Natalie Young laughs about the time she went rogue.
It was back in the winter of 2021. Rising star Sierra Sue had just run fourth in a 1600m handicap at Flemington and the stable consensus was that the mare looked tired and needed to be sent for a spell.
But the intuitive Young felt compelled to flip the script.
“I just thought that she was a little bit pretty and maybe it was a fitness thing,” Young recalled. So she rang life partner and co-trainer Trent Busuttin, who was back in New Zealand, and informed him about a change of plans – she was sending Sierra Sue to the Mildura Cup. Busuttin didn’t agree. He argued steadfastly down the phone line that they should stick to the original decision.
But distance proved the deciding factor. With Busuttin away in New Zealand, Young figured she held the casting vote.
“I pulled rank to go to the Mildura Cup and she managed to win it, so I got the final laugh,” she said.
“It probably changed her career slightly because she ended up winning two Group 1s after that (the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes and the Futurity Stakes).”
It is a rare anecdote in a flourishing partnership. Young says the Cranbourne couple rarely stray from the script.
They have been consistently on the same page since meeting as teenagers on a working holiday in Singapore during the late 1990s – she was a track rider, he was helping his trainer-father Paddy.
“We are both very passionate about what we do,” Young said.
“We come from racing backgrounds so it has always been in our blood.
“These days, the actual training is very demanding. So it is good to have that partnership to divide the workload. One can go to the races one day, one can go the next. Then you’ve got to do voice updates, video updates, dealing with clients, it just makes it easier to share the workload.”
Busuttin and Young rise at 3.45am each day, splitting responsibilities once they reach the stable.
“I’m sort of the one who is more on the floor, looking at the horses, doing the daily treatment, doing the worklists,” Young said. “Then we both come together to look at the form, discuss where horses should be running, how they have galloped and whether they are fit.”