Course News August 24th - 28th 2009
First Year Trainees
This week the first year trainees completed a two-day IT training course followed by a Communication Skills module. On Friday and Saturday the group travelled to UCD to continue their Equine Anatomy, Physiology & Reproduction module. Irish trainee, Bernard Condren, gave a talk to his classmates on, “An Introduction to the Irish Breeding Industry” while UK trainee, Chris Armstrong, from Co. Antrim spoke to the group on, “An Introduction to the Irish Racing Industry”.
On Wednesday the trainees paid an early morning visit to the Curragh training grounds and watched morning exercise. The highlight of the morning was meeting trainer Dermot Weld, who pointed out Famous Name being exercised by jockey Pat Smullen. On Sunday the trainees attended the Moyglare Stakes Group 1 meeting at the Curragh. Despite the poor weather they enjoyed the Irish racing experience and met a number of Irish industry participants.
Second Year Trainees
During their induction week at Darley, Kelvinside which commenced on August 17th, the second year trainees had meetings and lectures with members of Darley Australia personnel and visited the Darley farms of Kelvinside and Woodlands. They attended a Welcome BBQ at the homestead in Kelvinside attended their first race meeting at Randwick, Sydney.
This week they commenced their Equine Nursing Module at TAFE in Scone. This took place each afternoon from 2.00pm to 7.00pm and they had lectures on Medical Nursing, Radiology, Clinical Pathology and ICU Foal Care, including some practical work. In the mornings they had meetings with the management of the HR, Finance and Stud office departments at Darley, Kelvinside.
On Friday the trainee group worked with the Darley Marketing Department, finalising preparations for the Annual Stallion Parade. On Saturday they assisted with greeting clients at the Stallion Parade and enjoyed meeting new people from the Australian and New Zealand thoroughbred industry.