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By Ray Hickson

When the time came to branch out as a trainer, Lyle Chandler had no hesitation in choosing the horse epicentre of NSW at Scone as his base.

A South African making the move to Australia to forge their career in the thriving racing industry isn’t a new story but the 39-year-old has a fresh way of thinking about what being a ‘country trainer’ looks like.

Sure, it’s easy to dream when you’re starting out with a small team of horses and an unfamiliar name but he’s adamant that Scone is the right place. Now he just needs the opportunities.

“This is a big call but I wouldn’t mind changing people’s perceptions about where a horse is trained and what it can achieve,’’ Chandler said.

“I don’t see any reason why Scone can’t produce a Slipper winner or consistent Saturday winners or Group winners.

Lyle Chandler with stable star Banju (Pic: Bradley Photos).

“Or why someone at Hawkesbury can’t be a successful metropolitan trainer. You see what Kris Lees is doing from Newcastle.

“The fact you have to be at Randwick to be a city trainer doesn’t stick with me. Especially with the improvements in vehicles and road networks around Australia you can travel and be competitive anywhere.”

Chandler grew up on a farm in South Africa so the country lifestyle suits him, that’s part of the reason why he chose the Hunter area when he finished up working for John O’Shea in mid-2019.

The area also provides the opportunity to supplement his income with other ‘day jobs’ working at studs but it’s the master plan for Scone that really caught his eye.

“I read that the land around Scone race club had been purchased to develop into a better training centre,’’ he said.

“While they were upgrading stabling there I thought I better put my name in. The stabling hasn’t been built yet so we’re building our team off course and trying to do the best thing by the horses and the clients. We have great facilities including the use of a water walker and treadmill.

“There’s a knowledge base here and I like the fact Scone is a good track to train on and the racing track is fair.

“With horses you’ve got to give them confidence, so you can teach them to race and finish off and you can do that here for good prizemoney. I love everything Racing NSW has done.

“There are four or five farmers here I get my hay from, I always check the hay and make sure I can get the best I can. I like to make sure my horses are getting the best feed.”

Regardless of where in the world you hail from it always helps to have connections. Most people will probably know Chandler’s name through the deeds of his dual Highway winner Banju.

The tough gelding was also his first winner and has taken him all the way from a Quirindi maiden win through to the Country Championships series.

Chandler was encouraged to come to Australia by Ben Justin, a friend who worked for Juddmonte in the UK, and it was Ben’s parents, also Scone based, who gave him Banju to train.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of cash behind me when I started out and it’s lovely to be able to get an owner and race for $22,000 in a maiden in the bush and go to a Highway or something like that,’’ he said.

“They entrusted me and it was great to get the win on the board. It was a huge relief.

“I could do with a few more like Banju in the stable.”

Chandler isn’t a one man band. Far from it. And he’ll say the whole enterprise would be harder without the support of his partner Emelie Larsson.

They’re quite the duo, a South African and a Swede who met in Australia when they both worked for Gai Waterhouse, and Chandler said Emelie’s experience with horses is invaluable.

“It might be my name on the ticket but Emelie is a big part of the success,’’ he said.

“When we got Banju broken in as a three-year-old he wouldn’t go around the track, he didn’t have a clue which foot he was putting forward. Emelie has a background in sports horses and show jumping and she learned a lot of trackwork riding for Vandyke, John Thompson and Richard Litt.

“I love the fact she has that equestrian background. A horse like Banju we take out on the field and do figure eights and try to freshen him up, teach balance. She’s an enormous part of what we do.

“You look at a lot of successful trainers and they have very good people behind them. They need that support because it’s very much a lifestyle as opposed to just a job.”

He arrived from the UK in 2013, having moved there to finish his education and attend agricultural college, where he struggled to get a ‘foot in the door’ in racing and with a few hundred dollars to his name.

Since then Chandler has taken every opportunity given to him, starting with quarantine work, and learned from some of the biggest names in Australia.

Lyle Chandler and partner Emelie Larsson with Last Bid Liam after winning at Coonamble (Pic: Janian McMillan).

The likes of David Hayes, Gai Waterhouse and John O’Shea, he was with David Vandyke during Yankee Rose’s career, have given him a taste for what the industry can offer.

And in the case of O’Shea, who was still rebuilding having finished up with Godolphin in 2017, a sense of how tough it is to get things started.

“I was itching to get going from the day I stepped in Australia,’’ he said.

“But you’ve got to do your time. I thought you always needed to have a good grounding.

“By the time I finished at John’s I felt I was ready, I knew what I was doing and talking about, I felt confident to start on my own and open a business.

“Regardless of if you’re a big name it still takes time to grow a business and get runners. I thought at one stage if you keep working eventually you might meet owners who will give you an opportunity.

“I was doing plenty of work but I probably wasn’t going out and pushing my name around.

“I can’t say I ever had to go to a business lunch and try and talk my way into a few horses. You’ve got to be a bit of a salesman and it has been hard work.

“A lot of the time I’ve had other jobs as well to keep bread on the table. It’s seven days a week, we do 14-16 hour days daily as we try to build.

“I feel very lucky that a lot of people have helped me out and are flexible if I’ve needed to finish early to go to a trial or something.”

He might have a small team for now but Chandler said he’s pleased with how things have started. Banju has given him a kick along and some valuable exposure and the team has grown from just a few to around double figures.

When he was based at Warwick Farm with David Vandyke he got to know Brad Widdup, who was working for Crown Lodge at the time, and takes plenty of heart from what he’s been able to achieve in going out on his own.

“I think you always want to be further ahead than you are,’’ he said.

“I see Brad Widdup getting his opportunity quite late and when he did he was successful.

“I remember coming back from the Highway win with Banju and you’re already thinking where your next winner is. You realise it takes a really long time to get going.

“You’ve just got to give it a go.”

*This article originally appeared in the April 2022 edition of the Racing NSW magazine

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