Meet
the
Vardy
Team
STEPHEN VARDY
Stephen Vardy is the owner and founder of Vardy Thoroughbreds, which was established in 2020. Steve’s passion and love affair for thoroughbreds began at the ripe old age of 6, after an unplanned visit to Warwick Farm racecourse to watch trackwork on a wintery Saturday morning.
The classic scene of seeing a magnificent horse bursting out of the thick fog and into the sunlight, ignited a flame that continued to flourish and glow. From that moment on, the form guide was Steve’s favourite reading material, Saturday afternoons were spent listening to the dulcet tones of Ian Craig and Des Hoysted, and he knew this is where his career was bound to be.
Most kids growing up 40 odd years ago had idols like football players or rock singers – but not Steve. His hero was the late trainer, J.B “The Master” Cummings, and the late jockey, John Marshall.
Whether it’s going to a sale yard, watching trackwork, attending the races, or just being in a paddock full of horses, the calmness and content Steve feels when he’s around them is something that can’t be explained. It’s a feeling that can only be experienced, and he would love for you to experience that with him!
Listen to Steve chat with John Tapp about his life and passion for racing here.
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TRAINER
John Thompson is a fourth-generation racehorse trainer – and a successful one at that as evidenced by his Group One winners expertly executed under his care. The Randwick-based trainer oversees a capacity stable of 50 horses in work at Randwick in Sydney.
John ran Cummings’ Leilani Lodge for Cummings at Randwick for eight years before branching out on his own, where he learnt the value of patience (as Bart famously quipped, it’s the cheapest thing in racing and the least used) and demonstrated his ability with young horses. In the season of 2011/2012, he was Australia’s leading two-year-old trainer.
John has prepared eight Group 1 winners during his career including champion three-year-old Fastnet Rock filly, First Seal.
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Trainer
Kristen Buchanan is proof that you don’t need to be based in the city to be a regular metropolitan winner; she has had success in town with the likes of Two Blue, Lucky Liaison, Lucky News, Echo Effect and Niccobelle, just to name a few.
Kristen rides most of the horses in the stable on a regular basis, along with her group of experienced trackwork riders. The team mentality helps her find the best-suited rider and handler for each horse, whilst monitoring their progress and fast tracking their progression.
Buchanan Racing understand that no two horses are alike, and pride themselves on being a boutique stable that takes a “tailor made” approach to your horse’s individual exercise, feeding, handling and educational requirements.
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TRAINER
Anderson Racing resides within the Eagle Farm infield stabling complex in Queensland, offering safe, spacious boxes for the horses, rooftop viewing platforms, high-end security, landscaped spaces for use by trainers, and owners, modern waste collection, and generous staff amenities.
Unlike a lot of trainers who were born into the racing industry from generations of family history, Chris Anderson didn’t take up training until well into his adult life. His late entrance into the training industry has given him the advantage of having no preconceived ideas or outdated family habits to shake, allowing him to focus on developing more modern, and effective training techniques.
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TRAINER
Marc Quinn’s trade began under his father, the late Pat Quinn of Rosehill. Marc is very passionate about training and thrives on challenges. He prides himself on the transformation of many horses, bringing them back to winning form.
Marc’s natural ability saw him broaden his skills in Ireland, with world-renowned trainer, Dermot Weld. Returning to Australia, Marc worked with legendary trainers Peter Snowden and John Hawkes of Crown Lodge fame.
Marc Quinn Racing has a hands-on approach, giving maximum attention and the highest level of care to all horses under his management.
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TRAINER
In a world of super-stables, we are big but we are small. Our ethos is to provide the best care and training to every horse in our stable while providing the best-in-market communication to our owners.
I have assembled a team of leading experts in bloodstock, veterinary, and trackwork to ensure we have the best support around these animals that we love so much.
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TRAINER
Luke Pepper knows how a champion feels and that knowledge drives him to look for a superstar of his own.
Luke rode the Australian turf legend Takeover Target in most of his work and travelled all over the world with the wonderful sprinter, playing a significant role in victories in the UK, Singapore and Japan.
Like many top trainers Luke’s involvement with horses dates back to his time in a pony club before developing a passion for the horse that took him show jumping and into other equestrian pursuits.
Luke rode successfully at the picnics before increasing weight forced him to abandon his quest to become a professional jockey but he retained his love of horses, working at Meringo Stud until a meeting with super Canberra trainer Barbara Joseph started him off on his training journey.
Pepper learned a great deal from his seven years working with Joseph and another top Canberra horseman, Nick Olive, where he became stable foreman before branching out on his own in the 2009/10 season.
Pepper almost immediately made history when he trained the winners of the Moruya, Narooma and Bega Cups in his first year of training.
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TRAINER
Growing up with horses, Sally Taylor knew all she wanted to do was train. Sally started strapping when she was old enough to legally do it and was riding track work as early as possible as well. Racing is Sally’s life and she enjoys every minute of it. The horses are the reason Sally gets out of bed every day and enjoys the challenge of working out a ‘quirky’ horse as well as watching each individual progress throughout their careers.
Sally has worked under some leading trainers, such as John Symons and Sheila Laxon, Brett Bellamy and Jim Jarvis. She learnt from all of these trainers and used the knowledge to then go off and form her own style. It’s a small team at Sally Taylor Racing with Sally and one other person riding all of the track work and a couple of ground staff, it’s all hands on deck and everyone is in it together.
Sally has enjoyed big race success already with a horse called Rednav who won the Grafton Cup prelude and the Grafton Cup. One of her greatest success stories has been with a horse called Risaldar whom she picked up for $1k and has now earned over $30k in just one prep.
Sally is hands on, passionate and shows great attention to detail.
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TRAINER
Kim’s love affair with horses started at an early age when she was given a pony to ride and look after. Her unique understanding and love of the animal gradually escalated to an amazing and successful career in Harness Racing where she trained and drove many winners and paved the way for women to become more involved in what was once a male dominated industry.
Kim did everything from breaking horses in to training, shoeing, driving horse floats and race driving. With all this amazing amount of experience and horse skills at such a young age, It was no surprise to anyone to see her move over to the thoroughbred industry where she once again excelled!
Kim’s first major success was with NEVER TRUE who took out the South Grafton Cup followed by Doomben Classic winner ENFORCED, Grafton Cup winner CATAPULT and multiple city wins with a favourite called HARRY KAY.
The highlight however has to be winning the G1 Sydney Cup with MAHTOUM, who later went on to run an outstanding fifth in the Melbourne Cup. No wonder Kim is renowned as an outstanding trainer of stayers with recent Cup winners GOATHLAND and OUR CENTURY impressing in the short time they have been with the stable.
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TRAINER
I rode successfully as a jockey before weight issues forced an early retirement but I always knew my purpose in life was to succeed as a thoroughbred trainer.
My unshakeable desire to succeed at the highest level as a trainer drove me during a long and sometimes difficult journey to the top of the sport, which has propelled me into the top 10 in the Victorian Trainers’ Premiership on numerous occasions.
However, Griffiths Racing has only flourished with the wonderful support of my family, friends, staff and clients that have continued to back my vision for more than two decades.
I was born into the game and rode for training greats such as the late Colin Hayes, Bart Cummings, Lee Freedman and other brilliant horsemen, which stood me in good stead and helped me outride my claim within two years. That experience also provided a great springboard for my period in training, which began when I became stable foreman for Tony Vasil in 1991.
A year spent with Tony was a terrific grounding before I was able to observe the best European trainers first-hand to glean further knowledge. I was able to use that knowledge from the moment I gained my trainer’s licence in 1991.
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Stuart is a trainer with an enthusiasm and drive that has seen him become the leading trainer on the Sunshine Coast in his first full season since relocating from Mackay in North Queensland.
Before moving South he took Premiership honours for the past 5 seasons in Mackay and was one of the State’s leading trainers for winners.
Unlike many others trainers, Stuart did not come from a family in the thoroughbred industry but found his passion for horses in his early teens riding and showing Arabians. After competing successfully for a number of years on the show arena, he started spending more time breeding, educating and breaking in young stock for himself, family and fellow competitors.
At the age of 18, Stuart was offered an old horse thought to be past his expiry date as a racehorse. This event inspired him to take out his own licence and try his hand at training. Before long his stable starting growing with his family and friends acquiring new horses for Stuart to fine tune his new career as a trainer. The winners started to flow and more horses started filling the stables.
Although enjoying the lifestyle of North Queensland, Stuart decided to head south to Brisbane and secured his licence to train from Eagle Farm. Over a period of 10 years he built his stable up to 18 horses and enjoyed many successes with notable horses such as Eimeo Bay and Bar Eclipse. He forged many long term relationships with owners whilst in Brisbane including one with prolific racehorse owner Gerry Harvey.
In 2004, Stuart with wife Trudy and young family decided to head back north to Mackay and once again set about building up a solid stable of horses. With his natural affinity of finding a nice horses it wasn’t long before his small team started notching up significant wins through the deeds of horses like Captain Biggles (Horse of the Year and winner of Mackay Amateur Cup), Cockaigne (Winner of Mackay Amateur Cup, NT Cup and placed in the Rocky Cup), Red Meshach (Winner of 11 races), Sabre sonic and Cinnamon Road. All winning Horse of the Year Awards
As the winners started flowing the stable started growing and Stuart was the leading trainer in Mackay for Five Seasons.
With the lucrative QTIS prizemoney scheme on offer throughout Queensland, Stuart then targeted these races and has built a strong reputation of his expert handling of young horses. This has lead to great success, winning $150k and $50k QTIS Bonus races with AvaLadyLuck and Massuri. Stable Star Doubtfilly won the $250k QTIS Plate at the Gold Coast before running a brilliant 4 TH in Pierro’s GOLDEN SLIPPER STAKES. She was then named Qld QTIS horse of the year and QLD Country Horse of the Year. Since moving to the Sunshine Coast in Febuary 2013, the stable has now grown to 45 boxes on course where the training facilities are second to none. Stuart is training for some of the leading owners and studs including Glenlogan Park, Emirates Park, and Darby Racing.
Horses like Celestial Dragon (Multiple Brisbane 2 year old Qtis winner), Thief of Hearts, Hazard Bay, Tambo’s Jewel, Lightfeet Lady, Deb’s Hope, Zellaro, Mavro, Sari, Snitzel’s Jewel, Pretty Gully, Avalady Luck, etc have all won in Brisbane and have firmly placed Kendrick Racing as one of the up and coming stables in Queensland. Kendrick Racing Stables are backed by a committed team of staff dedicated to provide the best results for their clients. He is strongly supported by his wife Trudy who is an integral part of the team.
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BREAKING IN AND PRE-TRAINING
Hannover Lodge is a thriving thoroughbred facility based in Wilberforce, NSW, only an hour from Sydney and close to all the major city tracks. Owned and run by Hinnerk Hueppe, the farm was named as a tribute to his birthplace Hannover, Germany.
The farm is nestled on an undulating 120 acres, dedicated to “preparing the elite racehorse” offering pre-training, breaking-in, rehabilitation and spelling.
With around 100 horses being cared for on any given day, the team prides themselves on the level of care and attention paid to each horse that comes onto the property.
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AGISTMENT & PRE-TRAINING
Finniefeirme is a Boutique Thoroughbred Stud based in the heart of Kulnura on the Central Coast NSW. We offer 5 star spelling, breeding & yearling preparation facilities.
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SPELLING
GT Park was established as a family run business in the 1980’s and since that time has flourished as a premier equine spelling and breeding facility. GT Park is set on over 160 acres in the Central Coast Hinterland, with an abundant water source thanks to natural spring water and the ability to thoroughly irrigate every paddock year round we are spared many of the stresses that other farms can face. Trainers such as John Thompson, Mark Newnham, Gary Portelli, Gai Waterhouse, Pat Webster, Adam Duggan, Bjorn Baker and Joe Pride have all used GT Park and we pride ourselves on our reputation within the industry for providing horses with a quiet, relaxing environment in which they thrive. We treat each horse as if it’s our own and with over 120 years of experience within the thoroughbred industry between our employees we pride ourselves on our skills and knowledge base.