![ATA president Troy Corstens [Bradley Photos]](https://betsy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Troy-resizes.png)
Every industry reaches a point where it has to ask a simple question.
Are we doing this because it still makes sense, or because that’s the way we’ve always done it?
For racing, that question should be asked every morning at about 3am.
Australian Trainers’ Association president Troy Corstens reignited the debate this week when he called for later training starts, arguing they would help tackle racing’s ongoing staffing shortage.
He’s been making the point for years.
“I’ve been banging on about it for probably 20 years, but we need to change,” Corstens said on SEN.
“Everyone sits back – ‘I can’t get staff, I can’t get track riders’ – why would kids want to get up at 3AM, work their butts off all morning, and then go to the races all day?”
It’s hard to argue with him.
In fact, I’d go one step further.
The industry’s obsession with pre-dawn starts isn’t just making it harder to recruit staff. It’s making racing less safe, less attractive as a career and, potentially, costing the sport wagering turnover.
When I was at Racing Victoria, I pushed strongly for later training starts. During that period, later starts were trialled at Ballarat and Cranbourne. The trials proved there was another way to operate.
Yet here we are, years later, with much of the industry still setting alarms before 3am.
Meanwhile, we continue to ask why we can’t attract people.
Those two conversations simply don’t coexist.
Racing isn’t competing for employees against other stables. It’s competing against every other trade and profession an 18-year-old might consider.
A young person can become an electrician, plumber, mechanic or builder, earn a good living and still have dinner with friends or play sport on a weeknight. Racing asks them to build their life around a 2.30am alarm.
That’s a tough sell.
Long hours are part of the game and always will be. Nobody is suggesting otherwise. But there’s a significant difference between working hard and working at an hour that almost no other industry considers reasonable.
Corstens also highlighted what might be the biggest obstacle to change.
“We’re racing later, we’ve got more twilight meetings, and I think it’s time we sat down and got real, instead of saying ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it.'”
That sentence should be pinned to the wall of every racing boardroom in Australia.
The sport has modernised almost everywhere else. We’ve embraced twilight meetings, night racing, new wagering products and cutting-edge technology. Yet when it comes to training hours, we continue to operate as though it’s 1985.
Perhaps the strongest endorsement of change came from someone who didn’t initially want it.
Corstens recalled Peter Snowden opposing Rosehill’s move from 3.30am to 5am starts.
After living with it, Snowden’s view completely changed.
“You know what, Troy? I actually love it,” he said.
“It’s changed my life. I get a little bit longer to sleep, I get better staff. Once you put it into play, it’s actually really good.”
That’s often how change works. People fear it until they experience it.
Personally, I’d go further again. I’d like to see first horse on the track at 6am.
Why?
Because the benefits don’t stop with recruitment.
Only a couple of years ago Victorian trainers were staring down a WorkCover crisis. Premiums skyrocketed as claims mounted, threatening the viability of many stables before Racing Victoria stepped in with subsidies and the WorkCover Support Service. The industry deserves credit for getting on the front foot and bringing the situation under control.
But why stop there?
Working with 500-kilogram thoroughbreds in darkness, or even semi-darkness, is inherently more dangerous than doing the same job in daylight. Conducting the majority of trackwork after sunrise is simply a safer workplace.
If racing is serious about reducing injuries and keeping WorkCover costs under control, this should be part of the conversation.
There will be objections.
There always are.
Track maintenance schedules. Participants with second jobs. Every training centre being different.
They’re all valid points.
None of them are reasons to do nothing.
The working hours of an entire industry shouldn’t be dictated by when the track needs mowing. If later starts are better for participants, then the logistics can be worked through. Racing has solved far more complicated problems than moving training back a couple of hours.
There is one final benefit that rarely gets mentioned.
Later training hours create flexibility for later race starts without extending participants’ days. That’s good news for wagering.
The later race meetings begin, particularly during summer, the more people are available to watch and bet. Most Australians are busy through the middle of the day. They aren’t later in the afternoon. If racing is looking for incremental turnover growth, this is one structural change worth exploring.
With key stakeholders constantly calling for more prizemoney, the industry also needs to think about growing the revenue pie. One way to help do that is by racing when people actually want to consume the product. There are only so many industry staff that can be cut to protect prizemoney before there’s nothing left to cut.
There is no silver bullet for racing’s ongoing staffing challenges.
But there are plenty of practical changes that would make the industry a better place to work.
Moving first horse to 6am is one of them.
Troy Corstens has done the industry a favour by saying the quiet part out loud.
Now racing needs to stop asking why it can’t attract staff and start fixing one of the biggest reasons people choose not to join in the first place.
