The Caulfield races are all about new beginnings on Saturday – an English trainer who lobbed in Australia with a backpack and no idea about racing, and a racing club’s decision to write off a $60 million mounting yard to keep its members happy.
Born in Somerset, boutique trainer Charlotte Littlefield is chasing her first group 1 victory with her first group 1 runner in the $750,000 1100m Oakleigh Plate.
Charlotte Littlefield with her mare She’s Bulletproof ahead of the group 1 Oakleigh Plate at Caulfield on Saturday.Credit: Penny Stephens
She is doing so with a home-bred mare, She’s Bulletproof, who started out being “incredibly awkward”, a heavy breather and a filly who struggled to keep up in track work.
“She used to fall over all the time, just trip,” Littlefield explained. “She was very lazy, she never had any get up and go, and then it was the strangest thing – the penny dropped.
“She is a different horse now. Each time you get on her, she’s sharper …. She would drop you if you weren’t careful. She’s just a weapon.”
Littlefield’s career also took time to blossom.
She was a successful event rider who represented the UK at the European Championships in Poland, travelled to Australia in 2005 because she needed a break, studied business at Deakin University, fell into riding track work and started pre-training.
She specialised in HR and psychology and intended to land an office job before her now husband Julian Hay convinced her to apply for a trainer’s licence.
“People had no idea who I was,” the 41-year-old said. “I was just this English girl who didn’t come from a racing background.”
Having set up at Pakenham alongside Hay in 2015, Littlefield is looking forward to the trainers getting back to parading their horses in front of the stands at a new-look Caulfield Racecourse on Saturday.
Charlotte Littlefield with She’s Bulletproof at her Hayfields Racing stables at Pakenham.Credit: Penny Stephens
The club has been frantically refurbishing its grandstands after a fire caused millions of dollars of damage in January, closing the course for weeks, and has made a statement by returning the mounting yard to its original position in front of the members’ stand.
The controversial move to decommission a new $60m mounting yard facility – which included a new jockeys’ room, a new trainers’ room and was opened less than 12 months ago – was made by chairman John Kanga as part of his successful push to topple the Melbourne Racing Club board during the spring.
The club will now use that area primarily for hospitality and entertainment, having set up a marquee in the space for Blue Diamond Day, with three group 1 races on the card. The jockeys, trainers and broadcasters will also be moved back to their old facilities.
The change means Kanga and his overhauled board have now delivered on the three promises that swept them to power: saving Sandown Racecourse, scrapping plans to build a new $250 million grand stand at Caulfield, and moving the mounting yard.
Littlefield backed the restoration of the old mounting yard in front of the stands.
“When I first got involved in flat racing, I was good friends with Sophia Currie, who is (jockey) Luke Currie’s wife, and we had a bit of a social group, and we used to go to the races at Caulfield all the time,” she said.
“You’d step out straight into the mounting yard area, and it was always my favourite racetrack, so it’s really fitting that it’s back in the old mounting yard area now, and we are running in our first group 1.”
Littlefield said tasting group 1 glory would be “an absolute dream come true”.
Horses will return to the old mounting yard area at Caulfield Racecourse this Saturday.Credit: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images
“To think of where I used to be at that stage of my life to where we could possibly be on Saturday – I think I might have to pinch myself,” she said.
Littlefield is probably best known among racing fans for her post-race interviews on horse back for the industry’s broadcasting arm Racing.com.
She said she took up the role four years ago when she began questioning whether she should be a trainer.
“I have never been one to sit tight and be mediocre long term, and I was at the crossroads as to whether I would continue training if I didn’t get the results,” she said.
Caulfield’s new-look mounting yard area has been decommissioned. Credit: Getty Images
“Luckily, my passion never died or wavered, and we weathered the storm and came out the other side with better horses, better processes, better staff, better riders and worked our way through it.”
Littlefield, who rides eight of her horses every morning during track work, said having her first group 1 runner meant she would not be working in her media gig on Saturday.
“I was trying to find a way of doing it because it is my favourite day on the calendar,” she said.
“I love Blue Diamond Day, but it is actually my wedding anniversary as well – which goes to show that seven years ago we weren’t that heavily into racing.”
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