Woodville trainer Bruce Marsh has lost nine horses to the transtasman stable of Mike Moroney because of the owners' lack of faith in New Zealand racing.
Among the horses is one of Marsh's stable stars, Cheiron, who has won 11 races from 37 starts and has earnings of about $400,000.
All nine horses are owned by GKV Holdings which comprises the Auckland trio of Kevin Algie, Vern Curtis and Greg Pebbles.
Algie said: "GKV Holdings is despondent with the New Zealand racing scene and for commercial reasons has decided to have the core of its horses in Melbourne.
"In our view, Australia offers greater scope and opportunity in terms of both stake earnings and prospective buyers should we decide to sell an interest in any of our horses.
"The states of Australia are also very pro-active in promoting and enhancing the viability and growth of the horse racing industry, which we believe, provides better future opportunities for us."
Algie said the decision was not about any disappointment with Marsh.
"Bruce has done a great job in training these horses, and the amount of stakes won, to keep the business operating," he said.
He said GKV Holdings had had horses with Marsh for four and half years and over that period had won 25-30 races and sold horses with some fetching more than $150,000.
He said placing horses with Moroney provided the opportunity to sell shares to other clients of the Moroney stable.
"He's got a number of owners on his books if you wish to sell down a half interest or a quarter interest.
"This is really a straight out commercial decision."
Algie, who has a car sale business with seven dealerships in the North Island, said GKV Holdings had spent $600,000 buying horses.
Marsh said Cheiron did not return to New Zealand from his Queensland winter campaign while the other horses left his property last Thursday.
Marsh, who is fifth on the trainers' premiership for this season, said his main concern was that other New Zealand trainers would be hit with the same bad news if the local racing scene did not improve.
"I fear that this is a trend that is going to be set for New Zealand trainers," Marsh said. "They will meet the same problems down the road unless racing doesn't turn itself around."
Marsh has stables at Woodville and Awapuni. He had hoped to have about 55 horses in work for spring racing.
"I'm disappointed because it takes a long time to build up a stable team. In my operation nine is a lot to take out of the operation.
"It's make its tough to make up the leeway. You are geared up for those nine horses."
Marsh said he would not cut staff at this stage in the hope he could recoup the numbers.
Two horses he had held high hopes for were Betta Watch It and Gypsy Lad.
Betta Watch It has not raced since finishing eighth, beaten 2 1/2 lengths, to Zonda in the group one $150,000 weight-for-age The Oaks Stud Classic (2000m) at Ellerslie on January 2.
"We had planned an Australian campaign with him after his run behind Zonda. We had always talked about a Melbourne campaign in the spring.
"Gypsy Lad is an exceptionally promising horse and he was going to go to Melbourne too."
Marsh said the ability to sell shares in horses to other stable clients was something that had not been raised with him.
Going transtasman like Moroney, who has stables in Matamata and Flemington, had not been seriously considered.
- NZPA
Racing: Owners lose faith in NZ, transfer to Australia
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