It’s a long way from the Scottish borders to the Gold Coast, but this talented horseman with a passion for sales and bloodstock has found himself right at home.
This week we find out more about Ben Culham, a Magic Millions Bloodstock Consultant & Sales Account Manager.
1/ Where are you from, and what got you in involved in the thoroughbred industry?
Born and dragged up in the Scottish Borders, I was a horse addict from birth. Family had a few horses - hunting, eventing, a few National Hunt horses, plus my maternal grandfather Donald Filmer was an amateur jockey around Queensland’s Darling Downs, but never anything commercial.
I was always hooked - beg, borrow and stealing every horse I could find to hunt or event. I even lost 14kgs in a few months to ride in a Point to Point way before Tubba Williams made it fashionable!
Whilst at uni, I discovered you could actually follow racing (which I had always loved) on library computers and that became my unofficial theses – alas, no chance of any better degree than a Desmond, but I could tell you who had won Race 3 at Kelso last Thursday afternoon! My calendar ran from the middle of March to the middle of March as the Cheltenham Festival was the centre of my universe.
The incredible Irish National Stud Course and from there the John Durkan Award (working for Brian Meehan for 6 months). Whilst there, I realised I wanted to work for a sales company and an insurance department within a sales company was the way in – Magic Millions Insurance’s Wayne Aldridge took me on and after three great years of intense learning, an opportunity in the Magic Millions Bloodstock Team opened up.
2/ What does a workday in the life of Ben Culham look like?
Luckily incredibly varied.
Inspection days on the road, office days fairly 8.30am-5pm. In bloodstock full time (valuations, plus everything associated with promoting and running auctions), I’m also working on financing projects with the accounts team. The regular tea and coffee trips to the kitchen, being next to David Chester’s office, come with the added entertainment of the odd fireworks display.
Sales days are big days – a mirage of inspections, vendors, horses, buyers, phonecalls, bids, people, contracts and lots of logistical challenges. It’s an amazing team at Magic Millions who make it all possible, and you finish every sale exhausted, only to wake up the next day and want to start it all over again!
3/ Who is your favourite horse and why?
Winx or Sea The Stars, Kauto Star or Sprinter Sacre - I can’t choose.
Favourite horse at present is King’s Legacy. At the January Sale in 2019 I thought he was perfection in equine form and fell in love with him there and then. I can’t wait for his progeny to hit the sales ring and racetrack.
4/ Tell us about the best day you had at the races or at the sales, and what made it memorable for you?
A successful pinhook or a big winner creates a day hard to beat, but the best moment came in the Adelaide sale of 2017. I had a bloke run up to me, exaltation and exhilaration in every ounce of his being, to exclaim that he had just bought ‘this’ horse for ‘this’ price and he couldn’t believe it - best sale ever, best buy ever, best day ever!
As he bounced off to the bar to celebrate, another bloke came up to me, shock and disbelief on his face, as he told me what an incredible sale it was – he had just sold ‘this’ horse for ‘this’ price and he couldn’t believe it. What a result!
Same horse, price less than $20,000, neither party to be named. You have to love a horse auction.
5/ What is your favourite show on Netflix or TV?
I’m a bit of a dinosaur, don’t have Netflix, Stan, etc, and rarely watch TV. Why don’t we have a reality TV show in the racing/bloodstock industry though? Someone could make one – we just need to find The Teaser Pony to direct, produce and cast it.
6/ When travel opens again where is the first place you will go?
Back home to Scotland. Family first, plus it’s an amazing part of the world.
7/ What is your favourite cuisine and restaurant?
I love food. All food. La Bart in Burleigh is a hidden gem, only for very special occasions and booked well in advance.
8/ Name two things on your bucket list?
Racing in Saratoga. Skiing/snowboarding in Japan.
9/ What’s the best advice someone has ever given you?
Vin Cox – ‘It’s all about people’
I can also tell you the worst advice ever received:
‘You really should come and do Tough Mudder with us’. That was 3am, leaving a bar. By 6am we were in the car, by 9am we were head to toe in mud, and less than 12 hours after the advice was first received, we were back in the same bar again, battered and bruised. I had to resort to disabled ramps on my Sydney commute for the next fortnight as I couldn’t lift my legs up a step.
10/ Tell us one thing that not many people may know about you?
The two chukka’s of polo I’ve played, aged 16, came at the expense of a job picking stones off a newly rolled polo field in exchange. 40 hours of bending down and carting heavy loads of stones off the pitch, using a wheelbarrow with a metal wheel, was the most expensive 15 minutes of pony hire in my life! I’d play again in a heartbeat…..
