Traineeships to benefit four SA tracks

The grass is looking greener for young South Australian Sean Morris who has commenced a track curator traineeship at the Gawler and Barossa Jockey Club.

The opportunity is one of four track curator traineeships created by Racing SA at venues across the state to grow the industry’s workforce and encourage more people to pursue a career in thoroughbred racing.

Gawler is the first racecourse to benefit from the new Racing SA training program, with apprentices to be appointed to support the teams at Strathalbyn, Murray Bridge and Morphettville in the coming months.

Gawler and Barossa Jockey Club CEO Shane Collins said the Club was thrilled to be one of those selected to benefit from the trainee program.

“The new roles that Racing SA has supported is a wonderful initiative and for us to be the first cab off the rank is quite exciting, Collins said.

“To have more young people getting into the industry and understanding how track maintenance is done will only benefit our state for many years to come, as these young people will develop into track managers and bring in young people under them. It’s got long term positive effects.

“Talking to the other clubs that will get these trainees, we think it’s a great boon for the industry to have these young people coming in. We’re rapt that Racing SA is committed to these sort of things.

“Sean started with us in recent days. His role will grow over time, so he’ll start with all of the wonderful jobs of looking after horse stall areas and also on the race track, being able to understand turf management and being able to recover the turf after a race meeting, especially at this time of year.”

Growing up just down the road from the Gawler racecourse, trainee Sean Morris is already enjoying the varied nature of the role.

“I’m very grateful and excited about the opportunity I’ve been given,” Morris said.

“I’ll be learning about turf management, how the track works in different seasons, how to maintain it, and also doing some work around the stalls, keeping them clean for all of our trainers.

“I work with a great team. I’ll be learning off Nathan the track manager here. I hope to follow in his footsteps and grow into that role.”

Racing SA COO Vaughn Lynch said the track curator trainee program was just one component of the work that was being done to attract and develop people in the industry.

“One of Racing SA’s key areas of focus is to encourage more people to consider thoroughbred racing as a career choice,” Lynch said.

“Racing offers a broad range of careers and is a diverse and exciting industry to be involved in.

“We’re working to create new jobs and pathways for employment as well as facilitating training programs across multiple aspects of the industry to help address the current shortage we have in trackwork riders and stable staff in particular.”