A Foxton horseman who once got a giggle from Princess Diana is the latest New Zealand trainer to take a hold and ease his career down.
David Haworth, 67, is winding up his racing team and rebranding his stables and 70-acre farm north of Levin as a pre-training, agistment and horse rehabilitation centre.
In what was a disturbing trend for the industry, Haworth was another established trainer pulling back his involvement in New Zealand racing.
Declining raceday attendance, betting turnover, race fields, and foal crops are at odds with a rising cost-to-return ratio for the sport's active participants and investors - the suppliers of a time-honoured wagering medium.
Haworth had ridden the high and lows of an industry that had always favoured the brave. But with rising costs outweighing the average potential earnings of a horse, it was time to take stock.
He challenged industry bosses to make some tough decisions for the future of racing and come up with a plan that was believable, sustainable and encouraged participation.
"If we don't break with tradition and the industry doesn't revamp itself ... we can't keep going like we have for the last 100 years. There need to be vigorous changes to programming and racedays."
For the past five seasons Haworth had trained in partnership with daughter Emma, who will now take up a position at the stables of Awapuni trainer Lisa Latta. Many horses in work with Team Haworth would now be based at Latta's.
Haworth had always worked as a stock agent while training racehorses and would continue in that role. It was a profession that had served him well since his late teens.
David Haworth with his stock agent hat on.
He got the racing bug as a youngster riding work for his father John, a horse trainer, and it led to a brief career as an amateur jockey, winning twice.
His first win as a trainer came in 1980 when Bundaberg won a maiden race at Awapuni.
It was a slump in the beef market that sent Haworth on a memorable overseas sojourn. He was working as a stock agent in Raetihi in the early 1980s when an opportunity came to take a large consignment of polo ponies to England.
It was during the Falklands conflict, when England had stopped sourcing horses from Argentina. He spent 34 days at sea with 18 horses on board, and rounded the infamous seas of Cape Horn.
"It was amazing. The more rough the sea was, the more calm the horses were," he said.
A polo player himself, Haworth would stay in England for six months.
There he rubbed shoulders with British aristocracy involved in the polo set, preparing and handling horses for those that played, often holding out a mallet for Prince Charles.
With a booming voice that would later serve him well as an auctioneer, he said "hello!" as he walked past two young women at a polo event one afternoon.
The blonde one turned around startled, and couldn't help but giggle.
"My mate said you know who that was don't you. I told him I didn't know who it was. He said 'you're joking '."
"I used to get on very well with Lady Di," he said.
But the horse that changed his fortunes in the early days when he was sailing close to the wind was Palace Wolf, a bargain buy who went on to become a top jumper.
So much so, Haworth called his racing stables Palace Lodge.
Records show Haworth had trained 482 winners in New Zealand. The most successful was dual Gr.1 winner Mac O'Reilly, while horses like Rosina Lad, Jury's Out, Wigan Prince and The Foreman weren't too far behind.
Rosina Lad gave Haworth the distinction of training a Gr.1 quinella when he pipped Jury's Out in the Gr. 1 Captain Cook Stakes at Hastings in 2006.
He had great success with the stock of Faltaat, too. Of them all, Jury's Out was his favourite.
Jurys Out.
"He was an incredible horse. He suffered through so many injuries ... crook feet ... but he kept bouncing back," he said.
For many seasons Howarth trained in partnership with Matt Dixon. His best season was in 2010-11 when he trained 50 winners, while in 2008-09 the stable produced 45 winners and broke the $1 million stakemoney mark for that year.
But while he was now changing tack, he would still renew his trainer's licence each season to have the option of taking a horse to the races again one day if the right one came along.
He knew from experience the value of pre-training and rehabilitation centres for a horse and trainer.
"It's a good formula and gives a horse the best opportunity to get back to being an athlete again," he said.
Mac O'Reilly.
His stables were often used as a horse motel by trainers like Shaun Ritchie, Allan Sharrock and Tony Pike who often booked in if they were campaigning a horse for a big race in the lower North Island.
Haworth was also a past president of the New Zealand Trainers Association and served time on the committee of the Levin Racing Club.
