PAGAN’S BIG PLANS
JOHNNY REACHES FOR THE STAR BY MICHAEL LYNCH
Denis Pagan had a dream come true when his horse Johnny Get Angry won the 2020 Victoria Derby. Now, he has his eyes on an even bigger prize – the Lexus Melbourne Cup. We find out his plans to get him there, and why it is all about the horse.
Success in one sporting sphere doesn’t guarantee that you will be a winner in another.
But the determination, planning, painstaking attention to detail and empathy with elite athletes – key qualities required to become an AFL premiership coach – are a strong platform for transitioning from one “game” to another. And Denis Pagan, the premiership-winning former North Melbourne mentor is certainly showing that neither age (he will be 74 in September) nor a late switch in professions is any barrier to success in the ultra-competitive world of racing. Pagan, who has a handful of horses in work alongside Troy Corstens at the latter’s Flemington base, says he is already “living the dream” having won the $1 million VRC Victoria Derby with his fan favourite Johnny Get Angry last year. But that dream could become ever more fantastical if Pagan’s plan to get “Johnny” to the greatest race of all, the Lexus Melbourne Cup, comes to fruition over the next few months. Pagan admits that he is taking an old-fashioned approach with his stable star, having tipped him out and spelled him for several months following his Derby triumph. In so doing he missed the chance to run in multi-million dollar derbies in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane, but the trainer is optimistic that his patience will be rewarded.
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