The making of Brad Widdup: 500 winners and a decade of hard work

Cover image courtesy of Georgia Young Photography

Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup celebrated the milestone of 500 wins when 5-year-old mare Sneaky Choice (Extreme Choice) won at Warwick Farm on Wednesday. The mare has four career victories and she’s been in Widdup’s system from the get go.

“It’s great for the stable. You want to train winners and to get milestones is nice. Training winners makes you happy,” Widdup said. He’s been training for nearly a decade under his own name.

The only Extreme Choice in the stable, Sneaky Choice is owned by Mrs Colley.

“The Colley family have been good supporters for a long time. They are hooked up with Lustre Lodge at Wyong and bred her. I’ve had her the whole time. She’s only a spit over 400kg, so she’s a small filly. She’s very honest and it was great for her to win yesterday,” Widdup said.

“You can’t hide anything once you go to the races, they are either good or not. I like to see them win, then win again before I get carried away. Winning a maiden is good, but they have to go to the next level if you want to be a chance.”

Sneaky Choice has already met that benchmark with four wins and over $130,000, is the first foal of Ocean Nymph (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}) whose next foal is 3-year-old filly Lightening Kiss (Exceedance) who ran second on debut at Scone during Cup week. She has a 2-year-old filly and a yearling filly both by Signore Fox.

Ocean Nymph won her maiden at Coff’s Harbour and is a half-sister to G3 Desert Gold Stakes winner Fairy Dream (NZ) (Proisir).

A decade of training off a long apprenticeship

Widdup has had his trainer’s licence for nearly a decade. Before that, he spent ten years as the assistant trainer at Godolphin, first under Peter Snowden then with John O’Shea. The stable trained over 40 Group 1 winners in that time.

“It’ll be ten years next May. We have 70 horses here and have Fernleigh Farm too so could push to 100 in time, but we aren’t at that level yet. If we can maintain having 70 in work, that’s a comfortable number for us,” Widdup said.

“I’m a provincial trainer but I try hard not to go to the country with the horses.”

It’s about maintaining quality and sticking to better prizemoney races by staying in the provincial races and aiming at city class racing.

“The dynamics have changed a bit. Twenty years ago, a Randwick trainer would never go to Goulburn or Canberra but now they all go. And people are happy to win a race anywhere. It’s a competitive market.”

The system with Fernleigh Farm and the stable at Hawkesbury is a one stop shop, taking youngsters all the way through the process.

“We’ve put everything back into the farm and stable to have the best facilities we can. All the babies get broken in by us. We are pretty self-sufficient, spelling, education, pre training. They can race then go in the paddock for a day then on the water walker before coming back to the stables.

“I’ve got two of my sons who are keen on it too, they’ve both finished school and are doing uni and they ride work in the mornings. It’s the beauty of partnerships, you can introduce them to people earlier.”

When Widdup was assistant trainer at Godolphin, partnerships in training were not the done thing, and with no outside clients, there was a miss opportunity in terms of meeting people who might become clients later.

“Being in that bubble helped with the training side, but not so much with meeting people. I have no complaints though. But take Annabel (Archibald), she spent five years with Ciaron (Maher) and got her name out there with big clients, whereas I wouldn’t know who they (big owners) were,” Widdup said.

“There’s a lot of responsibility on Ciaron’s people but they get to meet people so it’s a win/win for them when they go out on their own.

“At Godolphin, we had 49 Group 1 winners and before that I worked with horses like Intergaze, Circles Of Gold, Savabeel, Not a Single Doubt.”

Translating that apprenticeship at the sales

Nothing beats the experience of seeing many good horses and working with them to understand what makes the more athletic and more successful than other horses.

“Sometimes you can be too picky, but a lot of horses you can’t buy because of the price. I like to look at whether they are an athlete before anything. I don’t know what they are by or out of when I look at them, and then afterwards use the book to work which way you are paying,” Widdup said.

“And you go to the races and ask ‘How did I miss that?’. Was it one I didn't inspect? You are always critiquing. I go to all the main sales, and we work pretty hard to find them.

“I’ve got good clientele between buyers and breeders, that all helps. We are lacking the syndicators, I’d love to have them here, but I might be too much of a straight shooter for them! You need them these days with the cost of training, so it’s something I think about a bit. But a lot of the syndicators are already aligned to people, so getting into the roll is hard.”

The old adage that a good horse can come from anywhere is part of Widdup’s process at the sales.

“I’ve bought them for nothing, and a lot. Akari was a million, they come in all prices. Icebath cost $100,000. You have to get out there and find them, but they are definitely out there.”

Dual Listed winning mare Akari (Snitzel) cost $1.05 million at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale in 2018, bought in conjunction with Jadeskye Racing, and while she earned $320,000 on the track, her two stakes wins paid off in the sales ring as a broodmare with her first three foals making $550,000, $400,000 and $360,000 as yearlings.

G1 Empire Rose Stakes winner Icebath (NZ) (Sacred Falls {NZ}) won over $5.2 million for the stable with wins in The Invitation and second in the Golden Eagle. She was a $100,000 purchase from the 2018 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, and on-sold for $2.3 million at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale, bought by Yulong in 2023.

Tintookie (Winning Rupert) was at the other end, being a $30,000 buy at the Inglis May Yearling Sale. Winner of five races including the G3 Wenona Girl Stakes, she earned over $490,000.

“She had six dams on the page. Sadly, she broke a leg in a race. It’s a rocky road. You might have a good day today and then something will slap you in the face, it’s the nature of the business,” Widdup said.

Gallery: Some of Widdup's former stable stars, Images courtesy of Sportpix

And on the upcoming sales, Widdup will again be out at all the sales hunting for the next winners for his stable.

“Every year, for the last nine years, there’s always something ahead of the yearling sales that you think will make people shy away, like COVID. Then you look at the USA and UK markets and they haven’t dropped off.

“I’ve been to Keeneland, not this year, but for the two years before that and there seems to be endless money there but they get that big tax break. I went to Tattersalls (December) last year and it was pretty strong too.”

Whether that strength will translate into this season's yearling sale market is anyone's guess and Widdup wasn't keen to speculate. Just reiterated that he'll be looking for athletes.

Hunting for win 501 quickly

Hitting a milestone is a goal that flies by quickly when running a stable of 70 horses, and Brad Widdup and the team will be hoping the start the journey to the next 500 as fast as possible.

They have 2-year-old colt Toytown (Lucky Vega {Ire}) lining up in Saturday’s Max Lees Classic at Hawkesbury. Owned by Yulong, he won a trial at Hawkesbury on October 20.

“The 900 metres might be a sharp for him but he’s trialled up well. He was meant to be in the Golden Gift last week but was second emergency. I didn’t trial him in the metro area, then Golden Gift with Zac Lloyd, barrier six, and he didn’t get a run.”

The big stars of the stable are out in the paddock, with both Savvy Hallie (Hellbent) and Tenebaum (Snitzel) being set for the autumn. But the stable isn’t without firepower over the next few months.

They won Saturday’s Listed Ladies Cup at Hawkesbury with Hyperbolic (NZ) (Proisir).

“She’ll be the one to watch over the next month or two.”

“Jedibeel trialled this morning, and will got to The Warra Saturday week. He went to Perth but had throat surgery afterwards. He’s been a great horse for us.” Jedibeel (NZ) (Savabeel) has won eight races and over $2 million, but hasn’t raced since finishing last in The Quokka in April. He ran fifth in heat five at Warwick Farm on Thursday.

“Satono Jasmine, she’s nearly ready to kick off again. She won four straight, before a break.” Satono Jasmine (NZ) (Satono Aladdin {NZ}) has won four of her eight starts, with all four wins coming in succession in June and July 2026.

“We’ve got a lot of young ones ready to go. There’s a fair few babies but we won’t measure too many up before Christmas but they’ll be there afterwards.”

Whenever the next 100 wins come from, the team at Brad Widdup Racing continue to do self-assessments and feedback loops to ensure a process of continual improvement.

Quality is the aim for the stable, the numerical milestones are less important.