The great thing about racing is that all careers allow you to travel the world. For example, you can spend the first part of the year foaling out mares in the northern hemisphere then switch to the southern hemisphere to foal them out there as well.
But if you’re wanting to stay with the same employer and travel, working for a racing stable or yearlings is for you.
If you’re working with racehorses, you will be based at one track or training centre with your charges but that track won’t always have the right races for your horse. While you may just take a trip across town, other times you may be asked to take your horse to a different state.
Prestigious races and big purses will often see trainers shipping their horses to carnivals around the country, including Western Australia. While most of the horses who attend them are upper level horses who run in stakes, there are big races for horses at all levels that give their strappers the opportunity to accompany them throughout Australia.
Because racing is so international, sometimes your horse will also travel to other countries. Both the Dubai World Cup Carnival in the United Arab Emirates and Royal Ascot in England attract Australians for autumn and winter racing, while the Hong Kong International Races in December is also a meet on trainers’ minds.
If farm life is more for you, then the role of a yearling groom will see you traveling throughout the year but returning to the farm often.
Yearling grooms help prepare yearlings for the sales, starting with Magic Millions at the Gold Cost in January. Depending on the farm you work for, you may attend sales all up and down the eastern seaboard from Queensland to Victoria and even go to Adelaide and Perth. Many yearling grooms also prepare horses and attend the breeding stock sales after the yearling season is over, attending many of the same venues they go to as yearling grooms.
If preparing yearlings and living on a farm doesn’t sound appealing, there is still a place for you at the sales. While you need to prove that you are competent, which is often done by preparing yearlings and working with horses for a few years, you can get a job working with consignors at sales around the world just working for them at sales. Be aware that this isn’t something that you will be able to do right off the bat, however. You need to prove yourself to employers and networks you make at the sales before a position like this becomes available.
Most consignors don’t sell horses in multiple countries, other than possible the New Zealand Bloodstock Sales in New Zealand. Because of this, you won’t have many opportunities to travel abroad with your farm but there are opportunities available for sales workers. The Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton sales in the United States, Tattersalls and Goffs in Ireland and the United Kingdom, and Arqana in France all have consignors looking for people to help both prep their horses and work for them at sales.
Outside of the jobs listed above, a few other positions that can see you travel quite a bit are farrier, equine dentist, bloodstock agent, and television commentator.
Overall, the thoroughbred industry provides many ways to travel and work both inside Australia and internationally. The only question remaining is: where do you want to go?
