Rookie Trainer Alexander Finding Fast Success

By Danny Power 
When Archie Alexander was announced as the new trainer of G1 Melbourne Cup aspirant Renew (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) last October, not only were Australian media and racing fans Googling his name, but also some of the owners involved in Renew as part of the OTI Racing partnership. 

The whirlwind change of trainer from the internationally successful Marco Botti to the virtually unknown from Ballarat came in the last few days leading into the G1 Caulfield Cup last October, after the imported gelding had finished 12th in the G2 Herbert Power H. over the same course and distance a week earlier. 

Alexander, aged 28 and only three months with a trainer’s licence, was thrust headlong into the limelight at a time when the international racing focus is firmly on Melbourne. He saddled Renew to finish 16th behind Japanese stayer Admire Rakti (Jpn) (Heart’s Cry {Jpn}) in the Caulfield Cup. 

“Some of the owners were a bit nervous,” Alexander admitted. “If you have a quarter of a horse with OTI and you want it to go to [Peter] Moody and all of sudden it’s going to Archie, you wonder what’s going on.” 

Within a few weeks, Renew ran second, beaten a half-head, in a Flemington plate race on Melbourne Cup day, and followed up two weeks later with a win in the Listed Sandown Cup over 3200 meters. 

Alexander knows that he has been fortunate to be given an opportunity few young trainers get in 10 years, let alone at a stage when the ink on his licence was still wet. 

“I owe everything to the support of Terry [Henderson] and Simon [O’Donnell] from OTI,” he said. 

Alexander, a much-traveled Yorkshireman, was working for Melbourne Cup-focused owner Lloyd Williams as a foreman at Macedon Lodge when Henderson and O’Donnell approached him to consider training a small string of their European imports from Ballarat, an hour’s drive Northwest of Melbourne. Alexander clocked on as a trainer on July 11, 2014 with five horses, a trackwork rider and a groom. Nine months later, he has 30 horses–with room for three more–four trackwork riders, four ground staff and has recently employed the services of a foreman, former Moody employee Freddy Eccles-Williams. 

Alexander’s spring impact has resulted in Black Caviar’s senior part-owner Neil Werrett sending him two horses; and one of Perth’s biggest owners, Elio Galante, who has a share in the OTI-owned and Alexander-trained import Martinvast (Ire) (Hurricane Run {Ire}), has sent the young trainer his smart galloper Amorino (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}). Amorino has won twice in three starts for Alexander, including the G3 Shaftesbury Avenue S. at Caulfield Mar. 7 and last Saturday’s Listed Super Saturday S. at Flemington. 

Alexander noted he left school at 16 with one ambition–to be a horse trainer. 

“It’s in the family blood,” he said. “Both my grandfathers were trainers and my dad, Hamish, was a trainer before he started working as a bloodstock consultant for Goffs.” Hamish Alexander has his place in history as the man who pinhooked 1991 Epsom and Irish Derby winner Generous (Ire) (Caerleon) as a weanling and sold him as a yearling. 

Alexander has been on the move and in a learning phase for most of the past 10 years. He worked for four years with champion trainer Criquette Head-Maarek in France before moving to the U.S., where he worked under Todd Pletcher for 12 months. In 2011, he spent a year in Australia with Anthony Cummings and Danny O’Brien before returning to Europe as a foreman at Ballydoyle in Ireland under Aidan O’Brien. 

He believes he has taken a little bit from all those experiences. “You can’t copy one person,” he said. “With Criquette Head I learned the art of patience and under Aidan O’Brien it was work ethic and being part of a team, a combination of all the factors that bring success.” 

“I believe I now train about 50/50 Australian and European style,” he added. “A lot of it has to do with the type of horses I am getting from OTI to train. I’ve learned to train by the clock and use trials to see where a horse is at, but at the same time I like to give my horses more strong, striding work than most Australians would on slow work mornings.” 

Alexander said his move to Australia hadn’t gone down 100% well with his parents. 

“Here’s home, but it’s not easy on the family,” he explained. “They [Hamish and mother Belinda] came out over Christmas time. They know I have made the right choice, but it is a hard choice for them.” 

Alexander admits to being ambitious. “I’m going to throw everything at it while I am young and I have the energy,” he said.