Andrew Noblet to make Ballarat new home

Andrew Noblet is making an early move to Ballarat ahead of the end of training at Caulfield.

The closure of Caulfield as a training centre is still four years away, but trainer Andrew Noblet has decided to pull up stumps early and move to Ballarat.

Stables are being built on-course with Noblet hoping to be in the new Ballarat complex in March.

“There was always talk about Caulfield closing for years but until it’s actually in front of you, that’s when it became real,” Noblet said.

“I love Caulfield, always will, and none of us want to move from there, but we have to.

“At first they were giving us the choice of Cranbourne and Pakenham, which didn’t appeal to me at all.

“Everyone’s got to do it, so there’s not much point hanging around.”

Noblet had several factors to consider, not only the horses, but also a young family.

He said his wife was from Ballarat which helped sway the decision.

“The kids are nearly ready to go to school and we didn’t want to be pulling them out of school in the first six or 12 months,” he said.

“The horses and your family come first and what’s good for the horses is a lot of winners come out of Ballarat.

“They’re continuing to develop it. It’s already a fantastic training centre and it’s only going to get better.”

Noblet said there was more to the move than relocating the horses.

He says two or three of his current staff will join him in Ballarat while he understands there are those that do not want to follow.

While the move may make travelling to the south-eastern side of Melbourne more time-consuming for race meetings, Noblet said there were plenty of other options within easy reach of Ballarat.

“We might not go to places like Sale and Pakenham as often but there’s 27 courses within two hours of Ballarat,” he said.

“And it will make heading across to Adelaide easier as well as it’s nearly freeway all the way and you don’t have to battle getting through Melbourne.”

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