Retiring Trainer Niall Phillips Has Done the Hard Yards, Even Once Thinking of Suicide, but There’S Also Been Great Joy Along the Way
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32 SATURDAY AUGUST 19 2017 GEELONGADVERTISER.COM.AU weekend extra Riding the highs and lows Retiring trainer Niall Phillips has done the hard yards, even once thinking of suicide, but there’s also been great joy along the way It’s time for something else. without bumping into names such as “For the first time in a long time, I Darren Weir and David Hayes. can play daddy and take my girls to The media paints the racing school,” Phillips said. industry as one of glitz, glamour, fame “I’m looking forward to seeing how and fortune. Ryan the other half lives. For every one Weir, there are 20 “Am I scared? Of course I am. But others doing it tough. REYNOLDS it is exciting. Phillips admits the stress of [email protected] “People ask me ‘what are you training came to a head at Easter. He going to do? Where are you going to even considered ending his life. go?’ and I just say ‘I don’t know, I’ve “The last year things caught up IALL Phillips is happy with got no idea’.” with me and Sharon, and we drifted where the full stop sits at the For everything racing has given apart. I got pretty down,” Phillips said. Nend of his racing story. him, it has taken plenty away. “Easter was a bad time for me. I hit For a young lad growing up in Phillips recently split with the love rock bottom. I just lost all confidence Ireland, he never dreamt he’d finish of his life Sharon and has missed in myself, I lost my way. You work up living in Australia, play a massive doing dad things with his girls Lauren seven days a week and there’s nothing part in a Melbourne Cup win and and Leah. for you. Things were upside down. I train a stack of winners out of his No one can ever fully understand tried to take my own life. Geelong stable. the stress that comes with being a “Lucky enough, I got through it An exhausted Phillips called time horse trainer until you are one. and I think about how low I did get. on his 15-year training career at the The horse you pin all your hopes “I just think it’s the workload we end of the 2016/17 racing season, on for your stable, your financial put on ourselves and we get that deciding not to renew his license for future, can break down at any time. down. It’s changed my outlook on life. another season. Track riders are hard to find, “I missed out on a lot of things with He wants to start a new chapter — owners even harder. The mega stables my kids because you sacrifice a lot for one that doesn’t involve 4am alarms, are spreading their wings too. the industry with the hours you do. long trips in the car and the stress that You can’t take a horse to Terang, “Like recently I went to Echuca Niall Phillips with one of his winners, Irish Saturday. Picture: ALISON WYND comes with being a horse trainer. Echuca or even Mildura these days and you leave home at 4.30am and GATE01Z01MA - V1 GEELONGADVERTISER.COM.AU SATURDAY AUGUST 19 2017 33 weekend extra STAR: Actor Bobby Fox with Niall Phillips. BELOW LEFT: Philips with Damien Oliver. BELOW RIGHT: Phillips at the stables. the industry at Ireland’s racing mecca, wanted to ride a winner for his dad. The Curragh, and he moved up from Surf Coast for Nigel Keat gave him stablehand to travelling foreman. that opportunity at Terang. And He then overheard a conversation despite what Phillips describes as a with a trainer telling one of his stable slaughter of a ride, Surf Coast got up. workers that he should look at Mission accomplished. spending some time in Australia. That His dad had bragging rights in the got him thinking about such a move. pub that night when he told his mates Then his brother David returned of Niall’s win. from a spell Down Under with 1993 Phillips retired from race riding Melbourne Cup winner Vintage Crop. soon after that. David had travelled with the star “When I rode that winner, Dad stayer on behalf of master trainer said to me ‘first winner is the hardest, Dermot Weld and had come back blah, blah, blah’, but I said I’d had raving about the opportunities in enough and that I was over it,” Australia. Phillips said. “Deep down, I didn’t say anything Stints with Peter Tennent and to my family members, but I was Mark Bairstow followed. His time thinking about leaving Ireland for a with Bairstow was especially fruitful, while just to get away from the with the duo collecting 54 winners in winter,” Phillips said. one season. “One thing led to another and However, they had a disagreement before I knew it I was on a plane over the future of the stable and coming to Australia on my own. Phillips decided to move on. “It was a bit scary, a bit daunting.” He picked up a job working 4pm to So where did Phillips’ racing midnight at Godfrey Hirst. Talk about journey in Australia begin? With being a sucker for terrible hours. none other than Cups King Bart But with plenty of time to kill in Cummings. the morning before work, Phillips Talk about an initiation. found himself working for “It was a real eye-opener,” Phillips Winchelsea trainer Simon Royal. said. Then in 2002 Phillips was lured who took Media Puzzle forward from of Phillips’ stable when he was out on “I got there 4am and it was just into training in his own right. his barrier. his own. pitch black, you couldn’t see anything “When I started training my Dave told Ollie to go out and win It was a humble start with four the race with full authority, and he horses — Aussie Loti, Cedar Springs, obliged, setting a new track record in Romantic Springs and Candy Cores the process. — they’d all go on to have solid “It was probably more of a buzz careers, winning multiple races under “Easter was a bad time for me. with Dave coming out with the horse the Phillips name. that year. We got into a bit of trouble He toiled hard over 15 years, I hit rock bottom. I just lost all with the change of tactics but it paid always performing well in the off in the long run with the horse Geelong trainers premiership. At its confidence in myself, I lost my way. getting into the Melbourne Cup,” peak, Niall’s stable had 18 horses. You work seven days a week and there’s Phillips said. Costa In The Glen was the best Tragedy would then strike with horse Phillips trained, while Candy nothing for you. Things were upside Oliver’s brother Jason dying after Cores had the potential but suffered falling in a trial in Perth just days injury problems. down. I tried to take my own life. “ before the Melbourne Cup. In recent times, Mr Dashing had a Oliver would use all of his courage stack of untapped potential but died and they just throw you on a horse brother Dave said to me ‘what and ride Media Puzzle to one of the from pneumonia after having surgery. and then say ‘well you can ride so off possessed you to take out a trainer’s most emotional Melbourne Cup wins Draper owned Phillips’ first winner you go’. licence? It’s really hard’. I said, ‘the in history. Aussie Loti and was also the owner of “I came from The Curragh where opportunity is there. I don’t want to In 2011, movie The Cup was made his last, High Diamonds. everyone goes out together. All of a look back and think I should have documenting Oliver’s win. It is only fitting that one of Phillips’ sudden you’re sent out on a horse. tried’,” he said. Jersey Boys musical star Bobby Fox most loyal owners would bookend his “All I remember that first morning At the same time, Niall also played would play Niall in it. training career. was walking out on the track at a key role in Media Puzzle’s Having someone play him in a It was Dave back in 2002 who first Randwick and all I could hear was Melbourne Cup success. movie still gives Phillips a chuckle. asked Phillips what he wanted to horses’ hooves galloping. Dave had ventured out to “I met Bobby when they were at achieve from his training career. “I was thinking to myself ‘where Australia with the tough stayer as part Geelong doing the filming,” Phillips “I said ‘whether I do it for a year, 10 Picture: PETER RISTEVSKI the heck are they coming from?’ I of Weld’s training staff. said. years or 20 years, if I give it away and didn’t know where I was going.” They had targeted the Geelong “We were having a chat and I meet somebody down the street and Those five months with the Cup as Media Puzzle’s way of earning asked him if he’d done any movies they want to shake your hand and you’re not back until 8.30pm. Cummings stable would form the a spot in the race that stops a nation. before and he said it was his first and I buy you a drink, then I’ve achieved “There are really long days.