FRUSTRATED trainer Mitch Beer has been forced to take out a visitors trainers licence to enable him to train his horses that are trapped in Victoria.
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Beer has 22 gallopers spelling in Victoria that have been banned from returning to his Albury stables due to the border closure.
The NSW branch of the Australian Trainers Association and Racing NSW met on Monday to seek a possible resolution to the plight of Beer as well as other border trainers affected by closure.
Beer said Racing NSW had failed to come up with a solution, forcing him to take matters into his own hands.
The Border's biggest trainer will start to train up to a dozen horses from Levena Park near Euroa.
However, in a farcical situation, Beer will not be allowed to enter Victoria and one of his staff that resides in the state who is on maternity leave will oversee the training of the gallopers.
"Racing NSW are remaining strong in their stance that no horses are allowed to cross the border," Beer said.
"So I've decided to take out a visitors trainers licence and train from Levena Park.
"Levena Park has all the facilities we need including a water walker treadmill and an uphill track.
"We can also gallop the horses at Seymour.
"I'm still not allowed to enter Victoria and fortunately one of my staff who was on maternity leave is going to return to work and train the horses.
"I hope to have eight horses working at Levena Park by Monday and build on it from there."
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Racing NSW offered little hope to border trainers that they had a solution to the problem in the short-term.
"There is no change to our position at the moment. Will continue to monitor the situation moving forward," Racing NSW acting chief steward Wade Birch issued in a brief statement.
Beer said he hoped his gallopers would be able to return to NSW before they were ready to start their preparations.
"They are just going back into work now, so it is going to be three months before they are ready to race again," he said.
"Hopefully by that time they are back in my Albury stables.
"Most of them are only young horses or tried horses we recently purchased.
"All my spring contenders were already in work at Albury before the border closure."
