OUR TRAINERS
High Calibre Racing has enlisted some of the best trainers in the country to train our horses. We are passionate about racing and introducing new owners to the industry to share the thrill and excitement of racehorse ownership.
Tony Gollan
Trainer
Champion QLD Trainer Tony Gollan has joined the High Calibre Racing Team!
Tony Gollan was born and bred in Toowoomba exposed to horse training from a young age with his father Darryl Gollan being a successful horseman and trainer himself. In 1999, Tony took out a training license at the age of 20 with a small stable in Toowoomba. His first winner was Carbon Shadow in a provincial maiden at Clifford Park on 3 July 1999 and first metropolitan winner was Nova Serrure at Doomben on 4 September 1999 made even more memorable ridden by good friend Stathi Katsidis. After trying his hand training in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Tony returned to Toowoomba to further hone his skills alongside his father Darryl and also learn from legendary trainer Jim Atkins.
In 2003, Tony revived his own training stable in Toowoomba with one of his first acquisitions being a Special Dane filly from Eureka Stud’s Colin and Scott McAlpine. Her name was Temple Spirit and she would set the path for Tony’s future training success. Whilst she won eight races and over $130,000 in prizemoney, it was her first two offspring that would become trailblazers for the stable – Temple Of Boom and Spirit Of Boom. The Boom brothers would win a combined 20 races including 3 Group 1s and over $4 million in prizemoney. Temple Of Boom provided Tony with his first Group 1 success taking out the The Galaxy at Randwick on 21 April 2012.
Not long after in the winter of 2012, Tony relocated the stable to Eagle Farm and has not looked back. He won his first metropolitan trainer’s premiership in 2013/14, broke the late Bruce McLachlan’s record for city winners with 79 in 2014/15, and broke 100 city winners for the first time in 2019/20. He won his 8th successive metropolitan trainer’s premiership in 2020/21 with 103 city winners.
Jack Bruce
Trainer
Jack Bruce has worked for the best Trainers in the Country for the past 7 years, The time is now right for Jack to go training on his own account.
Jack has been afforded a great foundation. His first role in Sydney was as right-hand man to Bjorn Baker, Bjorn and Jack worked very closely across every part of his business including training, communications, bloodstock and sales. In that time the stable grew dramatically, and we enjoyed success with the likes of Music Magnate, Winning Rupert, Champagne Cuddles and Samadoubt. The Highlight being a double on Magic Millions Day in 2019 with Egyptian Symbol in the Sprint and Redouble in the Cup. It was that role that really exposed him to the competitive sphere of Sydney racing which I thrived on.
From there Jack had the opportunity to work for the most successful racing stable in Australia as Racing Manager for Chris Waller. Chris needs no introduction and the opportunity to sit next to him at Rosehill and see how he operates was invaluable. Attention to detail, patience and planning, are hallmarks of his regime and his epic success is not at all surprising once you have been part of the team. Ciaron Maher and David Eustace provided the next stepping stone, a rare opportunity to head their Sydney stable with 60 horses in work across Warwick Farm and the beach property. Ciaron and Dave are master trainers and the responsibility of managing their team in Sydney through the pandemic was something Jack really enjoyed. They had a great deal of success with horses like Enthaar, Acrobat, Bruckner, Explosive Jack and most recently Coolangatta and Snapdancer on Magic Millions Day.
In addition to Jack’s experience in Sydney, he has two degrees; a double in accounting and finance and a Bachelor of Arts in economics. In his early twenties he was fortunate to earn a place on the Godolphin Flying Start. A two year international management and leadership programme specifically for the thoroughbred industry. Flying Start was pivotal and sent him around the world learning from the best in the business and gave him a grasp of the international industry. Jack also spent a racing season in Dubai with the great Mike De Kock. Queensland racing continues to go from strength to strength Jack is excited to be a part of it. His philosophy that patience, integrity and professionalism will deliver success and that winning feeling which makes racing such a great sport.
Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young
Trainers
Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young were destined to be partners- both in life and in racing. As fate would have it, the New Zealanders would actually cross paths in Singapore as teenagers.
Their partnership has so far netted a plethora of winners, including a VRC Derby with Sangster and an Australian Derby with Tavago, as well as many stakes winners, such as Main Stage and Anaheim. Trent and Natalie continue to figure prominently in the top 10 of the Victorian trainers premiership
Paul Shailer
Trainer
Paul Shailer Racing is located on the Gold Coast, Paul has over 25 years experience in the racing industry, starting as an apprentice jockey in New Zealand before becoming assistant trainer to Chris Waller in Sydney.
Paul spent more than 12 years with the Chris Waller Racing stable and was a driving force in the rise of that stable from small beginnings to one of the most successful stables in Australian racing history.
Shailer Racing train from the newly renovated, state of the art facilities at the Gold Coast Turf Club.
Griffiths-DeKock Racing
Trainers
The best measure of a trainer’s success is their record in Group and Listed races and only innovation, patience and attention to detail enables any trainer to compete in the toughest of company. Such an approach has also helped Griffiths De Kock Racing cement its place as one of Victoria’s premier stables and produced accolades such as multiple South Gippsland trainers’ titles and a host of stakes wins.
Robbie Griffiths 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 himin good stead and helped Robbie outride his claim within two years. That experience provided a great springboard for his period in training, which began in 1991 when he became stable foreman for Tony Vasil in.
Mathew DeKock was also born into the Racing Industry with his Grandfather a famous South African Jockey, his mother following in those footsteps and his father, Mike de Kock, the leading trainer in South Africa. working for his father Mike de Kock, leading South African trainer, who has trained 126 Group 1 winners. During his 10 years at the stable, Mathew not only gained experience and knowledge from his father but was also lucky enough to experience racing on an international level traveling to Dubai, America, UK, Hong Kong etc. At only 29 years of age, Mathew has managed to build up more knowledge than some trainers would only dream of.
Together they are a formidable team that HCR are very excited to partnered alongside!.
Ciaron Maher
Trainer
CIARON MAHER
Apprentice to CS Hayes then a successful jumps jockey, including captaining the Australia team against Ireland in the International Jockey Challenge, Ciaron realised his size would deny his riding ambitions. Despite that, his love for racing and his natural interest and curiosity in training saw him commit to a career as a trainer at a young age. Knowing you learn best from the best, he spent time with Bart Cummings, Aiden O’Brien and Willie Mullins before starting in his own right, with 6 boxes on his dad’s farm. He knows you never stop learning and continues to connect with the greats, only last year spending time with Wesley Ward (USA), Roger Charlton (UK) and Richard Hannon (UK), Andre Fabre (France) and Joseph O’Brien (IRE).
Ciaron is now very happy to be based in what he describes as the best training facility he’s seen anywhere in the world at Ballarat, with operations also in Cranbourne and Sydney.
Sir Dragonet, Loving Gaby, Bon Arumn, Srikandi, Merchant Navy, Set Square, Askedillia, Ruthven and Tears I Cry are but a few of the Gr1 winners trained by Maher Racing.
Ciaron is proud of his flagship stable at Ballarat and what he believes it to be one of the finest training establishments he has seen anywhere in the world. Combined with his Cranbourne stable, beach facilities at Balnarring, dressage and pretraining operation at Pakenham and his new Sydney stable, Ciaron believes he now, has the best training facilities in Australia.
Matthew Dunn
Trainer
Matthew Dunn is one of Australia’s up and coming horse trainers boasting an impressive strike rate and delivering fantastic results for owners.
Matthew was based at Gerald Ryan’s racing stables for 8 years in Sydney (many as head foreman) before re-locating to Murwillumbah on the New South Wales/Queensland boarder to set up Ryan’s satellite stable for a further 3 years.
The experience gained working with Gerald provided the best grounding for Matthew to make the natural progression into opening his own racing stables.
In 2011, Matthew Dunn Racing commenced and the success achieved in the short period of time has been outstanding.
Mathew trained more than 100 winners in season 2014/15 with 47 winners in Queensland and a further 54 winners in New South Wales and maintains one of the best winning strike-rates in the game.
Mathew's winners to runner’s ratio has consistently hovered around the 20% mark for the past 6 years and he is well known for his great judgement in placing horses in the most winnable races.
Strike rates and Metropolitan winners are essentially for high quality trainers, however its wins in Group and Feature races that set trainers apart. Over the past 12 months Matthew has delivered success on the big stage with stable stars Madotti (Magic Millions Mares Open and Group 3 Vo Rouge) and Kebede (Group 2 The Roses) both achieve Group success.
Kevin Kemp
Trainer
Kevin Kemp known affectionately as “Kempy” has been involved in horse racing for over 40 years having started out as a jockey in the 70’s before moving onto training shortly after. Kempy is located at Toowoomba and has one of the largest stables at Clifford Park training from the former stables of legendary trainer Jim Atkins. Kempy is best known for winning a record 4 Westwood handicaps, which is Toowoomba’s most prestigious race. Kempy is very highly regarded in the industry having served for many years as the president of the QLD trainers association.