News

Matthew Dale finds success in one Fell Swoop

16th Oct 2015

The Daily Telegraph - by Ray Thomas - Thursday 15 October 2015

Matthew Dale’s problem makes him the envy of most of his peers. The Canberra trainer has become a victim of his own success. Despite the relative anonymity of his stable base, Dale is a man in demand.

In the cutthroat world of horse racing where trainers are in direct competition with each other for owners, Dale has had to post the house-full sign up at his stable’s front door.

This is a direct result of Dale’s outstanding strike-rate of winners to runners. It also helps to have a headline horse like the brilliant Fell Swoop, one of the star turns at the Royal Randwick meeting on Saturday when he lines up in the Listed $150,000 City Tattersalls Lightning (1100m).

Dale currently has 27 in work and revealed he doesn’t want his stable to grow much bigger.

“I get offered a lot of horses and the hard thing is to turn horses away,’’ Dale said. “It may sound ridiculous but I know if I get too busy and take on too many horses, then the job won’t be as enjoyable.

“I’m the type who likes to do a lot of the work, I ride most of mine trackwork because I like to know my horses inside out and I feel that allows me to get the best out of them.

“This game can consume you and although I do live and breathe it, I have three kids under four and you need to have a balance between family and the job.”

Dale, 33, has been in the racing industry all his professional life. He has a real passion for the game but saw the danger signs earlier in his career.

In 2007, Dale decided he needed a break from training and racing.

He had his final starter at a Canberra meeting and later that evening sent the horse to the spelling paddock.

By coincidence, at midnight that same evening the racing industry in NSW and the ACT was in lockdown following an outbreak of equine influenza.

“I started training when I was 20 and it evolved so quickly it was ahead of me,’’ Dale said. “But when I came back I was ready for it.’’

About a year later, Dale was back training - and he hasn’t looked backed since.

But it is the emergence of Fell Swoop, a $45,000 yearling purchase at the 2013 Sydney Classic Yearling Sales, who has provided Dale with the biggest boost to his training career.

Fell Swoop won his Canberra maiden in January but this campaign he has graduated from a restricted class galloper to a dual stakeswinner, reeling off four successive wins to improve his overall record to eight wins from just 10 starts.

The Canberra sprinter followed successive wins in restricted company at Rosehill and Randwick before breaking through at Listed level at Moonee Valley, scoring comfortably by a length-and-a-half from Beach Front.

But as impressive as that win was, his narrow defeat of Charlie Boy in the Listed Testa Rossa Stakes at Caulfield was perhaps a career-best performance by Fell Swoop.

“His last start win was against the grain,’’ Dale said. “Nothing went right for him that day. He lost a ‘shoe’ before the start and because this horse is still a raw product, he doesn’t handle that sort of stuff mentally as good as he will in time.

“Then, during the race he got caught three wide without cover when they slackened the tempo.

“He pulled a bit hard, wobbled around the bend and got headed in the straight.

“He was there to be beaten but he showed a real will-to-win.’’

Dale said Fell Swoop’s two return trips from Canberra to Melbourne this spring and the fact the gelding has been racing since early July convinced Dale to target the Lightning at Randwick rather than endure another Melbourne road trip.

“He has gone to Melbourne twice in quick succession so that is why I have opted to give him a month between runs and go for the Sydney race as it is his preferred leg at this stage,’’ Dale said. “To be honest I think this will be enough for him.

“He has come a long way in a short time this preparation.

“I think I will turn him out after this race and give him a longer spell.

“Hopefully the longer break will help him go to the next level in the autumn.’’

Dale said his long-term plan is to set Fell Swoop for the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate next autumn.

“This horse has shown such good improvement preparation by preparation and if we can get that improvement again then he will be competitive at a higher level,’’ the trainer said.

“That is why I felt we should give him one more run and then he can have an extra three weeks spell over the other horses.’’

Fell Swoop’s emergence last season coincided with Dale’s best as a trainer. He prepared 54 winners including Rom Baro in the Canberra Guineas, Karakuchi and Sheezsingle. But it has been Fell Swoop’s outstanding form that catapulted Dale into the racing industry limelight.

“What Fell Swoop and other horses have done for my business is that it shows what we can do from Canberra,’’ Dale said. “We have shown we can travel and win. We can still train them to the best of their ability from a country environment.

“A lot of people think you need to be trained in the city to race in the city.

“But people are happy now to send a higher class of horse to me to train out of Canberra.

“We are now showing we can make it work. We can utilise Melbourne or Sydney to win races but also kick-off horses in the country with confidence-boosting wins in places like Wagga Wagga and the like.

“A lot of people can’t believe I don’t aspire to be a big city trainer but I’m happy with my balance between work and family.’’