Sean Driver on the Family Farm Behind Kurrinda Bloodstock

0:00 The family farm behind Kurrinda

George 0:00 We're here, Episode 12 of Kurrinda Bloodstock's Off N Racing Podcast. And we thought we'd give you a bit of an insight into Sean and how you started Kurrinda, going back to pretty much the brand, like obviously your granddad had Kurrinda stood. And you were involved in that from a young age.

Sean 0:24 Yep, yep. I don't know what this podcast is going to be about, do I?

George 0:29 No, no, I put it together this morning, sitting in McDonald's to be honest, waiting for Sean to come and pick me up.

Sean 0:36 Yeah, well basically, I won't go into like extreme detail, but long and short of it is, grandfather was involved in the industry for years and we bought a farm in 1993 at Merriwaar, 670 acres. And a horse by the name of Charmskay sort of got us, not on the map as such, but it won the Tamworth Cup back in the day in 1994. And that was a hundred thousand to first place.

George 1:10 Which was a lot of money back then.

Sean 1:11 A lot of money. I've still got the trophy itself is like a, you know, $10,000 trophy. It's all gold plated. And yeah, so that, that horse, I remember actually he paid for the first concrete slab of his shed with that prize money. And then it just stemmed from there. And yeah, long story short, we, we built it up to about a, or, you know, he built it up to about 180 horses that I worked on the farm, you know, every single day that I could. And every day I was free, but you know, around certain things and, um, basically, uh, up until the point of him passing away. And, and then we sort of.

1:54 Sean's years playing rugby league

George 1:54 But in that time of like, um, you helping on the farm and that, you were actually, um, a fuddy player for a bit.

Sean 2:03 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, attempt, attempted to, yeah. No, no, like it was mainly reserved girl. Like I did a bit of time with, um, the Knights and the Roosters and, um, and whatnot, but, um, I was never at the level that I could, um, I was never probably, uh, I was probably good enough, but I didn't have the consistency where I could ever play that top grade. Um, but I knew that. Um, so I just sort of rode the wave, uh, for quite a few years that I could because it was good. Yeah. It was, um, it was, it was, it was fun. Yeah. Met a lot of good people. Um, and so I could, you know, I soon realized you could drink most days and still be fit. So, uh, that was, um, times have changed. Times have changed. No, look, it was a good, it was a good time of your life, but at the end of the day, um, I knew it wasn't going to be sustainable and, uh, I knew it wasn't at that grade. So it was time to move on and take life seriously.

George 3:00 So no fear of swapping a grand final for a group one?

Sean 3:04 Oh, not at all. Like it got to the point where I knew I was done when, you know, we might get beat. I remember we played Melbourne Storm the year that they, um, uh, breached the salary cap. Do you remember that? Vaguely. Yeah. Yeah. So they breached the salary cap and we had to verse them at, um, it was Newcastle against Melbourne Storm and, and that week, um, they dropped every single player to reserve grade. They had like, um, um, Sikamanu and, um, God, players like Kevin Proctor and I think Cooper was there and, um, Brent White. He was a state of origin front rower and.

George 3:42 And they all showed up at reserve grade.

Sean 3:44 They all played reserve grade and we got beat 74 to two. And it was the longest bender. The team, we all went out. We were supposed to have recovery on Sunday morning. We, I think we played Friday night and we all turned up Sunday morning to recovery to the swim sesh still in our jeans. We had not been home yet. So we're out for what? Two days. And, um, let's just say that no urine samples were taken that morning because they wouldn't have had a team the following week. But, um, no, look, it was, um, it was good fun. And, um, look, that's years ago now. I finished in what? 2010, 11. Yeah.

4:26 Nutrition and gut health in horses

George 4:26 And then you, um, you had a couple of nutrition shops for a while. How do you think that's helped you with the horses, with the horse nutrition and everything? Because you're very big into that. Yeah. Yes and no.

Sean 4:38 So, like I think, um, gut health it has because I've just basically taken the gut health, the way it's connected to the brain. I guess the human guts connected to the human brain and, um, you know, scientifically speaking, so is the horse, so are the animals. So I've taken a lot of that across. Uh, and, you know, obviously I know how to break down certain, you know, with their feed. Like feeds, it's everything with horses that we've touched on. Like we hear at, uh, Ridgemont Farm. We, we touched on, um, how important nutrition is. And you can turn a really average horse into probably just an above average horse just by nutrition.

5:16 Leaving racing and coming back with Gen

George 5:16 And then at what point did you decide, I'm going to get back into a race and how did that come about? Yeah.

Sean 5:23 So when, when he, when, uh, grandfather passed, I had a good sort of two or three years away. Um, it was just good timing. A lot of the mayors weren't performing, probably half of the mayors. Um, a stallion died the same week he did. And it was just a, a, just a weird time. And I thought, look, if I don't do it now, I'll never do it. And, um, I, yeah, I got out of it for probably two or three years and, um, I didn't even watch a horse race. I didn't even like, I went from being your life to not watching one meeting. Yeah. So it was, um, it was, it was good. But at the same time, uh, I knew when I was ready to come back into it.

George 6:04 And how did you get back into it then? What was the first step?

Sean 6:08 I said to Jen, um, I want to get back into it. And I think this is, uh, this is the best way to go is to, for her to get the license. Because obviously, um, she's a solicitor. She worked at, you know, some big firms. And I said, look, I think you hold the license. You've got the qualifications to go and get it. And to be fair, um, it frees me up, uh, and the business up if I can just focus on the sales.

George 6:33 Did, when you came to her with the idea, like, what did she think?

Sean 6:37 Uh, she's always very receptive. Like, she, um, she said, yeah, I think it's great. Um, let's do it. And she said, uh, where do you think it can go to? I said, oh, I think we can get up to, you know, 60, 70 horses if we buy our own little farm. So pretty much everything's gone to plan. Yeah. Um, and, yeah, we, I started, I went to a scone sale where scone sales used to be.

George 7:03 By the train track.

Sean 7:04 By the train track. And yeah, you're looking at them on a 45 degree angle. And you're like, I hope those legs are straight. Cause they somewhat, they, I think they probably helped a lot of the horses there. To be fair. That would have. Cause God, there was some *** there. It was a terrible. So it's come a long way and I bought a horse called one pound for, I think, $6,000. And, um, yeah, put some, put some mates into it that wanted to come in and she won four or five from 15. And, and to be fair, um, her career was cut short due to an injury. So, um, yeah, just, and, and that snowballed from there. Yeah. Yeah.

7:42 Long days, patience and trusting your systems

George 7:42 Um, we've actually, um, gotten a stern filly out of one pound at the minute. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny how, um, it's grown in time. But, and what was like one of the, what were the challenges in setting up a syndication company? Did you find, um, or even the everyday challenges? Yeah.

Sean 8:01 Where do you start? Oh, the, the, the day, everyone says you have long days, but like I, you know, you genuinely have long days. It starts early morning, you get home and probably spend an hour with the kids. And then I go to, I got to hit the gym and I just, I still have to go to the gym every single night, most, most nights. And then I'm back in the office again until, you know, 10, 11 o'clock at night and do it again. So, um, it's, it's about, um, I think it's about managing your time around the people that work with you. Um, and, and just don't rush it. I think the biggest thing in this game is patience. Yeah. And you can be so easily impatient. Trust me, you can be so impatient, but, um, if you have patience, I think you'll, you will get rewarded. If that answered your question.

George 8:54 Yeah, no, I think, so we always find like, there's always a fire to put out somewhere, whether it's, you know, a horse might have not ran up to expectation or different things, like different hurdles to jump through. But as you said, if, if you work with a good team around you and everything and everyone pulls in the same direction and have patience, we'll all get to where we want to be in time.

Sean 9:18 And just trust your systems. I adopted our systems that we had. And if it's, you know, if it's not broken, don't fix it. It's pretty simple. And you've, you've got to go with the times. Things change and, but, uh, just keep it simple. Whether you're, whether you've got the fastest horse in your stable or the slowest horse, I think it's important to treat them the same. The day you treat them differently is the day that they'll probably injure themselves. So, you know, I've had some of our best horses with some of our slowest, like Paddock together. And, um, it just shows you that, um, you can't wrap them up. You've got to treat them just as a horse and just let them be a horse, don't you? Yeah.

9:58 Running a family business

George 9:58 And you mentioned Jen earlier. Um, obviously Jen's your partner, your wife, but it's a family run business, Kurrinda. Do you have many arguments and stuff over things? No, not really.

Sean 10:10 Like, um, not in regards to what, I think we know our place. Um.

George 10:15 Where you're strongest with. Yeah.

Sean 10:17 And she'll, she'll let me know that if I'm overstepping in going into, going into her.

George 10:23 We have a lot of them through their phone calls.

Sean 10:26 If I, if I overstep, um, and, and going to, you know, I guess what she focuses on and she'll tell me, look, no, like back, you know, back off, I've got this. And so that's always good. And, um, look at the end of the day, um, I just focus on the farm and the sales and, and, um, now the, you know, you've been with us for, you know, 12 months now. And, um, I think it's key that you, you're only as good as who you work with and, um, it's good. We bounce ideas off each other. And, um, I sort of let Jen, uh, be most of the time.

11:06 How syndication has changed in Australia

George 11:06 Yeah, no, you have to be that way. Um, it's just, otherwise it won't be successful really. But, um, have you found since you started the syndication company to where syndication is now in Australia, it's changed much?

Sean 11:22 Uh, I probably haven't, well, I don't think as a syndicator, I, that's probably, I probably can't comment because we haven't been around long enough.

George 11:30 No, it's just syndication in general in Australia.

Sean 11:33 Oh, it's, yeah, like since, since I've been involved in the industry, like back when Dali were with the, you know, John O'Shea and then what Peter and Paul Snow, like they were, they weren't even the good old from blue, were they? Like back when Dali was maroon and white and syndicators weren't what probably a big thing until what, 2010, really? 11 and then all of a sudden it's, God, like I think, I feel in probably five years, half the fields are going to be syndicated horses. Yeah. Um, so it's, it's come a long way.

12:10 Staying around 70 horses

George 12:10 And where do you see, say five years, Corinne, I mean?

Sean 12:15 Um, look, I still feel we'll probably be around that 70 mark, that 70 horses. I don't want to get too big. I think you'll agree with that. Yeah, yeah.

George 12:24 Cause you like to be hands on at the farm still. Yeah.

Sean 12:27 And I think it's manageable. I think it'll get to the point that if we went any bigger, we'd probably need another location.

George 12:33 Do you think Shane, our farm manager, would disagree with 70?

Sean 12:37 No, like again, it's about making sure that, um, he gets the help he needs. Cause naturally the bigger and the busier we get, um, I'm not going to be at the farm.

George 12:47 Um, and we want, when you say 70, we want quality. We don't want to just race horses for the sake of it.

Sean 12:53 No, not at all. It's, it's quality, um, you know, cliche quality over quantity. And if they're not up to the mark and racing at a certain level, um, you know, we need to make sure that our horses are. Yeah.

13:07 Open day, two-year-olds and the next guest

George 13:07 And we've really focused on that quality this year, haven't we? Yep. Yep. Definitely. Yeah. And some of those yearlings, there's, um, still shares available in them, some really nice horses there. So if you, um, are keen to get involved, you know, shoot me an email, give me a call and get in touch with the office or even come to our open day on the 21st of July. Um, it's a great day. All our trainers there, there's prizes to be won. I think you're offering a $500 discount in a share. Are we? Go on. That's the word on the street. Yeah. I'm more interested in the $200 Dan Murphy's voucher.

Sean 13:44 And once this, um, little podcast comes out, like, uh, obviously things will change in regards to what's available and what's not, but, uh, yeah, contact George and, um, we've got an exciting, what have we got? 15 or 16 two year olds coming through. Yeah. Yeah.

George 14:00 So it'll be exciting times ahead. And, um, no, it's been, it's been really good. Like you said, I've been here 12 months now and even in that time I've seen how much we've grown and, um, it's great, great to be part of it and very exciting times ahead. We've got some nice two year olds coming out in the next while and, um, nice three year olds as well. So now I think people will be hearing a lot from Kurrinda Bloodstock and seeing a lot of us.

Sean 14:25 Just needed a little bit of luck. And, um, who is on our next podcast, by the way?

George 14:32 Next podcast is, um, Peter O'Brien from Sedgino Stud. So yeah, Sedgino, probably, what, arguably one of the best nurseries in Australia. Yeah. Yeah.

Sean 14:44 And we've purchased quite a few horses from them.

George 14:46 Yeah, I think four in the last few years, so we'll talk about them and, um, talk about, um, the running of the farm and what it takes to be successful at that level. And they just had another $3 million year, so. Doing it tough. Yeah. Yeah. So no, that'll be good. Definitely tune in for that. Sounds good. All right.