Veteran trainer breaks drought with Echuca win

HE was once Bendigo’s youngest thoroughbred trainer – but now Leslie Robertson is proudly the city’s oldest.

The happy-go-lucky 84-year-old has seen plenty of things come and go in his time in racing – horses, fellow trainers, training methods and racing trends, to name but a few.

Not all the changes in his orbit have been confined to racing.

They include some of the houses that at one point surrounded his unique home and stable-base, nestled in an otherwise normal Long Gully Street, less than a 10-minute drive from the Bendigo CBD.

“We could have sold this place five or six times over,” Robertson said.

“They’d push everything down and probably put 30 units in here, probably more.

“They put 13 in that little block next door and asked if I wanted to sell my place.

“They said they’d give me 1.5 million, but that was 15 or 20 years ago.”

Robertson is not one for regrets, and is chuffed to have not only stayed put, but to have stayed the course in horse racing.

His current small team of Raging Monkey, El Salto and Game Theory, while not winning out of turn, are giving him as much joy and drive to keep on training as at any time throughout his 58-year career.

“Bloody oath I still enjoy it,” he said.

“People say you should retire, you’re 84. But I say, what would I do, sit and watch the idiot box?

“I still enjoy it, even if we don’t win often.

“We still have a lot of fun with all the other trainers, and I still get to say to the jockeys, if you don’t win, don’t come back.

“We still have a lot of fun and we get to travel a lot.

“There’s no use letting the grass grow under your feet.”

A bargain buy at $2200, Raging Monkey, who came to Robertson with throat problems in late 2022, has been the veteran trainer’s most constant companion at racetracks mostly across central and western and northern Victoria over the past few years.

His 47 starts have delivered two wins and six minor placings, with his win at Echuca last week breaking a long run of outs for both horse and trainer.

Despite his modest lead-up form that included a ninth at Warracknabeal and 11th at Wangaratta earlier in the month, Robertson was quietly confident Raging Monkey could turn things around at Echuca.

 

His judgement was vindicated, with three-kilogram-claiming apprentice Sam Kennedy piloting the nine-year-old to a convincing four-length win.

“(After Warracknabeal) I told a few people the next time we go around they won’t catch him,” Robertson said.

“I said to Sam, jump out and run the legs off them today – don’t get back in the field.

“I knew they wouldn’t beat him out of the gates – he’s pretty speedy.

“Coming to the turn he was about three (lengths) in front. He got out in the better going halfway down the straight and he kicked away and won by four.

“I was happy with that.

“He’s no champion, but he’s been a good little horse and out-and-out sprinter.”

The win snapped a streak 364 days without a win for Raging Monkey, who won the corresponding race last year.

That came on the heels of another drought-breaking victory for Robertson with Debit Credit, two months earlier at Echuca.

He had not visited the winner’s circle since Unique Goldy – who’s been retired since early 2021 – made it back-to-back wins on the Ballarat synthetic in August 2019.

Robertson employs an unorthodox training regime with Raging Monkey and the rest of his stable.

“I don’t work them out on the track,” he said.

“There are only a few track riders at Bendigo, and they are all tied up with other trainers, so what I do is put two of them in the big bullring at Bendigo and they chase each other.

“It’s about 400m around and they’ll do 10 laps at three-quarter pace – sometimes a bit harder – and then we take them over to the pool to swim two laps.

“They do that twice a week and then I give them a couple of days off before a race to freshen them up again.

“It works for me. Some people think I’m mad, but it’s worked for all the better horses I’ve had like The Mooksta, Mighty Way and Top Gear.

“They know how to gallop – you just have to get them fit.”

Robertson is optimistic his next winner is not too far away, and he’s thinking it might be a horse other than Raging Monkey.

He is bullish about the prospects of El Salto after a pair of recent placings in his last four starts.

Formerly trained in Bendigo by Group 2-winning trainer Brent Stanley, the now eight-year-old has been in Robertson’s care since late 2024 after stints in South Australia and Western Australia, and following a few issues has struck some consistency in his last four starts without winning.

Not the same horse he was when he prevailed on the card at Bendigo’s two biggest race meetings – Bendigo Cup day in 2022 and Golden Mile day in 2023 – or when lumping 65kg to victory at Morphettville in June last year, Robertson is hoping to extract something special out of the son of Written Tycoon.

“He had a lot of problems before he came to me, but I think we are not too far away,” he said.

“With a bit of luck, I think we can get another one of out of him.”

Adding further fuel to the enthusiasm, Robertson only last week welcomed an exciting new stable acquisition with city-class credentials, Peridot Star.

Formerly trained by multiple Group 1 winner Phillip Stokes, the four-year-old mare has had seven starts for three wins and was a last start fifth in the $175,000 VOBIS Gold Distaff at Caulfield in March.

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