An early love of racing was put aside as Kevin Dixon concentrated on his studies and career; but these days, now he’s retired from a high profile international position, Kevin is in the thick of things in the thoroughbred world as the inaugural chairman of the Brisbane Racing Club and as the owner of Racetree Stud at Innisplain.

THE internet is very much about people connecting to people. It is something inaugural Brisbane Racing Club chairman Kevin Dixon knows all about as he spent more than 30 years in the internet technology (IT) world. In that time he rose through the ranks to become a chief operating officer of Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company with operations in 52 countries. During his years in the business Kevin learned the essence of good leadership and planning as well as honing his skills in bringing people of different viewpoints together to achieve mutually beneficial results.
  Although he had not been actively involved in racing for about 25 years while concentrating on his career, Kevin also had a thorough grounding in the traditional gambling sports as a youngster. Fatefully, a few years before Queensland’s then Racing Minister Robert Schwarten decided in April, 2005 that he needed a respected identity to chair the Brisbane Racing Precinct Joint Venture, Kevin had begun indulging himself in racehorse ownership. That made him an ideal choice for chairmanship of the BRPJV, but the appointment was fraught with challenges and headaches.
   Over a long period the partisanship of the Queensland Turf Club and the Brisbane Turf Club
had poisoned their relationship, which had prevented those bodies from coming even close to solving their escalating financial problems. However, by October 2008 the QTC and BTC had been brought together - largely through Kevin’s endeavours - and that led to him becoming the chairman of the combined venture.
  Along the way he had broadened his investment in the industry by establishing Racetree Stud at Innisplain, which is a thriving thoroughbred breeding ground about 80km south of Brisbane. Initially established as a picturesque, boutique operation with around a dozen or so quality broodmares Kevin has since added four stallions - Greenwood Lake (USA), Hotel Grand, Monashee Mountain (USA) and Top Marc - to Racetree’s holdings as well as building up an 80-strong broodmare band. Now five years down that track he is in the process of reducing his broodmare numbers and is pondering over what exactly lies ahead as far as the stud is concerned.
  “When I started out I had a 10-year plan with Racetree and I am half-way through that,” he said. “I haven’t worked out what will happen next. If it made sense to keep Racetree as an income generator I would, but that part of the plan still has to work itself out. What I do know though, is that in five years time I won’t be a hands-on horse farmer.”
  It is simply a matter of priorities as Kevin demonstrated when he moved away from following the horses years ago to focus on climbing the corporate ladder, but as he says, almost from the time he was born in the suburb of Kingsgrove in Sydney’s south east, he was immersed in racing, harness racing, and the greyhounds through the involvement of his father Jack and three of his uncles.
  “My interest in horses grew from my earliest years. Mum and Dad would go to the races and I would tag along, so I was well versed in horse racing as a youngster. Another way my interest grew was through my mother’s brothers - my uncles, who were very much into horses. One uncle, Reg Young, raced horses and among them was High Jip who won the Breeders’ Plate at Randwick in 1948. These days I’m using the colours his horses raced in on the horses I own, but I suppose what had a bigger influence on me was that one of my other uncles, Herbie Young, was a harness trainer-driver.
  “My father was a harness racing fan and most Friday nights we would go to Harold Park, which in those days was attracting large crowds. That was around the era of Percy Hall who was one of my uncle’s great mates, Brian Hancock and Kevin Newman. I used to have a punt - 25 cents each way - and I remember one night my uncle had a well-fancied horse in a race and the stewards thought he might have pulled the horse, but my uncle was adamant he hadn’t. I’d had my 25 cents each way on and my uncle got hold of me, took me into the stewards’ room and made me show them my ticket.
  “He asked the stewards if they thought he would let his nephew back the horse if it wasn’t trying, and I vividly remember the steward looking down and saying, ‘Mr Young I believe you would’. In the end my uncle wasn’t charged, but it was a very colourful time and that’s when I learnt about punting and following horses.”

 

  Another uncle of Kevin’s - Charlie Young - trained and raced greyhounds, which often meant Kevin and his father going to meetings at Lithgow or Orange or, “if my uncle had a good one”, Dapto.
  However by the time he was in his late teens and early 20s, studies at the University of Sydney and developing a successful career took precedence over his punting. After completing an economics degree, majoring in accounting and commercial law, Kevin applied for positions at the leading accounting firms in Sydney.
  “I received two or three offers, one of which was in a division of Arthur Andersen Accounting that was involved in the infancy of internet technology so I chose to accept that one, and that started my career in IT. Over the years the organisation changed its name
a number of times and the part I worked in became Andersen Consulting.
  “About 1997, for a number of different reasons, the partners of Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen decided to part ways. It was a fairly difficult period for everybody, because the terms of settlement required a series of arbitrations until, eventually, the companies were separated.
  “One of the clauses of the separation was that Andersen Consulting could no longer use the Andersen name, and that was when, in 2001, Accenture was born. It was a name developed out of a competition among the staff and it is a shortened combination of the phrase ‘accent on the future’. Soon after it was founded Accenture was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and it has flourished ever since.”
  Over his years with the Andersen group and later Accenture, Kevin says he seemed to be spending most of his time on a plane, and in the initial years also had several home bases. After beginning his working career in Sydney he moved to Melbourne in 1981 and two years later he was deployed to Chicago before returning to Sydney in 1985.
  “In those years I would go racing when I could, but I have to say that time was of great value and didn’t allow for much leisure. For instance I would travel to the northern hemisphere twice a month, going anywhere in the United States or Europe. It was never anywhere specifically - I went anywhere we had offices or projects - and I had responsibilities in terms of the profitability and the operation of what we were doing. Looking back, there aren’t too many major western countries where I haven’t spent time . . . and it meant an awful lot of travelling.”
  However in 1986, when he married his wife Karen - they have three children Kyle, 22, Kurt, 20, and Kara, 17 - Kevin transferred to Brisbane where originally he was to remain for six months, only to find that move was to become permanent. From that period a demanding and hectic schedule began to unfold, which meant spending most of his time flying around the world to wherever his services were required. Finally, in January 2008, Kevin decided the time was right for him to retire from the business.
  “When I retired I was a global chief operating officer for one of the larger operating groups of Accenture. The policies of Accenture actually encourage people to retire during their fifties, recognising that while you need to retain some experienced people, IT is a young person’s game.
  “I knew when I would be retiring and I began planning on developing another venture, which would be operational by the time I retired. That venture was Racetree. I suppose it was probably in the late nineties I’d begun showing an interest again in racing and I had bought some horses with an Accenture colleague Martin Ralston who is now joint vice-chairman of the Moonee Valley Racing Club. I’d also begun buying a few fillies and racing them myself.”
  A search for a suitable property for his horses had not yielded any results until Kevin bumped into Gold Edition’s breeder Peter Moran at a sale at the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast: “While we were talking Peter said he was selling his property at Innisplain,” Kevin said. “I inspected the place and we came to an agreement.”
  At that stage Racetree spread over 100ha but since then the stud has been extended by an additional 37.5ha. “I had a few fillies that had been retired from racing, and I set about buying some mares. The original intent was to have somewhere between eight and 15 quality mares which would be my interest, and then I would bring in other mares, have agistment, and run the business from that perspective.
  “That went along fine for a year or two but the plan changed substantially when I became interested in standing stallions. With that, it became obvious I needed more broodmares to give any stallions I stood a decent start, so I built up the band to a point where
I had about 80 or so of my own mares. However now the stallions have had their start they are on their own and I am currently in the process of trimming those mare numbers right back.”
  The first stallion to take up residence at Racetree was Greenwood Lake (USA) who was a winner of the Belmont Champagne Stakes-Gr.1 and is a three-quarter brother to Breeders’ Cup Juvenile-Gr.1 winner and successful sire Success Express.
  “I was looking around for a stallion that could fill a niche in Queensland the way Success Express had when he was standing on the property when Peter had it. I didn’t want a son of Danehill because there are so many about, and when I came across Greenwood Lake
I thought he was just right for the job. I sourced where he was, stayed up one night, rang the people at Margaux Farm in Kentucky where he was standing, told them my story and asked the stud master whether they were interested in selling the horse. The stud master rang back the next night, we agreed on a price, and Greenwood Lake went into quarantine the following day so he could be in Australia for the 2006 stud season, and six weeks later he was here.”
  Then in 2007 Kevin came to an agreement to stand the Grand Lodge (USA) horse Hotel Grand who had won the AJC Spring Champion Stakes-Gr.1, AJC Canterbury Guineas-Gr.1 and NJC Spring Stakes-Gr.2.
  “Although he is a beautiful, classic horse, Anthony Cummings who was placing him, felt he could become lost among the supersires at Scone. Through word of mouth Anthony eventually ended up talking to me and we came to an agreement for the horse to come to Racetree.”
  Later Kevin agreed to stand the Canadian Silver (CAN) horse Top Marc, whose 12 victories had featured the Sunshine Coast RC Glasshouse Handicap-LR: “The fellows who raced him have a number of mares at Racetree and they asked, if they paid for a paddock, would we stand him. Being a son of Canadian Silver who sired QTIS horses year after year, Top Marc is proving quite popular, and he has no difficulty attracting a good book of mares each season from breeders in regional Queensland who want to breed and race their own.
  “Then just last year the opportunity came to purchase Monashee Mountain. He had been standing at Coolmore, whose people I do quite a bit of business with, and they had identified Queensland as being the logical place for Monashee Mountain to stand. We had discussions while they were trying to find somewhere to stand the horse and eventually, with five of the stud’s clients, we bought Monashee Mountain to stand here. Of course ever since he’s been here he has been flying, with his runners enjoying great success.”
  Along the way Kevin has raced a number of his own horses with success, in the red, purple stripes and armbands and black cap previously used by his uncle. He has a particularly promising three year-old filly by Encosta de Lago in Impulsive Dream whose
efforts last season featured a second in the QTC Sires’ Produce Stakes-Gr.2 and a third in the BTC Champagne Classic-Gr.2.  Seesawing, a four year-old by Easy Rocking, showed sufficient ability to earn a start in the QTC Queensland Oaks-Gr. 1 in June and is expected to blossom into a more than handy performer this season. Another four year-old mare in Plain Magic, by Magic Albert, is a stakes-placed Brisbane winner while he has also enjoyed seeing the likes of Commercial Dane, Diamonds Am I, Learned Leo, Miss Raffin Dane, Overworked, Sparkling Wish, Special Degree and Unintentional carry his silks to victory.
  “Originally Peter Moody trained the horses I raced, and I could have moved the horses with Peter when he went to Melbourne. However, when I told him I wanted to watch the horses race, he introduced me to Kelly Schweida who has been my trainer since then.”
  Then on July 4 of this year Kevin achieved an especially memorable milestone when the combination of his administrative abilities and his racing interests led to him presiding over the inaugural meeting of the newly formed BRC, held at Eagle Farm.
  “I became involved in the joint venture in two different ways,” Kevin said. “I was going to Eagle Farm, particularly on Saturday mornings, to see my horses work - and I became friendly with the owners, trainers and others in the racing community. The major topic of conversation was always the turmoil in the industry and it was quite evident that a disaster was about to happen unless something was done to bring the QTC and BTC together.
  “As happens the government was being blamed for not resolving the issue and Robert Schwarten became tired of the criticism and decided an independent body should be put into place to find a solution. Through Accenture I had consulted on projects with the Queensland Department of Works, for which Robert was also the minister, and as someone who knew something about racing I was contacted and asked whether I would chair the Brisbane Racing Precinct Joint Venture.
  “I was told the first meeting was the next day, and when I went in the environment was hostile. We were gradually able to work through the healing process but it was two steps forward and three steps back for quite a while. Fortunately, as time went by most factions of the racing community warmed to the idea of the clubs merging. Once that happened it was just a matter of time - and finally it worked itself out.”
  As a result in his capacity as the foundation chairman of the BRC, Kevin is overseeing a $1.2b redevelopment plan for the Eagle Farm and Doomben racecourses, which are adjacent to each other in the Brisbane suburb of Ascot. The plans for the new racing precinct, which evolved from the merger of the QTC and BTC in August of last year, will include new grandstands, state of the art stabling, extensive car parking and tunnels under the racecourses to facilitate traffic movement. The construction, which is expected to take 10 years to complete, will also feature a boutique hotel, restaurants and residential development.
  “I can say it hasn’t been easy,” Kevin says of the merger. “Since October last year the BRC board has been working through the issues, and I have been flabbergasted at the amount of regulation you have to go through. We also had to think about how to merge the memberships and also the staff, so that sort of consumed everybody.”
  The demands understandably reduced the time he had for Racetree, and at this stage he is just waiting to see how the future plays out: “Racetree has always been a venture that I wanted to start, to develop, to build to a certain point over a 10-year period by which time I’d be ready to make my next change in life. That would hopefully be something akin to sitting on the verandah with a rug on my knees.
 “I didn’t set out to build something at Racetree that would carry on for generations, which a lot of  the studs do - that isn’t what I set out to do. I set out to build a business and to get it established, and that’s what I feel I have done. I will obviously retain my interest in the horses but at this point I am not sure about what will happen in the years ahead, as far as the stud is concerned.”

Tags: Racetree
Permalink| Dec 14, 2009

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