Trainer David Pfieffer shows the way for racing's generation next

By Adam Pengilly
Updated July 28 2014 - 10:43am, first published July 24 2014 - 3:03pm

Armed with the numbers to prove his point and with horses competing more than 2000 kilometres apart on Saturday, David Pfieffer makes a pretty compelling case for backing a young trainer.

"I've only been training for eight years, but I've been in the top 20 metropolitan trainers for the last three seasons – with only 30 in work," he says softly, seemingly hoping not to offend anyone else who might be within hearing distance of a quiet corner of his Warwick Farm stable block.

"There are some very credible trainers below, but I need to be putting those stats in front of big clients. And I'm one of the youngest Sydney metropolitan trainers."

At 33 he is one of the youngest in Queensland, too, if you consider last year's expansion into Toowoomba.

So while Tahitian Black flies the stable flag at the Kensington meeting on Saturday, Pfieffer crosses his fingers and hopes grand old veteran New Day Rising will carry the same colours way up the Australian coast at the Townsville Cup meeting in a race run only 20 minutes earlier.

Perhaps Pfieffer is the poster boy for the new breed of Australian trainers: ambitious and nomadic. Satellite stables are in vogue and no race meeting is too far. Have suitable horses, will travel to big carnivals with the prizemoney to match.

"This is the first time [I've taken horses to Townsville]," Pfieffer says. "If they run well we'll plan to push on to the Cairns carnival and I'm planning to get up there for that one, but it all relies on race results."

Results were never going to be automatic when Pfieffer sent his trusty lieutenant David Joice to the sunshine state with a brief to help prepare a small team from a private property at Toowoomba for Gregg Wagner.

The property has two training tracks, a now fully functional "aqua" walker and day yards to accompany spacious stables – an idyllic which should have horses thriving. It once housed Epsom winner Captain Sonador.

Any reservations about making such a move at such a young age?

"Yes and no," Pfieffer says. "Like anything I thought being out of town at Toowoomba it might not work. But if you don't try you don't know and sometimes you've just got to have a throw at the stumps. We haven't had a helluva lot of runners up there, but we've had a few winners.

"I'll take it one step at a time up there. At the same time we want to gain support from other Queensland owners."

Winning that support might be a whole lot easier after the exploits of Cradle Me, who has done her best to brighten a quiet Sydney winter with a string of wins at Rosehill.

Pfieffer has planned a stable push on the back of Cradle Me and stakes-winning filly Atmospherical. Both will travel to Melbourne in the spring.

Cradle Me's black-type test will come in the Alinghi Stakes on Caulfield Cup day and the Begonia Belle Stakes on Oaks day. Atmospherical is already a stakes winner via Scone's Denise's Joy.

"I'm lucky I've gone close to having a good horse each year," Pfieffer says. "We started off with Graceful Anna, Gai's Choice, Safusa – and Atmospherical won a stakes race last prep.

"It's very exciting to have both Atmospherical and Cradle Me head to Melbourne. They're horses that keep improving. Hopefully they can keep stepping up to to the mark, but every time we raise the bar they keep improving."

They represent generation next in Team Pfieffer, but Saturday provides a chance for the old brigade to hold their own at opposite ends of the eastern seaboard.

"I was very happy with his last bit of work," Pfieffer says of Tahitian Black in the July Sprint. "I thought his run the other day was very good, he probably didn't quite get the run we were hoping for. He didn't get a lot of room in the straight and didn't get beat very far.

"And with New Day Rising for Saturday's race [the Cleveland Bay Handicap], if he was back to his old form, it would be well up to his standards. The confidence coming from the stable staff in Queensland is very high. His work has been amazing, but we've got to get a start first."

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