Rod Symons' plan was clear - sell his home and stables near the Bendigo Jockey Club, cut back his training regime and move his base out to his Lockwood farm.
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It sounds simple enough, but sometimes great ideas don't always go to plan.
Firstly, there wasn't a great deal of interest from buyers for his White Hills' property and, secondly, his homebred horses have hit a purple patch of form.
Symons has saddled up four winners and four placings four his past 20 runners, including a winning double with Jeune Elvis and Crash Cranach at Stawell last Friday.
"Things have fallen into place and it all seems to happen at once,'' Symons said.
"With all the young horses from the farm coming through I've decided to hang on to it (the property) and train from here for a bit longer.
"My plan is to eventually just train a few from out at the farm, but for now we'll keep going."
Symons has every reason to be excited about the future.
Three-year-old homebred Kiata started the stable's great run in the autumn with a brilliant maiden win and a placing behind boom sprinter Masked Crusader.
Symons had no hesitation in declaring Kiata the best horse he's trained since he prepared classy city-winning sprinter Ruben.
"She's out at the farm having a break and she'll be back in the stable in a few weeks,'' Symons said.
"She's pretty exciting and she's another homebred that's come through the system.
"We've got her full sister coming into work this week."
Kiata headlines a group quality group of young homebred horses.
"It's a real buzz because they're all homebreds,'' Symons said.
"It's different than going to the sales and spending big money on yearlings.
"When you spend a lot of money on a yearling there's extra pressure to get the horse to perform.
"When you breed them at home like we have there's not quite as much pressure.
"We've produced these horses from the farm and they're progressing nicely.
"Hopefully, they can go on with it."
While Kiata will return in the spring, Symons' immediate focus is this Saturday's Elmore Cup meeting on his home track at Bendigo with last start winners Jeune Elvis and Crash Cranach.
Jeune Elvis will run in the feature event the Elmore Cup, while Crash Cranach could line up in the same race or in a benchmark 58 handicap over 2400m.
Jeune Elvis was super impressive at Stawell after coming from the rear of the field on a soft track to win impressively at double-figure odds.
"I was surprised at the price,'' Symons said.
"He wanted the extra distance after running at 1400m previously.
"(Jockey) Jarrod Fry was very confident and that gave us some confidence.
"There was plenty of pace on and he settled out the back and finished off nicely."
After nearly a year out of the winners' circle, Crash Cranach broke through for his third career win.
Some of the original owners of Crash Cranach lost patience with the gelding and dropped out of the horse.
The remaining loyal owners stepped up and took more shares, while the remaining shares Symons gave to family members.
"It was particularly satisfying that he could win a race after the change of ownership,'' Symons said.
"Let's hope he can put a few together. He's only a 54 rated horse, so he might get away with some more 58 races.
"There's probably not much between him and Jeune Elvis."
Symons also has Perfect War, a smart maiden winner last month, entered for Sunday's meeting at Ballarat on the synthetic track.
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