Former Masterton vet's unusual training leads to NZ Cup win

No-one should have been surprised when former Masterton veterinarian Ian Shaw, who now lives in Wanganui, revealed unusual training tactics helped towards Hoorang winning the New Zealand Cup at Riccarton last Saturday
For Shaw,73, has never been afraid to do the unorthodox, including the designing of a motorised treadmill which saw him hit the headlines in the Wairarapa Times-Age in a article penned by the late Nick McDonald in August, 1997.
Shaw,who was a Wairarapa resident from 1977 through to 2002 and was known locally as "Shocker"Shaw for reasons he doesn't care to remember, installed the high-speed treadmill in a barn in his stable yard at Opaki and used it as a training aid for several of his young horses.
The base of the treadmill, built by Masterton man,Brent Krivan, was set at a six degree incline which required the horse on the apparatus to work harder for a shorter period of time.
Twin fans at the front end blew a constant stream of cool air over the horse while it worked and easy-to-use controls let the operator choose a variety of speeds from a walk to a full gallop.
Shaw said one of the big benefits of the treadmill was that trainers didn't have to muck around waiting for track riders and horses could be worked in all weather conditions.
Talking to the Times-Age yesterday Shaw said his horses still utilised the treadmill on a regular basis and that Hoorang, in particular, was a great fan of it.
So great that on one occasion she had actually tried to get onto the machine while the only other member of the current Shaw team, a five-year-old Postponed gelding, was doing his workout.
"Luckily I saw what she was doing, she had her front feet up on it before I was able to pull her off,"Shaw said."She probably does 50 per cent of her work on the treadmill, and she thrives on it.".
Hoorang's Cup win at odds of 46 to one also came aftera stamina-based training programme devised by Shaw after he had recalled a talk by dual Olympic gold medallist Peter Snell.
In that talk Snell had quoted coaching guru Arthur Lydiard telling him he would not reach his best form over a middle distance until he had done enough training to run a marathon..
It's a theory with which Shaw concurs and so while most of the New Zealand Cup runners were doing fast work over ground at least twice a week he had Hoorang complementing her treadmill work with 5km runs along the Wanganui beach..
Which meant the trainer himself wasn't concerned when the pressure came on over the closing stages of the 3200m event because he was confident Hoorang wouldn't be found wanting on the score of stamina and she wasn't , holding out the fast finishing Young Centaur by a narrow margin..
And he wasn't worried either about her lead-up form suggesting she was much better suited to soft ground, something he said was due more to circumstances on the day than anything else.
"I was confident and I backed her accordingly, "Shaw said of Hoorang, who was winning her seventh race in 29 starts and took her stakes earnings to $250,375..
But richer pickings could be in store for Hoorang and Shaw with the next major assignment being the $1m Auckland Cup.
"She has proved she can stay the two miles so we know the distance won't worry her," Shaw said, adding that one of the highlights of the Riccarton success was the chance it provided for him to meet Princess Anne, who presented the trophy at the after-race ceremony. "You don't get the chance to meet royalty too often, do you?" he quipped
Hoorang was bought by Shaw for just $3500 st a two-year-old at a Westbury Stud deplenishing sale attended on his own behalf by son Daniel (also a veterinarian) by and was attracted to her because she came from a great Wairarapa staying family which includes top performers such as Straight Draw and General Command.
Adding to the attraction was the fact the Zerpour mare's dam, Kay Maree, was by Rhythm, a proven sire of stayers.
Shaw remembers Hoorang arriving at his stables.
"She was as fat as a pig, she didn't look like a racehorse at all," he said."You wouldn't think she was the same horse now, she is as lean and mean as they come."
Describing himself as a "self taught" trainer who has trained something like 20 winners in a 42-year career in which the horses have mostly taken second place to his veterinary practice from which is now semi-reired, Shaw's best horse before Hoorang was From Heaven, winner of six races and third in a Wellington Cup.He is currently spelling at a Bideford property recovering from surgery to remove a bone chip in a knee.
Asked to compare the two Shaw very obviously now has a soft spot for Hoorang but he said From Heaven "could have been anything" but for constant injury problems. Among the vast Shaw support team at Riccarton-he has 10 children and 15 grandchildren-were daugher Bridgid Croskery from Masterton ,along with her husband Max and their two children