Racing: Ten wins in a week puts Small at top of trainers table

Geoff Small has been busy over the last four days, travelling the length of the North Island supervising stable runners at racetracks in Auckland and Palmerston North.

The Patumahoe-based horse trainer has had runners at Palmerston North (Wednesday), Auckland (Thursday) and Palmerston North (Friday) and won a total of 10 races. Small has kicked clear of rival horsemen at the top of the New Zealand Trainers Premiership.

He has won 66 races in New Zealand this season and credits his stable staff and owners for the recent success he has enjoyed on the racetrack.

"There has been a lot of hard work put into developing my racing team from the time they enter the stable as yearlings and we're now reaping the benefits of that hard work," said Small.

"I focus a lot of my attention on educating and grooming the young racehorses in my stable and I have about 18 3-year-olds in training this season that have won races for me.

"It was never my intention at the start of the racing season to focus on winning a New Zealand Trainers Premiership but things have just fallen into place for us over the last couple of months.

"I'm a great believer in maintaining a large group of yearlings and 2-year-olds in the stable because there is such a high turnover rate with older racehorses I have in training.

"At the moment Elsu is the number one Free-For-All pacer in Australasia and he has generated a massive amount of media exposure for my training operation and the sport of harness racing.

"I know that Elsu can't race forever and it's important to my owners that I pay as much attention to my younger racehorses as I do to him. There's going to come a point in time, possibly at the end of next year, that Elsu will be retired to stud and I'll be looking for that next superstar to step up and fill the massive hole he will leave in the stable."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY