My earliest memories growing up in Central West, NSW on a large breeding, spelling and racing property with cattle & horses is whenever I would get in trouble – I would run and hide in our stallion yards and boxes on our farm who would nuzzle away my childhood tears… much to the distress of my parents who would try to quietly coax me out from underneath the stallions legs.

My first horse was a naughty Shetland Pony called Trixie who I would leap off onto the round yard fences like a little monkey every time my mother would give me riding lessons teaching me to rise trot bareback.. when I later became a more confident rider this cheeky pony would swing around a bite your feet every time you gave her a kick into the canter!

Years along I moved onto a naughty grey Welsh/Arab pony called Nardia who took me through my young years at pony club before I stared moving onto trying to retire pretty racehorses from the family to hack along in the show ring..

In my early twenties, I moved to Gold Coast and worked for some incredible trainers for a few years, Alan Bailey & Bryan Guy who taught me so much about conditioning, fitness, attention to detail and dedication to horses.

During this time, I had the pleasure of working with some hugely talented horses who had great success on the racecourses across QLD.

In 2006, I began working casually for Magic Millions during the busy sales period working various roles as needed such as ground staff, night security with stable changeover and post sale quarantine.

With my family involvement with breeding and racing, I stepped into a role managing our thoroughbreds and cattle on our large property ‘Kentucky Stud’ in Grafton, NSW for around 8 years working both hands on with the horses from foaling down, breaking in, pre-training and managing administrative duties.

I have also worked for IRT at Eastern Creek Quarantine for FIFO contracts, which gave me an incredible experience and understanding of the many different facets of the international impact and strength of our thoroughbred industry in Australia.

But it was the atmosphere and action of the auctions at Magic Millions that really stole my heart… unlike any part of the industry where wisdom, experience and old fashioned good luck run parallel together creating life changing moments for people from every walk of life.

As I swept up horse manure from the sales ring, I watched and listening the hypnotic and exciting calls and chants from the auction team with awe.

I dreamt that maybe one day, I could somehow be involved with the frontline auction action and asked to get a start bid spotting.

Unfortunately the boss declined.. so I kept asking hopefully & enthusiastically each year for about 5 years with same answer… No, not this time.

Finally one day our Bloodstock Manager at the time, Paul Knight said ‘Yes, sure you can have a go for the last few days of our National Sale’

I was beyond excited for the opportunity as by this stage of life I had two very young children and was inspired to be a role model for my daughter Alice who was just 18mths old.

I really wanted her to know as she grew up that women could also play an important role in any part of our industry and that everyone should chase their dreams!

Somewhere along the week, Gerry Harvey noticed my enthusiasm as I was assisting our incredible auctioneers with bid spotting and pulled me aside for a really positive chat – and a week of work experience turned into an regular opportunity at each sales!

Nowadays I am honoured to work part-time for Magic Millions as Marketing Assistant throughout the year.

I work underneath the guidance of our brilliant Sales Marketing Manager, Val Hayward – who recently celebrated a remarkable 30years of service with the team and has the finest eye for detail, style, creativity and continually successfully promotes our Magic Millions sales on the highest international level with great success and her experience and wealth of knowledge is priceless on so many levels to me, both personally and professionally.

I am also a fully licensed contract auctioneer for real estate, livestock and chattel and look forward in future bringing a unique style into the various auctions across QLD and happy to assist with any enquiries in this area from our supporters of TTC & TEA.

I own shares of racehorses in work across the east coast borders of Australia – with Melbourne Cup winning jockey and now racehorse trainer, Michelle Payne in Victoria and with Darlene Duryea who has had some great success across QLD racetracks for many local and international clients.

Adding to my dedication to the industry, we own a couple of broodmares currently in foal to QLD first season sire sensation, Better than Ready and our family are so excited to become ‘parents’ later this year to a beautiful bundle of four legged friends!

On a personal level – I’m a mother in a blended family of four amazingly beautiful children aged from 5-12years and engaged to my soulmate, Sean Hollands – a handsome, kind hearted cowboy and brilliant horseman that many people recognise from his appearance a few year ago on TV show, Married at First Sight.

Lucky for me, he didn’t quite find his happy ever story after on TV and our friendship from years beforehand blossomed into true love.

Sean proposed to me last year at Melbourne Cup on course at Flemington which was a very well-planned surprise and unforgettable day!

We spend most of weekends either working hard on our farm, breaking in, educating both horses and ponies and just enjoying enjoying teaching and watching our kids grow up in fresh country air!

When we venture away we love dressing up and following our horses around racecourses in QLD or dressing down in our jeans and cowboy hats chasing dust on the rodeo circuits with our kids – barrel racing with our retired thoroughbreds and cheering them holding for 8 seconds adrenaline charged bull-riding!

I’m really excited to be our The Thoroughbred Club Ambassador for QLD for so many reasons – I absolutely love the racing industry on every level and I also really want to help showcase the versatility of the breed in various disciplines and careers off the track – Eventing, Show Jumping, Rodeo, Western, Pony Club, Polo, Pleasure, Show Ring, Camp Drafts, Mustering, Trail Riding or as much loved companions.

I am looking to encourage and promote different aspects and opportunities with The Thoroughbred Club especially to our younger audiences – our family is also involved with the friendly warm welcoming Beaudesert Pony Club who like many other groups, invest time into creating great horsemanship foundations for children that will be the future of our thoroughbred industry.

My goal is to provide inspiration, share knowledge, build positive networks, passionate mentorship to help encourage and involve our horse lovers on every level.

I aim to promote the versatility of thoroughbreds off the track across a huge variety of disciplines and to help write and share articles that are celebrating the success of all industry participants across QLD!

Looking forward to a bright future ahead being involved with an incredibly talented and diverse team of ambassadors across Australia lead by the marvellously passionate Sharon Lenton, who is building a wonderful network and community of people investing in positively promoting every aspect of thoroughbred industry across Australia to a huge audience.

Let’s all work together to build a strong, united community – lifting each other up as we all chase our plethora of big dreams around such magnificent animals and such an exciting unique industry!