Junior no more as Kent joins Price

The mantra for Michael Kent has always been 'watch, listen and learn', and on a busy morning at Caulfield jump-outs he is doing all three – plus plenty of grunt work, pardon the pun – as he tags his new training partner Mick Price.

The 28-year-old Kent only joined the just-turned-60 but tireless Price last week, but it is smack bang in the middle of an autumn carnival and it is all systems go as All-Star Mile hope Grunt (NZ) (O'Reilly {NZ}) and other young talents reach a crucial stage of their preparation.

After a morning routine that involves dozens of dashes up and down the stairs of the Caulfield trainers' hut – deliver instructions, up again to watch trials, down to observe recovery, then repeat – Kent pauses after the last jump-out to tell TDN AusNZ about the decision to join Price.

"Mick approached me three-and-a-half weeks ago. I was taken aback, but most of all really excited about the opportunity," Kent said. "He is an amazing trainer and there are not many trainers that have been able to stay in that top echelon year in and year out, but he seems to have been able to do it."

For Price, who has expanded his operation with a satellite operation at Warrnambool in recent years, it was the chance to lighten the load.

"I have just had the feeling that I needed two of me," Price said. "In part it is because of Warrnambool, but I don't need to be at the other stables day-to-day as I have expertise there already with Matty Williams, but this will work well."

Yearling focus

"Michael is experienced with sales, yearlings and farms," Price said. "That is part of what I want to do. We can't sit here on our haunches, we need to go out and buy some horses."

Kent’s tutelage in yearling selection started when he found a bloodstock mentor in Dermot Farrington, who he knew through the family stable's connection with Mick Kent's client Gilgai Farm.

"Ever since I can remember I have been interested in racing, and going to yearling sales," said Kent, who lived in Singapore between the ages of five and 11, before returning home for his high school and university years. "Dermot has always helped dad select yearlings. I have been trailing him around the sales since I was a young teenager."

"In my opinion Dermot is one of the best agents in the world. When I was in my early 20s trailing him around he had already bought Bel Esprit for $10,000. He is unbelievable; he has got that X-factor about him and he has been one of my main mentors in racing. "

Student of the game

Being a student of the game is something that was always impressed upon Kent by his trainer father, who led by example.

"I've never seen anything like it, even with all of his knowledge, he still has that thirst for knowledge," Kent says of his father. "He still reads books and science manuals every night."

" He sent me on rounds with vets, I've been to see surgeries, and I've been to pedigree meetings, met up with scientists working on research into all aspects of training and buying yearlings. He has had me on the phone talking to sectional gurus, he just has this amazing thirst for knowledge and he impressed on me to be the same."

After completing four years of pre-veterinary science at Melbourne University, all the while riding trackwork most mornings for David Hayes at Flemington, Kent set off on a study tour of the world.

One year with trainer William Haggas, both riding out at Newmarket and as assistant at sales, was followed with visits to Roger Charlton, Richard Hannon Jr, Willie Mullins, and a month in Chantilly with Mikel Delzangles.

More European sales with Farrington followed, but upon returning to Australia Kent fuelled his competitive fire with some time in the saddle on the picnic circuit.

"That was invaluable," he said of the rough-and-tumble race riding. "It taught me that sometimes what you see on the television is not quite how it is out there on the track."

Why now?

Kent has spent the last two years with his father at Cranbourne – splitting time between trackwork rider and afternoon bloodstock work – and many have wondered why he has left when there seems, from the outside at least, a natural succession plan in place.

"Dad has been my biggest supporter but we had never really spoken about going into partnership," Kent said. "He is still a young trainer himself, is happy with his numbers and really happy for me to go to Mick, the opportunity came out of nowhere and something I couldn't refuse. Dad was right behind it."

" I always wanted to be a trainer but I was fully aware of how difficult it is and that you shouldn't go into not ready, and without some backing behind you. As a 28-year-old, I thought the best thing to do is the bloodstock aspect. It kept my foot in the door and I was riding trackwork for dad. I didn't see the point in starting out too young and slogging away. I had to be patient and wait for the right opportunity. This one got me by surprise, but I had to take it."

Own name and identity

By the way, when asked how his name should be written in print, Kent's request was to 'drop the junior', and with no disrespect to Mick, it's just Michael Kent from now on.

"I want to make my own mark on the industry," Kent said. "I see how James Cummings has gone away from his dad, I've got fresh ideas that I have brought from the world, and I want to forge my own identity, to be known as my own man and not just Mick's son."

It looks like Kent will now get that chance in a partnership where his bloodstock experience can come to the fore.

"I find the disparity between the time we spend looking at horses to buy, and then the time we spend training them, fascinating," Kent said. "If you get a slow horse you can still spend two years training it, but often trainers will only spend five minutes looking at a horse. Any trainer will tell you that, doesn't matter how good you are, you are only as good as your horses. So one of your primary objectives as a trainer has to be yearling selection."

For all of Kent's ambition, new ideas and experience, Price summed up the youngster's attributes, as he sees them, at this nascent stage of the partnership.

"He is here every morning, he is all over the horses and has the ability to read them," Price said. "From there, all of our decisions are made, I think if he keeps getting that right he will be a good trainer." .