, you know. You'd be better off working for Nike in Indonesia," he says with a laugh.

Building an affinity with the animals "gets under your skin" so it's not a job but a great passion.

Every horse is an individual and genetic disposition makes them similar to humans.

"She was just an absolute honey to deal with. Nothing was a fuss, you know."

Later in life, Recite had some muscle issues but Bary likens that to an elite athlete who deals with niggles in their career.

"She was a horse that loved the pat, loved the food and very easy to do anything with."

He and his staff didn't see her demise coming.

"It was just a freak accident. The shoe was missing. Whether she stood on it or another horse did in the race it literally broke her ankle.

"I was on the scene literally in one minute and the staff that were there called on her and dealt with it [put her to sleep] quickly and we just couldn't save her ... ," he says choking and fighting back tears.

He always thought Recite was going to run a big one.

"You know, hindsight's a good thing and I might have even retired her but who knows what we could have and would have."

Her work rate was huge and she had just before that won a trial in superb time.

"You always want to go out on top if you can and if she had, who knows? But you can't dwell on it because it's the worst part of the game."

Just as they discovered after Jimmy Choux's retirement, Bary says you never replace the good ones.

"They were what they were. How do you replace Ritchie McCaw? How do you replace Brian Lochore?

"You know, you don't. But the next one comes along and you deal with them and treat them and hope they'll be just as good, if not better.

"It's the nature of the beast. You remember the good ones and the good times but you also remember the bad ones, too, sometimes," he says with a laugh.

After seven stellar seasons Bary and his staff are in the throes of rebuilding.

"It's our eighth one and we've just had a bad one," he says, working with 20 two-year-olds in his stable.

Hugo The Boss won on debut and Bad Issue got hit on the head at the starting gates so things had gone a little awry.

"They've got to put their hand up so we won't know [how good they are] until we put some pressure on them come race day in spring."

It's an unforgiving sport where when you're winning everyone's your friend, but lose and it becomes a lonely place for trainers and their staff.

"You just do your best, love them like your own and move forward."

A dual group one-winning daughter of Darci Brahma, Recite's progeny would have turned heads in the sale ring.

In just her 22nd start before her demise, she ended her career with seven wins, five seconds and two thirds for stake earnings of more than $576,000.

She won the group one Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) as a 2-year-old in March 2013 and added the group one Levin Classic (1600m) as a 3-year-old the following season.

Her other victories included the group two Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1200m) at Trentham, the group two Matamata Breeders' Stakes (1200m) and the Listed Wairarapa Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes (1600m).

The Oaks Stud in Cambridge owned Recite.

"It's a testament to the horse for being so sound and a testament to my staff for the job they do and the care they take with our horses to run at the top level in her career."

Bary says Recite never had any easy races.

"They were always black-type races and she fronted up."

She didn't go too well in Australia because the first time she was only three and at the end of the season here.

"She was at the end of her campaign and she was a bit tired so we wouldn't have gone except it was a million-dollar race.

"It [performance] twists your arm to go so it just all went wrong when we drew a bad gate.

"We were stuffed and it's an expensive thing to say but that's what happens in racing," says Bary but emphasises that her stake earnings justified her entries across the ditch.

He and Oak Studs owner Rick Williams, of Cambridge, have spoken of Recite's loss.

"Rick's just a great bloke. He said it wasn't your [Bary's] fault and it wasn't anyone's fault."