Celebrity stud-staff cutting to the chase in Scone event

Cover image courtesy of Stephen Mowbray

In the districts around Scone, Link Baumann is a cutting-horse trainer and master farrier with big ideas. A number of years ago, he wondered if he might bring together the thoroughbred and cutting horse industries and, in doing so, create a new avenue for racehorse retirement.

It wasn’t an easy thing to do. Thoroughbreds didn’t traditionally wear western saddles in retirement, or cut cattle against the clock in competition.

But Baumann managed it and, on the evening of April 23, amid the annual National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Autumn Spectacular, the Hunter Valley Thoroughbred Stud Cutting Challenge will occur at Scone’s White Park Equine Complex.

“We’d been looking for quite some time in the cutting industry for a way to involve other parts of the horse industry,” Baumann said. “When we thought about having the Stud Challenge, we thought we could go a step further and take some of these off-track thoroughbreds and show people that they have cattle sense, and that they’re athletic enough to do the jobs that stock horses and quarter horses do.”

Baumann created a Cutting Challenge class and invited significant stud identities to compete. Most had no experience in cutting cattle, and they included Newgate’s Henry Field, Coolmore’s Tom Magnier, Mick Malone from Kitchwin Hills, Widden’s Antony Thompson, Tayla Gilmore from Godolphin, Catriona Murphy from Sledmere Stud, Nick Hodges from Riversdale Stud, Emma Parkinson from Vinery, Stephanie Watt from Segenhoe Stud, Coolarest Farm's Jason Bowden and Arrowfield’s Alice Messara.

New frontiers for racehorses

For many years, the NCHA has involved itself with celebrity cutting events, but this year is the first in which thoroughbred breeding identities will dabble. Baumann said the genesis of the idea lay in local drought and mental health, which choked the Upper Hunter until very recently.

“At that time, we talked about doing a big show in Scone for the local community, because the Scone bypass was also affecting a lot of businesses in town,” Baumann said. “It just felt like there was something we could do. Scone was doing it tough.”

The two major NCHA shows each year normally occur in Tamworth, but Baumann worked with many people, including Catriona Murphy, to bring one of them south to The Hunter. The Autumn Spectacular at White Park is the fruit of that labour, with the Stud Challenge a celebrity-lined local feature.

“If the two equine industries could get together, I thought it would be a great concept for a town like Scone,” Baumann said. “This is the horse capital of Australia, and certainly the thoroughbred capital, so it’s been good to see the industries join hands and come together as they have.”

Baumann, who was well acquainted with the studs and staff through nearly 40 years of farriery, didn’t have to ask twice for major breeders to get involved.

“It didn’t take much to persuade the studs to get onboard,” he said. “Everyone that has joined in has been enthusiastic and competitive, but that’s what you’d expect from very successful people, as these people are.”

Mick done Dee

Mick Malone is the cheery studmaster at Kitchwin Hills and, after six or seven years out of the saddle, he has found the Stud Challenge something of a revelation.

“It’s all had to come rushing back to me, because it had been a while since I was on a horse,” he said. “But what this thing has done is really opened up my eyes to the fact that horses can do other things than just run quick. It sounds stupid, but we can get so insular in this industry that we think that’s all they can do.”

Malone isn’t long home from the sales circuit. Last week he was ringside at Inglis, overseeing $3.1 million worth of bloodstock through the Australian Easter Yearling Sale. Next weekend, he’ll be cutting cattle in front of a township.

Recently, he was at Baumann’s Dee Bar Cutting and Performance Horses property taking lessons with the group.

“It’s been extremely rewarding for me to be involved,” he said. “I’ve been dealing with horses my whole life, and to see how these cutting horses move, how they’re taught and how they compete, it’s been really good. And who knows, this could eventually be another retirement scenario for racehorses.”

Malone said the welfare and aftercare elements of the Stud Challenge are significant. While the group won’t cut cattle aboard thoroughbreds, there will be two off-track racehorses acting as turn-back horses which, in the sport of cutting, shuffle the steer back towards the competing rider.

“Welfare in this sport is everything,” Malone said. “If you haven’t got your head around welfare, you’ve got your head in the sand. Just imagine if you could have three events like this a year for thoroughbreds, worth $3000 or $4000 to the winner, and then a final at Scone worth $20,000 to the winner. You’d have every cutting person buying four or five geldings off the track just to compete.”

Horses for new courses

Malone’s vision is shared by many, including the insightful Sledmere studmaster, Catriona Murphy. Through the talents of her son Jack, who jumped into the cutting arena as a young competitor, she has grown into the western sport from a pedigree entrenched in horse racing, and she was one of the brains behind this event.

“The idea was to do a celebrity cutting challenge,” Murphy said. “We wanted to get everyone together, and have a decent cross-over between the two industries. And to be honest, there already is a huge cross-pollination between the two. A lot of our best horsemen and women have originated from this cutting and western world, or are still involved in it.”

Murphy approached the individual breeders for their participation and, in addition to their involvement, both Sledmere and Godolphin donated a retired thoroughbred for retraining and eventual use.

One of these was gelding Badajoz (Commands), who pocketed over $625,000 in earnings across 40 lifetime starts. He was a seven-time winner at benchmark level for Godolphin, was stakes-placed at Doomben in 2019, and he moved into retraining with Link Baumann a short time ago.

“They’ve been with Link for about six weeks, being trained as turn-back horses,” Murphy said. “They’re athletic, but they’re also good-minded horses. They’re very trainable. We’re not asking them to cut yet, but we are asking them to be part of this event. There is a very good position for these horses in this sport, and so far it’s looking very successful.”

The rehoming element of the event is paramount for Murphy, who thinks it a privilege to be able to provide a new career to future horses. Equally, she knew that Malone, Thompson and Magnier, and everyone involved, would support the direction of the event.

“I’ve known all these guys for 20 years, and I knew they would get behind it,” Murphy said. “There are some big and exciting things we’d like to do for this event going forward, because we’re looking for new initiatives in how we can protect the thoroughbred industry. It’s important to all of us.”

The blood is up

As a collect set, the Stud Challenge riders are competitive. They will be judged by the cutting competition rule-book, with an additional team-event for kicks, and Murphy is expecting a spectacle.

“Everyone in this group is secretly extremely competitive,” she said. “Albeit it’s a lot of fun, I believe there’s been secret lessons going on. But I’m really enjoying that part of it. Everybody has really taken the reins up on this, and they’re putting in 150 per cent.”

Among the group, there are the natural riders like Alice Messara with the good seat, and Tom Magnier who rides like Tom Burlinson. Baumann said that Riversdale’s Nick Hodges has been exceptional, with probably the least amount of riding time under his belt in recent years.

None of this bothers Mick Malone.

“I think I should be odds-on favourite,” he said. “My riding in this event is like Winx or Black Caviar in a race field, and I just want to say to Tom Magnier he might as well not show up. Coolmore has no chance of beating Kitchwin Hills.”