Tara

After a successful career riding show ponies, I switched to thoroughbreds at the age of 15, when I started riding trackwork. A year later I commenced with Robbie Horne, where I gained loads of experience breaking-in and working with young horses. Robbie's calm approach to working with horses has stayed with me to this day.

I then moved to France at 18, and rode work in a jumping stable at Normandy, which was a bit of an eye opener after Australia. Continuing on with my travels I ended up in England schooling point-to-point horses, and later a brief but inspiring time at Newmarket riding out for Julie Cecil.

I then returned to France where I took up a job at Chantilly, and worked for Robert Collet over two years.

And to finish off my time in Europe, I worked for about a year at John Hammonds, who has greatly influenced the way we train our horses today.

Last stop before heading out on our own, was two years with Gai Waterhouse. I loved working at Tulloch Lodge, and this was a great opportunity to be reacquainted with Australian racing - and obviously nobody does Australian racing better than Gai.



Philippe

Phil started out riding showjumpers, but during his travels around Australia, he found work at Randwick for John Nichols, and never looked back.

When Phil had finally exhausted his Australian work visa, he returned to France, and passed a season working on a stud in Normandy, where he mainly concentrated on preparing yearlings for the Deauville Sales. After the sales were over, he started as assistant trainer for Robert Collet, but moved on after 12 months to work as head lad for a friend, Arnaud de Moussac.

Philippe then joined John Hammonds stable, where he spent two years as head lad in one of his yards. During this time he was able to do quite a bit of traveling with the horses, including trips to Germany, Italy, and New York, where he took his favourite horse, Red Bishop.

On returning to Australia, he was happy to settle in with Bart Cummings, and clearly there is no better school for a young aspiring trainer than Leilani Lodge.