Prominent racing identity John Kanga has lent his voice to a campaign for later training hours in Victorian thoroughbred racing, arguing that the welfare of the people caring for horses deserves the same serious attention the industry gives to the animals themselves. The push comes on the eve of Melbourne Cup week, with pressure mounting on racing administrators to rethink a tradition of pre-dawn stable starts that stretches back more than a century.
A Licence to Listen: Kanga's Return to the Stables
Kanga, a former Melbourne Racing Club chairman who resigned from the MRC board on the eve of last year's Caulfield Cup carnival, no longer holds an official position in racing. Earlier this year, however, he obtained a stable-hand licence through Racing Victoria's Stable Start program, saying the move was aimed at gaining a deeper, ground-level understanding of the pressures facing trainers and their staff. He now regularly visits Flemington stables.
"Some of the best ideas in racing don't come from the boardroom. They come from the people doing the work," Kanga said.
He framed his support for reform in the language of workplace fairness, saying the industry rightly spends considerable time discussing horse welfare but that the humans involved deserve equal consideration. "I've never been a great believer in doing something simply because we've always done it that way," he said.
When asked whether he intended to return in a formal role, including potentially nominating for upcoming Victoria Racing Club board elections, Kanga was characteristically direct: "I've never needed a title to contribute to racing, and I'm not about to start now."
The Case for a 6am Start
Kanga has aligned himself with Australian Trainers' Association president Troy Corstens, a second-generation Flemington-based trainer who has been pushing for a significantly later course opening time. Corstens is advocating for a 6am start, arguing it would make the industry far more attractive to workers and allow stable staff to lead more balanced lives.
"I think sleep is the most important factor in anybody's life. And if you're starting at 3 o'clock in the morning, these kids can't have a life," Corstens said. "They are having to go to bed at seven and 8 o'clock at night, they can't do anything."
Corstens acknowledged the personal toll on his own family, noting he is frequently in bed by 8pm and exhausted most evenings. "Would I like to spend more time with them? Of course I would," he said.
He argued a 6am opening would need to be paired with a 10am closing time, which would require the Victoria Racing Club to renegotiate its enterprise bargaining agreement with track management staff. While he acknowledged not all trainers want to change, he said opening the conversation was essential. "Everyone's entitled to the way they want to do it, but I just think that it'd open things right up," he said.
Progress So Far, and the Road Ahead
The VRC has already made some movement on the issue. In July, Flemington's course opening was pushed back from 4am to 4.30am, with a 5am start to be trialled after the spring carnival. That falls well short of what Corstens and Kanga are calling for, but is seen as a step in the right direction.
Training centres have operated before dawn for over a century for a range of reasons: trainers held second jobs, wanted first access to grass tracks, preferred working horses under the cover of darkness, or needed to complete trackwork before race day commitments. Curators also required early access to maintain racecourse surfaces.
Corstens also raised a separate but related concern, calling for government assistance to streamline the visa process for international track riders. He said regional training centres and the thoroughbred breeding industry struggle to attract suitable staff at various times of the year, and that the current process could be made considerably simpler to help service the Victorian industry's needs.
