'My biggest regret': trainer opens up on huge decision (2024)

Astute trainer Phillip Stokes has joined a long list of successful horsem*n to expand his training operation into Victoria after training horses in South Australia.

Champion trainers Bart Cummings, John Hawkes and Colin Hayes led the way for the likes of Stokes, who five years ago opened stables at Pakenham while still training horses at Morphettville in Adelaide.

Stokes is placed in 12th place on the Australian Trainers Premiership and told ACM Racing he only had one regret about having stables at Pakenham and Morphettville.

"I've had the stables at Pakenham for five years but my biggest regret is I never opened stables in Melbourne 10 years ago," Stokes said.

"I suppose things happen for reasons. I suppose the time wasn't right to have stables in both states 10 years ago, but I can tell you know I'm glad we made the move five years ago. We just had to get bigger to survive. We had to grow and expand. It would have been really tough to just have the stables at Morphettville and keep on going. We purchased a farm at Garfield not far from Pakenham and have a wonderful facility at Pakenham and haven't looked back in the last five years. We've had over 100 winners for the past few seasons which is great, but I suppose I'm like everyone else, I would like to get more winners."

Stokes, who has 45 horses in work at Pakenham and 25 at his Morphettville base, said his sons Tommy and Kerrin are a major part in his success story.

"Tommy and Kerrin look after the Morphettville stables," he said.

"I'm really lucky to have wonderful staff at both stables. I head back over to Morphettville about every fortnight but Tommy and Kerrin have a great understanding of our training model. We sent horses backwards and forwards between the states as we find suitable races for our horses in Victoria or South Australia."

The Stokes stable has four runners Prancing Spirit, Oracle Sun, Twin Perfection and Taramansour at Caulfield and Magna Mak, Runaway Belle and Lunasha at Morphettville on Saturday.

"We've got Magna Mak making her debut at Morphettville," he said.

"The beauty of having stables in the two states is there to see with Magna Mak. We've been able to trial her up at Pakenham and we knew there's a nice two-year-old race at Morphettville so we send her over there for the race. She's a nice type of filly. I'm confident she'll run well. We've got Kayla Crowther riding her and she's also riding Runaway Belle. Kayla is a very underrated jockey who does a lot of riding for our stable."

Stokes rates Runaway Belle his best chance from his three runners at Morphettville.

"I think Runaway Belle is a great each-way hope," he said.

"Runaway Belle has been very consistent. She hasn't done a thing wrong. She's drawn an ideal gate in two and Kayla should have her well placed in the run. The 1100m is about as far as she wants."

Bet365 rates the first starter Magna Mak a $5 hope while Runaway Belle is a $5.50 chance in the early betting markets for their respective races.

Stokes said his four Caulfield runners should be competitive if they get conditions to suit.

"Prancing Spirit is in good order," he said.

"Prancing Spirit's chances will be enhanced if he gets a dry track. He needs that to show his best. He was caught in the bad part of the track at Caulfield last time but still battled on to the line. He's trained on well and should run well if he gets a dry surface. Oracle Sun, who is in the same race as Prancing Spirit has drawn a bad barrier. It's hard to win races from barrier 16 at the 1200m start but Oracle Sun is going to have to do that if he's going to win. We'll tell jockey Thomas Stockdale we're going to have to get a bit of cover in the run for Oracle Sun to win. Twin Perfection is racing in great heart and there's no reason why he shouldn't run well again while Taramansour has improved with four runs under his belt."

Two Group 1 races headline a nine-race program at Eagle Farm this Saturday. The $1 million Kingsford Smith Cup over 1300m and the $1 million Queensland Derby are the feature races. Champion trainer Chris Waller accepted with seven runners in the Derby and finished up with four runners and three emergencies.

Tannhauser, Kirikan, Shy Guy and Anderson Bridge are Waller's runners in the Derby while Osipenko and Espiona carry the master trainer's hopes in the Kingsford Smith.