Willie Chandler anything but sheepish ahead of Country Stampede Final

By Jordan Gerrans

The old adage goes that a sleep deprived person needs to lay in bed and count sheep to eventually fall asleep at night.

For Barcaldine’s Willie Chandler, he is eager to be counting sheep down the Doomben straight early next month in the Country Stampede Final.

Chandler owns a number of gallopers around the Sunshine State as well as being president of the Barcaldine Racing Club.

For a day job, Chandler and his family run 25,000 sheep through the Central West across their three properties. 

Chandler will be in the unique position early next month of owning a share in a horse that competes in both the Country Cups Challenge Final as well as the Country Stampede.

Only one of those horses will carry his personalised new set of colours that pay tribute to his day job and how he got into the racing industry.

Up until four years ago, Chandler had never owned a race horse.

A workplace accident forced his hand.

The family had previous history in camp drafting but not racing thoroughbreds.

Two of his merino sheep charged into him on one day ‘at the office’ which put him on the sidelines for around three months with a broken leg.

Chandler can pick up the story from here.

“Rob Luck (former Longreach Jockey Club president and Central West race caller) thought I would be bored sitting there with a broken leg and he sent me the March sales Magic Millions catalogue,” Chandler recalls.

“I sat on the couch for a month and a half and ended up with two horses. That is how it all started as I had never had a race horse before that.”

Four years on, Chandler and his family have a handful of horses as well as being involved in a number of syndicates.

One of the more promising gallopers on his books is the progressive Entrepreneurial.

The son of Capitalist is only five starts into his journey in Central Queensland and has quickly racked up two victories, with the latest being Saturday’s Country Stampede qualifier at Moranbah.

Entrepreneurial races in Chandler’s family colours.

They are described as: red, blue stripe, collar and sleeves, white scattered sheep and cap, red pom pom.

“I just look for the sheep coming down the straight now,” he said with a laugh.

“They are paying for the privilege for us to own a few horses now.

“This horse might get back in the field in the Final in Brisbane but he will be hitting the line well, that is for sure.”

The colours were designed by bush racing photographer Roxy Weston with help from Helen Morton.

Entrepreneurial only had his first start in the bush in late September for trainer Raymond Williams and will need to tick one more country run over this coming Saturday before being eligible for the decider.

It has been a rush to get Entrepreneurial ready for the rich Stampede Final after connections originally had plans for a Battle Of The Bush tilt in the middle of 2024.

Entrepreneurial did it with ease in Saturday’s Moranbah qualifier on the sand, scoring by more than two lengths with apprentice Gabrielle Semmens in the saddle.

“Everything went right for him this time,” Chandler said of Saturday’s run at Moranbah.

“We put Gabrielle on him for Saturday. He needs to have another run this week to get his five country starts under the belt, we will probably go to Clermont on Saturday.

“Hopefully he can come through that and then we are two weeks into the Final.

“This race was not on the radar for us – we were more looking towards next year with him – but we thought we would have a throw at the stumps and we have got in.”

Entrepreneurial will don the quirky sheep colours in the city in early December but the other Chandler runner on the day will remain in his original colours.

The Barcaldine-based owner is in a syndicate that owns 35 per cent of reigning champion of the CCC Final Echo Point.

Also trained by Williams at Emerald, Echo Point won through to the decider by claiming a Blackall qualifier by more than three lengths in late October.

The Williams stable has been a constant in regional race series’ in recent years with evergreen veteran Ahwahneechee always around the mark.

Ahwahneechee ran third in the BOTB Final two years ago and has featured in other Finals.

It is fair to say Chandler is loving the ride that comes with horse ownership after it was a rocky introduction to the concept.

“I am loving it,” he said.

“It is massive even to get one to go but to have two in the Finals, it is great. It is pretty exciting.”

Chandler also has horses with the Edmonds’ on the Gold Coast as well as Eagle Farm trainer Desleigh Forster.