Club Spotlight: Nanango

By Jordan Gerrans

Going back just eight months or so, trainer Glenn Richardson had the Nanango Race Club to himself and his stable on the majority of mornings.

With a team of 15-20 gallopers in work for much of the year, the Richardson barn, which includes wife Hannah who rides all the work, had the lay of the land on their home track.

Early in 2022, there is now around a dozen trainers using the track at Nanango, with the town one of the fastest growing for horse numbers across Queensland.

With track work in the mornings being much busier than what it previously was, Richardson is not complaining as he knows the increased trainers and gallopers can only be a positive for the racing industry.

Nanango Race Club President Andrew Green has been blown away by the interest from people to train at the club over the last six to eight months.

“It is as busy as it has been for years, a decade or more really,” Green says.

“It is bloody good having new people with their trainers licence usually the track, as they are all local people.

“It is booming around here at the moment.

“We are doing better than most regional areas at the moment.”

Experienced trainer Pat Sexton is one of the newer faces back at Nanango.

After training on the Darling Downs for some time, Sexton has recently relocated back to Nanango, a town he trained at for around five years about three decades ago.

Debra Corbett, John Hamilton and Jason Livingstone, among others, have become regulars at Nanango of a morning recently.

“We had the place to ourselves back then and now most mornings there is half a dozen trainers coming in,” Richardson said with a laugh.

“Most people have one or two horses, but it seems to be people starting out or others that have been away from racing coming back into it.

“A few people are friends of each other and after having horses together, they have decided to get their own licences, which has happened to three or four people as a hobby.

“We are a central place here at Nanango in terms of there is lots of tracks around us where we can race at.”

Livingstone is the brother of Sharryn Livingstone, who prepared youngster Thelwell to a commendable finish in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic earlier this year.

When Green first got his licence in 1994, he estimates there were 27 trainers at Nanango, which fell away to only a handful about a decade ago.

Richardson’s stable is a perfect example of the benefits of training in the South Burnett Region of Queensland, regularly starting his gallopers at tracks such as Toowoomba, Ipswich, Caloundra, Brisbane and even up to Rockhampton on occasions.

“It is the biggest benefit of training here,” Richardson said.

Richardson went to high school in Nanango and while he has moved away and come back over the years, he and wife Hannah have established a consistent training operation in the town.

They have trained more than 16 winners in each of the last five seasons and are on track to surpass that in 2021-22, collecting 10 victories as a stable so far this campaign.

After more than 140 years of racing in the town, the Nanango Race Club held its first TAB meeting in late May of last year and are locked in to host their second one later in 2022.

The volunteer-led committee worked towards a number of key improvements at the club in the lead-up to their races being broadcast around the world, including upgrading their barriers, building a new shed, increasing fencing on the outside of track, obtaining a new generator and constructing new stewards towers.

“One of the local blokes here, we needed to get a three phase generator to run the satellite as we do not have the power out here to run it,” President Green said.

The club spent around $50,000 on the upgrades, with $40,000 more coming from the Country Racing Program towards the stewards towers.

“The track played beautifully on that day for us, which was great,” Green said.

“We are doing it all again in May this year, we will give it another whirl around then.

“It is a good day for us to have it in May as there is lots of horses about in our area through autumn and into winter time.”

Green notes the first TAB race day in the clubs history created plenty of buzz and interest on social media for the industry in the weeks leading in.

With just one TAB day programmed in 2022, Green says the club is comfortable on the national stage once a year, with the rest of their meetings remaining non-TAB.

Green was first introduced to the gallopers by his father, who called the races and trained a few horses.

After taking on some of the biggest stables in Australia earlier this year, Sharryn Livingstone is set to be the clerk of the course at Nanango’s non-TAB race day on Saturday afternoon.

“She has been doing it for a number of years and she will often bring up a few people and a few horses,” Green said.

“It is very much appreciated what she does.”

Club spotlight will be a regular feature that shines a light on the unique and individual racing clubs across Queensland.