Lauren Abbott looking to strike success on awards stage

By Andrew Smith

Lauren Abbott has tasted success with hundreds of race wins as both a jockey and a trainer but now she is in line for an accolade of a different sort.

Abbott is one of two finalists for the Queensland Off-The-Track Thoroughbred Care and Welfare Award at this year’s Australian Stud and Stable Staff Awards.

The 45-year-old juggles training around half a dozen horses for racing, along with retraining 12 former racehorses, as part of her role as a QOTT Acknowledged Retrainer.

Abbott said the nomination came as a bit of a shock after she only recently joined the QOTT Program to make her retraining endeavours official.

“I was actually pretty humbled and I was surprised actually, because I’ve only been a QOTT Acknowledged Retrainer since May last year,” Abbott said.

“It was great to be nominated - my friend (jockey) Georgie Cartwright actually nominated me and it was great to make the final two.

“I’ve been in the industry since I was a teenager as a jockey but doing the off-the-track retraining officially…it’s been less than 12 months since I began in the program.”

Abbott had a strong equestrian background as a teenager before starting her jockey apprenticeship as an 18-year-old. 

She rode over 300 winners throughout Victoria and Queensland in the saddle, before retiring from race riding in 2011.

Abbott switched to helping run then-husband Brad Herne’s stable at Eagle Farm before deciding to set up her own operation in 2018.

While racing on the track kept her extremely busy, she has always found the time to retrain retired racehorses off it.

Rather than sending her horses off to be retrained elsewhere, Abbott decided she would take on the retired thoroughbreds herself.

“In May last year, I had two beautiful horses retire…they just got to the stage where they weren't competitive, and I couldn't find anyone to take them,” Abbott said.

“I used to just have my stables at Hendra which was a bit hard to do any retraining at, but my partner and I moved to Logan Village to acreage and I thought, I will do it myself.

“Trainers started ringing me because I'm familiar to them, and it really has got to the stage now where you know at least one trainer a week will ring me and want me to take their horse.

“So it’s just sort of snowballed from there and now I've never been busier!”

Abbott has retrained several of top Brisbane trainer Kelly Schweida’s horses, with Boomster and Magic Conqueror coming on board after their recent retirements, and Grandma’s Love rehomed last year.

Trevino, a gelding who was previously under the care of Chris Meagher, has also enjoyed success in dressage under Abbott's tutelage.

The retrainer said she will often send the trainers photos of former racehorses as they adapt to their post-racing lives, something the conditioners get great satisfaction out of. 

“Kelly is quite funny - he doesn't say much when I send him a photo, but then I might go to the races or trials the next week and his staff will all tell me about how Kelly showed everyone the photos and how he's quite proud of how his horses are going,” Abbott said.

“The Meagher family as well - they've won races all over the world and get much larger thrills than having an off-the-track horse, but I sent Chris a couple of videos and a photo of Trevino after he won a dressage competition.

“The absolute delight in Chris' voice, it still makes me laugh that he was just so happy to see how well one of his horses was going.

“I think that's what I love the most - trainers get a bad rap for thinking that we are just heartless, and we don't really care about the horses, and once they finish racing, we just want to see them gone.

“A lot of the time, it's more so just logistics and it's not that the trainer wants to just hurry up and get rid of them, they need the box to bring the other horses in.

“I laugh about the thrill that the trainers actually get out of seeing these horses going on and competing and doing other things.”

Abbott credits the QOTT Subsidised Lessons Program coaches Gary Lung and Rebel Morrow for helping hone her craft.

Having enjoyed a 16-year career in the saddle, it is also that experience as a hoop that Abbott believes has helped her retraining.

“As I started when I was 18, there's not much that they could do that would surprise me and as a jockey, we don't get a list of what the horse does or doesn't do before we get on them in the mounting yard - we just get on and we go,” Abbott said.

“I guess I have that sort of approach - once they get here, I just go and work it out from there.

“You just know how they behave and I'm a bit casual and a bit relaxed with them, and it makes them a bit casual and relaxed.

“I have been riding them forever so there’s nothing that they do that would shock me.”

With almost 20 horses in total that are at different stages of their racing career or post-racing life, Abbott admits it can be tough to juggle the dual roles.

She has already thought ahead to wrapping up in the race conditioning and concentrating on full-time retraining.

“I've got a couple of young racehorses here, but I've got a few that are in their last preparations now so I'm definitely scaling down my training,” Abbott said.

“I've got a lot more off-the-track horses, and I feel like I'm providing trainers with a good service.

“I try not to say no and I try to be the port of call for the trainers, so that they don't have to stress about what's going to happen to their horse.

“But it is tough because there's only one of me and trying to fit them all in, it is a bit of a challenge.

Abbott is also keen to encourage more people with an on-track background to become involved in post-racing endeavours.

“I think racing people are probably a little bit more like me, where I'm a little bit unorthodox with my approach,” Abbott said.

“I might have a horse for a couple of weeks, and I'm quite happy to take them to a competition straight away.

“I really think education is the most priceless thing we can give them - the more educated we can make them when they leave here, they more chance they are of having a happy, healthy life.

“I think if we had more racing people taking on retraining, it would help the industry a lot.”

The winners of the 2025 Australian Stud and Stable Staff Awards will be announced on the Gold Coast on Monday, May 26.

Click here to see the full list of finalists.