Everybody likes to have a runner in the spring. The races are glamorous, the crowds are big, and public interest is at its greatest.
But if you haven't got a galloper with the ability to be competitive, it is a waste of time – no matter how much fun you might have on the side.
Ignoring the big days does take discipline, but that patience is now set to be rewarded for the Matthew Ellerton-Simon Zahra training partnership, who scored at Moonee Valley on Saturday with the $4.40 chance Whistle Baby, partnered by comeback jockey Chris Symons.
The Flemington-based duo had not had a runner at a Saturday metropolitan meeting for some eight weeks – before the AFL grand final, Zahra recalled – because they simply did not see the point of turning up just to be part of the show.
But now horses like Whistle Baby – who could be kept fit to try to notch some black type later in the summer – will be their flagships as they look to make up for lost time in town.
"It's generally our time of year ... it's good to be busy racking up winners going to the sales season," Zahra said.
"If you haven't got the group horses, or the top notch three year olds you are wasting your time a bit.
"It's frustrating sitting at home on the couch watching it and everyone says you are going terrible, but we had a plan and have stuck to it, all the owners have been pretty patient and hopefully get the rewards for it."
During the off-season last year the yard had Saturday winners 10 weeks in a row, Zahra recalled.
"We slide off a bit in the winter, and in the spring you just place the right horses and then go again through the summer. It seems to work for us.
"We didn't get the top notch winners. We were Super Vobis trainers of the year. We had a good year, we just need that banner horse at the moment.
"We have some really nice three year olds ... we are bringing them up slowly, the spring came around a bit quick for a lot of ours. We just head into the autumn, see how we go."
One man who was front and centre during the spring is David Hayes, who has re-established himself at the top of the training ranks in the past couple of seasons after a lean period when he first shifted operations to Euroa in northern Victoria.
He is now planning a hit and run raid for the Inglis sales race riches in Sydney in a fortnight with his two year old Rampage ($6.50), a debut scorer under Luke Currie in the opening event at the Valley on Saturday.
The son of All American – a horse Hayes trained to win a group 1 Emirates Stakes, beating So You Think in the process – only cost $20,000 as a yearling so has easily covered his purchase price in winning the $80,000 John Paraskevas Plate on debut.
But he could boost his bank balance dramatically if he scores in the $500,000 Inglis Nursery at Randwick in a fortnight.
"I think he's a smart horse and now he will go over to Sydney in a couple of weeks where he will be hard to beat.
"He was three wide the trip and will have a lot of improvement left in him. I thought he would run well but there were some big wraps on horses in this race and you can get it wrong at the Valley. He hasn't been overly schooled. But his father won first up at the Valley, so it might be a good omen."
