Former Gore horseman a success story in NZ racing
"Winning the Wellington Cup and Thorndon Mile [same meeting] within three-quarters of an hour was pretty amazing."
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Jamie Searle is a long-time Southland racing writer. For more of his work head to the Southland Thoroughbreds Facebook page.
"You come up here as a nobody, and you've got to prove yourself."
Those were the comments of Robert Patterson who left Gore in 2000 to train racehorses in Taranaki.
Fast forward to 2024, he has proved himself, now established as a successful trainer campaigning horses from his base at the New Plymouth racecourse. His team has won 49 races and $2.1 million in stake money this season.
His season's goals were 50 wins and $1 million. Patterson said.
He is seventh on the national trainers' premiership this season. During the term he has won six Group races - Group One Thorndon Mile, Group Two Manawatu Challenge Stakes and four Group Threes, Coupland's Bakeries Mile, Wellington, Counties and Taranaki Cups,
"Winning the Wellington Cup and Thorndon Mile [same meeting] within three-quarters of an hour was pretty amazing," he said.
The horseman also won the West Coast's major race, the Kumara Gold Nuggets.
Patterson went north to work for Waverley owner-trainer Bill Thurlow in 2000. They became known to each other a few years earlier when Patterson replied to an ad Thurlow placed in the racing publication, Friday Flash, regarding a horse for lease. .
Patterson leased the horse, an unraced maiden named Something Happened, who went on to win the 1998 Gore Cup at his seventh start. Something Happened ended up being sold to England as a jumper.
Thurlow sent a few more horses to Patterson and that led to the pair meeting in Gore when Thurlow made a visit to Southland. Subsequently, Thurlow offered Patterson a job in his Waverley stable in 2000.
At the time Patterson was training a few horses, working at the Mataura meat plant and shearing.
It was not a hard decision to move to Taranaki, Patterson said.
"I was sick of working at the freezing works . . . I enjoyed my shearing because I used to go overseas [England and Scotland] doing that,
"I always wanted to work with horses [full-time]."
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Patterson's father, Neville, was a successful trainer with some of his main winners being Zing, Fillibuster and Gladaub, who joined the stable after being trained by Rex Cochrane.
Patterson worked for Thurlow for three years before entering into a training partnership with another Waverley horseman, Kevin Gray.
Gray's son and former training partner, Stephen, had moved to Singapore.
Gray and Patterson were in partnership for three years before Gray moved to Palmerston North. The partnership's best horse, Legs, who included in her wins the Kelt Captal Stakes and New Zealand Oaks.
Afterwards, the time had arrived for Patterson to open his own stable in the north and build up a team. He moved to Waitara and trained at the New Plymouth racecourse.
"I had made contacts [in Taranak] but it still wasn't easy . . . you're starting out from scratched on your own."
"It took a while to get momentum. It fluctuated with numbers, but then in the last few years getting a horse like Coventina Bay has really put us on the map," Patterson said.
Coventina Bay won the Group I Bonecrusher NZ Stakes and Group I Herbie Dyke Stakes.
As well as training a big team at New Plymouth, Patterson looks after an agistment property owned by his main client, Eddie Bourke.
Patterson lives on the Waitara agistment property.
The horseman is settled in Taranaki, probably for good.
"New Plymouth is a lovely city and Taranaki's beautiful.
"I can't see myself going anywhere else . . . I've got lots of good friends here.
"Taranaki's a lot like Southland, but just a little bit warmer."