Haworth takes hold after long career
Foxton trainer to rebrand stables as pre-training centre as industry falters
AFoxton horseman who once got a giggle from Princess Diana is the latest New Zealand trainer to take a hold and ease his career down. David Haworth, 67, is winding up his racing team and rebranding his stables and 70-acre farm north of Levin as a pre-training, agistment and horse rehabilitation centre.
In what has become a disturbing trend for the industry, Haworth is another established trainer pulling back his involvement in New Zealand racing.
Declining raceday attendance, betting turnover, race fields, and foal crops are at odds with a rising costto-return ratio for the sport’s active participants and investors — the suppliers of a time-honoured wagering medium.
Haworth has ridden the high and lows of an industry that had always favoured the brave. But with rising costs outweighing the average potential earnings of a horse, it was time to take stock.
“I’ve been waiting and waiting for the industry to come right. I think I’ve just got sick of waiting,” he said.
“And the [lack of] availability of good staff was a major reason.”
“I’ve just decided that it’s time to pull back a bit, smell the roses, and enjoy life.”
He challenged industry bosses to make some tough decisions for the future of racing and come up with a plan that was believable, sustainable and encouraged participation.
“If we don’t break with tradition and the industry doesn’t revamp itself . . . we can’t keep going like we have for the last 100 years. There needs to be vigorous changes to programming and racedays.”
For the past five seasons Haworth had trained in partnership with daughter Emma, who will now take up a position at the stables of Awapuni trainer Lisa Latta. Many
I’ve just decided that it’s time to pull back a bit, smell the roses, and enjoy life. David Haworth
horses in work with Team Haworth would now be based at Latta’s stable.
Haworth had always worked as a stock agent while training racehorses and would continue in that role. It was a profession that had served him well since his late teens.
He got the racing bug as a youngster riding work for his father John, a horse trainer, and it led to a brief career as an amateur jockey, winning twice.
His first win as a trainer came in 1980 when Bundaberg won a maiden race at Awapuni.
It was a slump in the beef market
that sent Haworth on a memorable overseas sojourn. He was working as a stock agent in Raetihi in the early 1980s when an opportunity came to take a large consignment of polo ponies to England.
It was during the Falklands conflict, when England had stopped sourcing horses from Argentina. He spent 34 days at sea with 18 horses on board, and rounded the infamous seas of Cape Horn.
“It was amazing. The more rough the sea was, the more calm the horses were,” he said.
A polo player himself, Haworth would stay in England for six months.
There he rubbed shoulders with British aristocracy involved in the polo set, preparing and handling horses for those that played, often holding out a mallet for Prince Charles.
With a booming voice that would later serve him well as an auctioneer, he said “hello!” as he walked past two young women at a polo event one afternoon.
The blonde one turned around startled, and couldn’t help but giggle.
“My mate said you know who that