AM: Firstly, welcome to Albury.

MB: Yeah, thank you, it’s been a big move, but a pretty exciting one.

AM: Why Albury?

MB: I think it’s a great central location, I think it opens up, first of all, our accessibility from Sydney to Melbourne, I can open the calendar and look for a race between Sydney, Canberra, around here and all the way down to Melbourne, so you’re really spoilt for choice. I had reached a point (at Mornington) where I couldn’t see myself expanding over the next five or six years as the big boys are pretty big there so you reach your limit and you can’t go up without putting big financial pressures on yourself. I set up a small team up here, about eight horses, over winter and when it finished it was time to shut down the Albury stable and I thought, ‘bugger it, I’m enjoying Albury more than Mornington’, so I just shut the other one.

AM: I also heard you had a link to Albury?

MB: My sister Ash was an apprentice jockey with Donna Scott and I used to come up and stay with her and I fell in love with the place so it’s always been in the back of my mind.

AM: Your dad Les won hundreds of races as a jockey, what impact has he had?

MB: I tend not to listen to jockeys too much, but now that he’s retired I don’t mind (laughs). He’s great, he’s up here at the moment, we grew up in the back seat going to places like Echuca, Swan Hill and Albury, that was dad’s bread and butter. I love country racing.

AM: Your dad also rode (2007-08 Horse of the Year) Weekend Hustler.

MB: He had a lot to do with Weekend Hustler and he trained for a while too, so he’s sort of done it all. There’s not much else we talk about in the family, apart from horse racing, it’s a real family passion.

AM: You started out with Max Hinton, who’s had more than 40 years in the sport, what did you learn off him?

MB: It was a fantastic thing to do. I think it’s hard enough starting as a trainer, horse-wise, but also business-wise, it was good to spend my first 18 months with someone who had run a successful horse business for a long time. He taught me a lot, not only horse-wise, but also managing a stable. It’s all fun and games working a stable, but when you’ve got to pay everyone at the end of the week, it’s a bit different. It was great to start out with him, it was a really good introduction to the world of being a horse trainer.

AM: I’ve also been told you have a great feel for horses?

MB: When you’re buying horses and you don’t have any money, you’ve got to pick the right ones because you can’t afford to get it wrong. I bring a lot of tried horses out from New Zealand and I certainly can’t afford to buy things that anyone else wants to buy, so I probably spend an hour or two every night, watching trial replays from New Zealand. We’ve had a really good success, like Damselfly’s (Kept) that won her second race here by about four lengths on Saturday, she was an extremely cheap purchase out of the south island. When you are dealing with really well-bred horses from big studs the law of averages is a number of them are pretty good, but when you’re down the bottom a bit, you’ve just got to get to know them. 

AM: When you’re watching these races on TV, what are you looking for?

MB: A willingness to hit the line. We go to yearling sales and we look at pedigrees and the legs and how they walk. But the two most important things you don’t know is how big their heart is and how big their brain is, that’s ultimately what you’re banking on. I’ve had horses of all different shapes, sizes and pedigrees and the only thing I really care about is their attitude and willingness to work and how they respond to the workload. Damselfly’s (Kept) would be 15 hands (high) and 300 kilos, you wouldn’t be proud to call her your own looking at her (laughs), but her attitude and willingness to win is second to none. 

AM: You’ve had some terrific horses, who are some of the best?

MB: I’ve had Almighty Girl, who won a Group Three Typhoon Tracy Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley, there was a little horse called Jacqui’s Joy, I bought her out of New Zealand for about $25,000 and she won her first three here in Australia, including two Saturday races at Caulfield, so there’s been some ones along the way. At the moment there’s Dreams of Paris, probably one of our nicer horses and Gwenneth, she’s won five or six races. The next two years for us is going to be extremely exciting. We’ve really upgraded the quality of horses, thanks to our owners, who have supported the stable with nicely bred horses. It’s really a great feeling opening the door every morning to the stables.

AM: Are you looking at anything for the Albury Gold Cup in March?

MB: I think Dreams of Paris will head that way and I’ve just bought a mare out of France, her rating should get a start in the Cup.

AM: What about this weekend, there’s racing in Wodonga and Wagga, what have you got?

MB: We’ve got a three-year-old called So Magnifique at Wagga, he won a trial on Saturday by about four lengths, he’s quite a nice colt and Vivendi, she’s come up from Melbourne and won her first race for us. I’ve got four in at Wagga.

AM: You turned 30 last month, happy birthday, as a young trainer what advice can you give?

MB: Not to be afraid to get it wrong and fail. I think it’s very hard in this day and age that when you have a runner you’re exposing yourself, like have you done the work? You’ve picked the jockey, you can let the pressure of that get to you, but you’re going to get it wrong. As long as you get it right most of the time, you’ll be sweet.

AM: So don’t be frightened of failure?

MB: Yeah and that’s the attitude I’ve always had. Don’t be afraid to take your horse to town (metropolitan tracks). I’ve got no issue taking them to town and if they don’t run well, that’s fine, you can always come back.

AM: Training is such an all-consuming passion, but I know you’re a big golf fan, have you had a chance to have a hit?

MB: I haven’t as yet, but a couple of the boys go over to Thurgoona on a Tuesday afternoon, so I reckon that has me written all over it. The lifestyle here’s just great, in Melbourne you’ve got a race meet every second day but I love the fact here you can target one or two days a week and take three or four runners, it’s just such a better life. The later starts and just the relaxed environment, that (frenetic) attitude can then get put back on the horses. When you have a small team down there, you get up at three o’clock and you’re under pressure from the moment you get out of bed to get them worked. It’s much more relaxed here and I’ve already started to see that in the horses. I love it. I wish I did it a year ago.