Balancing country and city: meet Ben Brisbourne

A long way from Shropshire

Ben Brisbourne grew up in his father, Mark’s, racing stable in Shropshire, England. Although the horses and racing were a backdrop to his childhood, it wasn’t until his teenage years that the bug took hold.

“I took an interest in the actual mechanics of how racing worked from probably 15,” Brisbourne says.

“I fell in love with it almost straight away – the competitive aspect, how it all worked. You learn something different every day.”

Too heavy for the apprentice ranks, he first rode as an amateur jockey, working for Nicky Henderson at Lambourne, one of jump racing’s most famous yards. “The jockey side of things didn’t take off,” he admits, “but I learnt plenty with regards to the training side.”

A stint with trainer Tom Dascombe in Cheshire followed, and then – as so many have before him – Brisbourne decided to travel. His first stop was Australia, with all roads leading to Flemington. It was supposed to be a brief chapter in a round-the-world adventure. That was 13 years ago.

Country roots, city ambitions

Brisbourne first worked with Mark Kavanagh as a trackwork rider, during the stable’s exciting era of Atlantic Jewel. He then spent six years with Lindsay Park at Euroa – it was here that he met his partner, Heather, herself an accomplished rider who had ridden internationally – before taking out his trainer’s licence in 2018. He set up at Wangaratta Racetrack and has built steadily from there, adding a 200-acre private spelling and pre-training property at Eldorado called Nesscliff Estate.

The results have followed. He was awarded the Colin Alderson Rising Star Training Award in 2021, and this March landed his biggest win yet when Grinzinger Heart, a $41 roughie, stormed to victory in the Group 2 Darley VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes at Flemington. “It’s massive. It’s obviously something we all strive to do when we start out,” Brisbourne said at the time. “It’s nice to go down there and not just match them in handicaps, but win a Group two with a young, progressive horse.”

Since taking out his licence, he has trained more than 300 winners.

Why Flemington?

The move to take 18 boxes at Headquarters, formalised in May, was driven by a mix of ambition and practicality. With around 40 horses at Wangaratta, Brisbourne found the constant travel to metro meetings was taking its toll on the operation.

“We felt we weren’t able to place our horses as best we wanted to up in this area,” he says. “It was a lot of travelling down to Melbourne to those metro meetings.” So he asked the question at Flemington. “We got an answer reasonably quickly. It was all systems go from there.”

The early signs suggest the city air suits his horses. “A couple of our young horses have really grown up since going down there and taken that forward progression quicker than they have up here.”

He also likes the collaborative nature at Flemington. “When I first went to Flemington, that was the thing I really enjoyed. In the UK, everyone normally has their own private training centre, whereas over here you have 20 trainers all working in different styles and you could see what everyone was doing. How they trained their horses, how they planned out their programs. That was really interesting to see.”

When he isn’t visiting Flemington, he’s driving his horses all over regional Victoria, preferring to be on course to saddle up and observe recovery firsthand. “I like to be pretty hands on, make sure the saddle’s straight and all that,” he says. “Just trying to pick up any advantage you can get for the next time they go round.”

Ones to watch

Two horses stand out in the current string. Grinzinger Heart, the stable’s biggest winner, remains a filly to follow. And Salann, a Shamus Award filly with two starts and two stakes placings across Victoria and New South Wales, has Brisbourne quietly confident. “We always thought she was a jump-and-run two-year-old,” he says, “but the more we’ve been getting through the jump outs and the trials, the more the feedback was that she’d be a lovely 1400-metre horse and beyond.”

With a growing team in both locations, Brisbourne divides his time between Flemington, his Wangaratta base and the family farm, where he and Heather are busy with twin six-year-old boys, and a baby due later this year.

He describes himself as a watcher rather than a talker, soaking up all of the knowledge and experience he has been privy to throughout the years. “I’ve really taken account of everything that’s been around me,” he says. “You learn more by not asking the questions directly – just keeping your eyes and ears open.”

Given his growth and success so far, it seems to be working.

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