Journey a game-changer for Trinder

Adam Trinder knows that the next three months may well define the rest of his training career.

Mystic Journey (Needs Further) has already taken him places he has never been, a Group 1 victory and a win in a $5 million invitational race, but should she take the step from top-quality filly to champion mare and win the G1 Cox Plate, things will never be the same again.

Trinder is the model of composure a couple of days out from Mystic Journey's return to the track in the G2 PB Lawrence S. at Caulfield on Saturday. The media attention on him and his filly-now-mare is something which he has adapted to with aplomb. He speaks honestly and eloquently about the next stage of the journey from his Spreyton stables on Tasmania's north-west coast.

The serenity of a Tasmanian winter will quickly evolve into the cacophony of a Melbourne spring carnival. The first step is on to the Spirit of Tasmania at nearby Devonport on Thursday night, arriving at Tony McEvoy's stables early Friday morning.

For a lot of horses, this may be an ordeal, but for 'Betty', it is something she has become used to, making the trip multiple times over the past 12 months.

"It's the same template as always. She will be at Tony McEvoy's first thing Friday morning, ready to race on Saturday," Trinder tells TDN AusNZ.

If there were a way for a horse to travel first class on a ferry, Trinder would make that allowance. He admits she has long been the most spoilt horse in the stable.

"She has always been a very spoilt and protected filly, because of the opinion we have had of her. We have raised the bar with her in her raceday assignments and raised the bar quite aggressively on her. We've always held her in really high regard and she's always had an aura about her around the stables," he said.

That has ensured that she has been well insulated from any of the hype building around her. She certainly doesn't know she is favourite for a Cox Plate.

Trinder, however, is very much aware that the game has changed. When she arrived in Melbourne in the autumn, she was a challenger on the rise, but now, with Winx (Street Cry {Ire}) headed to the breeding barn, a spot as the new Queen of Australian racing awaits.

"Her profile has raised dramatically and very quickly. We couldn't get her into a public vote race in March. She obviously wasn't deriving much interest then, but come August, there's some attention on her," he said.

"She's nowhere near in the same category as Winx, it would be disrespectful to compare her to her, but people are looking for a headline horse and hopefully she can be it and do us and do herself proud."

The pressure on any trainer in Trinder's situation would be intense, let alone one still relatively early in his journey. It's less than ten years since the formerly highly successful jumps jockey hung up his riding boots and took on a stable.

The wisdom of PG Moody

There are not too many trainers in Tassie who can give Trinder an insight into the pressure of training a Cox Plate favourite, so he turned to another country boy who knows a thing or two about having the weight of public expectation on his back, Peter Gordon Moody.

"I've spoken with Peter Moody at length," Trinder said. "He's very laid back. He told me to take it all in, but don't take it too seriously. Keep to the task of training the horse, which I hope and trust that I have been able to do. That's what I have been implementing. I certainly haven’t got ahead of myself."

"He's had numerous Group 1 horses and obviously the great mare in Black Caviar (Bel Esprit), so he's seen the interest they derive."

The other key mentor on this journey has been Tony McEvoy, whose Flemington stables Trinder has utilised when travelling Mystic Journey and his other horses.

"Tony is a godsend to us. He's given us everything that we have required when we travel. He keeps everything familiar as it is at home and if we need to change anything, he's been more than obliging." he said.

"Tony has got plenty of Group 1 horses in his barn, so I spoke to him regarding race planning and the general feel around the horse and what I can expect to transpire moving forward."

Trinder is well-equipped for where Mystic Journey may take him this spring, but he is also plotting on how her success may transform his training business.

He has had an influx of interest from syndicators in the wake of Mystic Journey's All-Star Mile win and is already looking at setting up Victorian stables at either Ballarat or Mornington.

It was something he had contemplated but could never execute previously. He is determined continue to build his stables in Tasmania and was concerned if his good horses all ended up in Victoria, his presence at Spreyton would become a token.

However, with a flood of interest from owners willing to send their horses to him, many of them in Victoria, it now means he has the quality of horses to operate in both states.

'Muscle upon muscle'

As for Mystic Journey this Saturday, Trinder said we will see a much physically improved horse on the Group 1 winning filly of the autumn.

"She's definitely physically improved, as you will see there on Saturday. She has let down into a 4-year-old mare now. She's muscle upon muscle, she's a really strong filly and has a really strong hindquarter," he said.

"She has developed right out. I'd suggest she is close to being fully mature. Hopefully that holds her in really good stead in terms of her racing preparation."

Trinder knows Saturday won't define her spring but, having had to pull the pin on her first up run last month in the G3 Bletchingly S., he is just glad to get the journey underway.

"I am really excited. I enjoy the challenge. We hope that she is the mare that we believe she can potentially be. It's very exciting times," he said

"We’ve looked after her and protected her all the way through, but she's definitely kept up her end of the bargain in what she has been able to do for our business and the interest that she has created."

"We owe her quite a bit."