From Strapper to Group 1 Winning Owner

When Pretty Brazen (Brazen Beau) crossed the line first in the recent G2 Sandown Guineas (1600 metres) national television cameras happened to be focused on the filly’s owner Linda Huddy as she excitedly jumped up and down in the grandstand screaming and cheering.

It was one of the most euphoric reactions from a winning owner that we witnessed during the entire Spring Carnival.

“What are other people doing when you can get this sort of thrill when you get a good winner. It was just amazing.

“I thought they were going to go past her but, oh, she is just so tough,” said Linda.

One of the country’s biggest and most successful female owners, Linda has a love and appreciation for horses that has run deep since she was a girl growing up in South Australia.

“You fall in love with them they are beautiful animals and try so hard. They have been bred for hundreds of years to run, but the ones that really want to do it you just love to pieces even just watching them in the paddock.

“And when they are racing on the turf with the jockey colours and the green grass and white rails, I just love it.”

At a young age, Linda decided she wanted to get into the Thoroughbred industry.

“I left school after fourth form. At high school I wasn’t particularly good and like most teenage girls back then fell in love with horses,” said Linda.

With academic pursuits off the agenda, her mother suggested she embrace her passion and coaxed her into writing to local horse studs to get a job.

Not long after this fateful advice was handed down, Linda gained a position at One Tree Hill, the then home of 1968 and 1969 Melbourne Cup winning stallion Rain Lover (Latin Lover {GB}).

“There was a lot of stud work and riding racehorses in work on the property.

“The fella that owned it eventually sold it and moved to Tarwyn Park in NSW and I went there for a year.

“But it was in a pretty isolated part of the Bylong Valley and I didn't really like it there so I decided to go back to South Australia.”

Early work

Soon after returning home she joined the Adelaide stables of the late Bart Cummings where she would spend the next four years working as a strapper and track rider.

During that time her father retired and purchased 40 acres in the Barossa Valley to run a handful of broodmares so Linda left Bart’s to follow the family.

“I tried to get a job at a winery but I didn't have office skills so in the end I wrote to Lindsay Park and didn't get a reply.

“I asked around and someone knew Peter Hayes and because I could ride work and was experienced Peter gave me a job.”

Linda has fond memories of that chapter in her life where she had the good fortune of being associated with another iconic racehorse of the era - Dulcify (Decies {NZ}).

“A friend in Perth was there and she used to ride work on a horse called Arcus (Ward Drill {NZ}).

“He was going to be a champion and we used to alternate horses, I rode this other horse and he was Dulcify.

“I can remember I was at the races when he had his first start. I was dressing him and getting him ready for the race and I thought, he's quite a nice horse. He had a big parrot mouth but was such a nice horse, he had no s**t in him,” she recalled.

Exposure to the legendary Lindsay Park operation and its thoroughbred stars had a profound impact on Linda. It taught her the value of passion backed up by a strong work ethic when it comes to achieving success in racing and breeding.

“They were trainers that were always there every morning. C.S used to go between Lindsay Park and Melbourne and they would be at work every day.

“He had specific regimes for horses. It wasn't a cookie-cutter operation and he would treat them all as individuals.

“I hear about trainers now that half the time they are not at track work. Both C.S and Bart were such hard workers, but also the types they had in the stables were good quality horses.”

Linda says there was one downside to working in the Barossa.

“It gets really cold and wet and I got sick of the early mornings so I said to Peter that I wanted to leave and C.S. said, well, if you learn to do office work, we will give you a job in our office.

“I thought, that would be fantastic, but all the courses I had to do started in the school year, and this was October when I decided so I had a couple of months to fill in before I could start them.

“For something to do I thought I would go and meet my friend Denise in Mt Isa. I said to Peter, ‘I need a reference to get some work while I am there’ and he said, ‘oh you won’t come back. You will meet a miner or someone and that will be the end of you’.”

Meeting a miner

As it turns out, Peter was dead right. Keith, a well-known horse trainer and the husband of Denise (Ballard), whom Linda was visiting up in the warmer climes of Mt Isa, had a mate called Graham.

“Graham came over to Keith’s place a bit and he looked alright.

“He was available and I was interested in someone doing something for themselves and he had his own business. He had one grader and one dozer in pieces that he had to put together and he had a real go.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Graham and Linda got married and together they went on to build an empire.

Graham’s two machines turned into 140 and their company ‘Huddy’s’ became one of the biggest mining services businesses in Australia employing 220 people.

In 2008 they sold Huddy’s for $250 million and the financial windfall enabled them to start investing more in their passion - horse racing.

They didn’t begin as big spenders and at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale of that year Linda picked out a colt by High Chapparal (Ire) for just $15,000. He went on to become multiple Group 1 winner Shoot Out.

“We wanted something QTIS qualified and I looked through the catalogue and there was this horse by High Chapparal and he had his first winners in England. I said to Graham 'he’s a stayer and people won’t be looking for stayers as they want their money back so he will be cheap'.

“He came in the ring and I thought we would go to maybe $50,000 - $60,000 for him. He got down to $10,000 and the auctioneer said if we don’t get 10, we will put him out and so I put my hand up for $15,000 and that was it.”

Since then, the Huddy’s have enjoyed consistent success at the top level and raced horses such as Preferment (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) which won four Group 1s including the VRC Derby (2500 metres) and the Australian Cup (2000 metres). They now maintain a controlling interest in him as a stallion standing at Brighthill Farm in New Zealand.

Whilst still having a strong connection to Mt Isa, Linda and Graham now base themselves at Peachester Lodge on the Sunshine Coast where they have a stellar collection of 20 broodmares that includes New Zealand Group 1 winning mare Anabandana (Anabaa {USA}), Utopia (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}) the dam of G1 SA Derby (2500 metre) winner Volatile Mix (NZ) (Pentire {GB}) and Different To (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}) which has produced G1 New Zealand Guineas (1600 metres) winner Media Sensation (I Am Invincible).

Buying sprees of recent years have meant they have plenty of racing stock to work through and enjoy at the moment, including Pretty Brazen which they bought at Magic Millions for $700,000 - the most they have ever paid for a horse.

They are also in the market of raising and selling yearlings and last year sold a horse prepared on their behalf by Torryburn for $1 million at the Inglis Easter Sale.

And at the upcoming round of auctions they are expecting to have a number of horses entered at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale as well as the Inglis Easter and Classic Sales.

Selling is currently a higher priority, but you get the distinct impression Linda won’t be able to help herself and try to find the next Pretty Brazen.

“I love the racing and always want to have racehorses which is very expensive. I love a sales catalogue and I have two new catalogues to look at,” she mused.