Regan Donnison

Regan Donnison was always destined for a career in the thoroughbred racing industry. Growing up, his family lived and breathed for the horse, including his grandparents who were prominent owners/breeders. Regan had always grown up wanting to be a jockey but standing six feet tall that ship somewhat sailed quickly, he then moved on to training, and from there he joined New Zealand Bloodstock for ten years and recently he has joined the Matamata Racing Club as the general manager.

Following training racehorses for twelve years, Regan loved his time but decided to have a change of scenery and joined the New Zealand Bloodstock team. His role as a sales representative heavily involved client liaising, bloodstock work including valuations and assessments and a major focus for the year is the yearling sales where Regan and other members of the NZB team go around inspecting all of the yearling nominated for the sales and then work on putting the catalogue together for the sales that begin the last week of January every year.

With a new chapter beginning in August with Regan taking over the reins as the general manager of Matamata Racing Club. Regan's role is overseeing the club and its running, working with the board and creating and ensuring a vision for the club. The principal vision is surrounding what the Matamata Racing Club can offer as a training facility and racecourse. At the first group one race of the season, the first three horses home were all trained at Matamata proving the quality of horses in the area. Matamata is also a key area for thoroughbreds with everything being here, from breeding studs, pre-trainers and breakers to trainers everything is situated nearby and a facility where we can educate and train our future champions creates a central point for the town's industry. Other parts of the role include overseeing how the club spends their money. The philosophy is to spend efficiently, where it counts and do their best to save money where they can but without skimping on quality. But most importantly it's keeping the trainers and staff happy and safe.

Regan would like to see Matamata brought up for the future of the racing club to provide the best service 365 days of the year. Better tracks and facilities can only aid the production of better horses by providing them with every chance of having a successful career. Recently the racing club bought the Valachi training property next to the racing club. This has enabled more trainers to have horses on the track and alleviates some of the costs and pressures of having horses off-site and transporting them to the track every day. As for the industry on the whole Regan pushes for stronger education of the industry to the general public. With further education, we can hopefully see a better public reaction and perception of the industry which will only encourage people to get involved through its many avenues including ownership and employment. He would also like to see the industry present itself more professionally. Looking across the Tasman the way the Australians do it from every level is so elite in the way it's presented. With higher professionalism, we can get more people involved to continue the support for our horses and industry – which is vital.

Regan enjoys seeing amazing people do amazing things, fueling him to be involved in the industry and see it succeed in the best possible way. With racing, anyone can have the next superstar we never know where they’ll come from. This creates opportunities for any and everyone – we are all really on the same playing field in that sense. Money does equal success, and the next good horse can be a well-bred stunning type, or it could be a foal born with crooked legs that gets hidden away behind a hedge so no one can see him, and then goes on to be one of the best sprinters in the world currently.