Terry Snow’s love of Stock Horses was kindled on a trek along the Bicentennial National Trail one year; he kept some of the mares he took and began breeding in earnest. Willinga Park is now home to some of the best bloodlines in the country – as well as a $100,000 first prize campdraft that has changed the face of the industry.

From 11-14 May, competitors from around the country will descend on Bawley Point in NSW for the fourth World Championship Gold Buckle Campdraft at Willinga Park – each hoping to take home the accolades and $100,000 winner’s cheque that comes with victory in the main class. The event, which will see around 500 total entries and up to 5,000 spectators, all came about during a chat over dinner with campdrafter Troy Palmer.

“Terry and I nutted it out one night at his place,” explains Troy. “We just started talking over dinner, and by midnight we had the name of the event and the full program! We were both out of bed at five o’clock the next morning; we couldn’t sleep, we were too excited.”

Terry Snow, who with wife Ginette owns and runs Willinga Park, says that the idea for the Gold Buckle was driven by a desire to lift the status of the uniquely Australian sport. Campdrafting has always been very competitive, but it wasn’t necessarily a way to earn a living; participants competed for the enjoyment rather than as a serious vocation. “Campdrafting, it’s historically been a fairly social thing in the rural community,” explains Terry. “I thought the sport should be promoted because that would provide benefits for both the breeding – because money’s available – and also for the young men who do the work. Some of them in the past have hardly made enough prizemoney to pay for the diesel on their way home. This isn’t the sport of wealthy men; a lot of them are younger fellows or fellows battling through all weather conditions – and trying to hold body and soul together.”

Troy, who is currently based in Coolah and sources, breaks in, trains and competes campdraft horses for Willinga Park, says that when he and Terry first came up with the idea for the Gold Buckle, few believed it would happen. “I told a couple of the associations and I more or less got laughed out of the room. They said no one’s going to put a draft on worth $100,000 to the winner and with total prizemoney of over $400,000.”

The idea was conceptualised in 2017, and by 2018 the inaugural Gold Buckle took place with Nebo’s Pete Comiskey taking home the $100,000 aboard Rodann Roanies Destiny. Troy says that when Terry puts his mind to do something, it gets done pretty quickly – and now “one man’s passion and dream” has created a domino effect in the industry.

“The sport needed a lot more money in it to make it more exciting,” continues Terry. “And then we had to capture the interest of the major television networks, which we have with Channel Seven who broadcast the final.” The Gold Buckle has since become a regular fixture and helped changed the face of the industry; horses are now selling for more and other events are following suit with increased prizemoney.

MAKING A GOOD IMPRESSION

“I met Terry at the Australian Stock Horse Society (ASHS) Nationals six or seven years ago,” says Troy, recalling one of those moments that can change life’s trajectory. “I was riding my stallion Impressive Destiny and walked past Terry; I didn’t know him from a bar of soap. He said, ‘How are you going? That’s a very impressive looking horse you’re riding’. I said, ‘It’s funny you say that, as his name’s actually Impressive Destiny!” Troy went on to win the open and stallion drafts at that event.

“The next day Terry went and bought a couple of fillies by Impressive Destiny; he fell in love with him from that day on,” says Troy, who subsequently went and visited Willinga Park to begin helping with Terry’s breeding program and performance horses.

Troy was born into the sport of campdrafting: “My grandfather competed, my father competed. My grandfather’s brother, Jack Palmer, competed. It’s something our family’s done for the past 60-odd years,” he explains, noting he was fortunate to have a lot of good open-level campdraft horses to learn on growing up. He’s also been lucky to have some great horses since – his most notable being Impressive Destiny, who was out of one of his family’s foundation mares, Impression. ‘ID’ has won 90-odd campdrafts including many of the country’s major titles. An influential sire as well, he has many successful progeny out competing in a range of disciplines, from campdrafting to polocrosse and hacking.

NO TIME LOST

Troy has played a big role in helping Terry fulfil his breeding dream. “In three or four years we have achieved what normally takes 30 years to do,” declares Troy in regards to Willinga Park’s fast-tracked program that now includes both Stock Horse and Quarter Horse bloodlines. “We went out and got progeny from some of the best mares in the country by getting embryos out of them.”

Willinga Park’s head vet, reproductive specialist Dr Eric Klaui, undertakes the embryo transfers and works alongside Sarah Cookson who currently oversees the breeding program. “We’ve got some beautifully bred fillies and colts out of some of the best mares in Australia and by some of the best stallions in the world,” says Troy, adding the latest additions to the program come in the form of two imports with Quarter Horse bloodlines from the home of cow horses – the USA.

“We recently purchased a Metallic Cat colt and Woody Be Tuff filly from Slate River Ranch in Texas; Australian cutting horse legend Johnny Mitchell has been with them for about 30 years and they breed a lot of good horses,” adds Troy.

“The colt, Bigg Redd, is by Metallic Cat out of Junie Wood (who sadly passed away in 2020). He’s a three-quarter brother to last year’s (American) National Cutting Horse Association Futurity winner, Janie Wood, who was ridden by Jonny Mitchell. We were lucky enough to purchase Bigg Redd just before Johnny won… so it made him a very valuable purchase.” Bigg Redd is currently at Troy’s Coolah property in training, with the plan being for him to step out at the Cloncurry Stockman’s Challenge in July.

Other Willinga Park-owned stallions standing alongside Bigg Redd are Binnia Convoy (Hazelwood Conman x Jabell Shekera Spin) and WP Smooth Talker (Smooth Talkin Style x Honey Theyre Achin), with the latter currently enjoying success in the cutting pen with top trainer and competitor Hugh Miles.

“The filly we imported from the US, she’s by Woody Be Tuff – who himself went through a sale over in the USA this year and sold for about US$1.3 million – out of a mare Lloyd Cox competed on called Blackish. She’s a beautiful black yearling filly and she’ll be broken in towards the end of the year. She’s as good a bred filly as any in the country,” declares Troy.

BAD IN BLACK

Of course, US imports are not the only exciting addition to the Willinga Park team. Bad In Black, the $550,000 purchase from this year’s Nutrien Sale in Tamworth, is certainly turning heads – and Terry is smitten.

“I think she’s going to be a wonderful competitor, but I think also she’s going to be a major core of our ongoing future breeding program,” he says. “Her presence when you meet her, she’s very beautiful. Troy will be looking after her and campaigning her pretty gingerly for a while; you won’t see her at the Gold Buckle for a few years yet. Hopefully in another couple of years he will be putting her under the pump and really getting into it.”

Troy echoes Terry’s sentiments when asked about Bad In Black: “She’s a beautiful mare with a beautiful nature; she’s athletic. She ticks all the boxes. She’s bred right; by Stevie Rey Von out of a Docs Spinifex mare named Spinies Bad Girl; she can cross back to pretty much anything. I’ve ridden her a few times now and she went down to the breeding barn and we got an embryo out of her earlier this year.” Bad In Black’s first foal, by Binnia Convoy, is due via surrogate this spring.

“We had five offers from people to buy embryos before we even owned the mare for 24 hours. I don’t know whether we’ll go that way, but we will definitely get some embryos from her again next year,” adds Troy. Although not yet ready to compete at the Gold Buckle, Bad In Black is set to compete with Troy in the Snaffle Bit Futurity at the NCHA Futurity show in Tamworth in June this year.

Bad In Black is one of nearly 40 mares involved in Willinga Park’s breeding program – and as you can imagine, some of the others are pretty fancy as well. “There’s a black filly by ID there out of Warwick Gold Cup winner Delta, and she’s NTS… never to sell!” says Troy. “We’ve got a few fillies in that category, that you just wouldn’t sell them; they’ll go on and be Willinga’s foundation mares. We’re already getting embryos out of those nice three-year-old fillies that we think a lot of, so by the time they’re six- and seven-year-old and out competing, we’ll have two- and three-year-olds on the ground out of them.

“Terry and the team want to breed, compete and sell the best quality horses in Australia and I think we’re well on the way to doing that. If we put 10 fillies up for sale, they’d be probably be 10 of the nicest, well-bred young fillies you’d ever want to see put up for sale anywhere in the country.”

IN ACTION AT THE BUCKLE

“Terry came up with the concept for the Gold Buckle itself,” explains Troy. “We’ve sourced the buckle from America. It’s a one of a kind; there’s not another like it in Australia. It’s solid gold, so it’s as nice a buckle as you’d want to win anywhere in the world.” Valued at close to $10,000, it’s certainly not a bad accessory to have in the belt drawer. “A lot of people want to win the Gold Buckle now more than any other draft. The $100,000 is a big carrot, but also just to have that buckle on their belt.”

From the Willinga Park team, Troy says you’ll see a number of different horses in action on home soil at this year’s event. “You’ll see Hells A Comin, who won the aggregate award and was sixth overall in last year’s Gold Buckle, as well as Whos Divine, WillingaPark Flos Playboy and WillingaPark Fables Playboy. Andrew Turvey will also be competing on Kneipps Destinys Playgirl.”

Troy is also riding his own Impressive Destiny. “ID will be there again, he was second last year. It’ll possibly be his last draft; if he wins, it’ll definitely be his last. Otherwise, while he’s still very sound and enjoying what he’s doing I’ll keep him going; he’ll tell me when he’s had enough.”

Horses aside, the 2022 Gold Buckle will also feature 2,500 specially selected Herefords – a logistical feat in itself, considering they must be trucked over from Murrumbateman. All are Herefords owned by Willinga Park: “I’ve provided all the cattle because I wanted the quality and consistency,” explains Terry. “We’re riding through them now, taming them, and getting them inducted.”

The event is not only exciting for competitors; evolving year to year, it’s become a major drawcard for spectators as well. “It’s another day longer this year than last year; it’s all turned out to be a very big and exciting affair, which I’m delighted with… and also probably four or five thousand people that will come along. I’m sure they’ll be delighted too,” enthuses Terry.

“We’ve improved the facilities; we’ve got two big grandstands and we’re putting in a temporary grandstand to increase the number of seats. We’re going to have 500 contestants. We’ve put in a competition for teams… that’s very, very exciting because it’s a state-of-origin event, and Australians like to back their state! And we’ve also got an event now for children, and we’re very excited about that. All in all, it’s just right over the top this year. It’s fantastic.” A concert with Lee Kernaghan tops off the event Saturday night, and is sure to be a post-competition celebration like no other.

And as for who Terry thinks will take home the Gold Buckle this year, he reckons it’s anyone’s game: “You might pick who is technically the best campdrafter, but you’ve also got to marry the cattle with it, and so someone’s got to pick the best steer,” he explains, noting that while they’ve gone to great effort to ensure a consistent herd, you can’t predict how each beast will react on the day. “That’s the great thing about campdrafting, it’s in the lap of the gods because it just depends how the steer runs.” EQ

Willinga Park’s World Championship Gold Buckle Campdraft takes place 11-14 May at Willinga Park in Bawley Point, NSW. You can purchase spectator tickets – as well as tickets to see Lee Kernaghan live on the Saturday night – here. For those who can’t make it, the full event will be livestreamed via Equestrian Life, with the Gold Buckle final to be televised on Channel 7 – stay tuned for broadcast details.

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