CLIENT PROFILE - LUKE WILKINSON

Hard work, talent and a lot of ‘Luck’

Luke Wilkinson has earned his stripes. A knockabout bloke with a ready smile, his demeanor hides a driving ambition to succeed at his chosen profession.
And it’s starting to pay dividends: right hand man for leading Caulfield trainer Mick Price and head of a highly successful bloodstock syndicate, Luke recently sold a God’s Own colt from his mare Maneater for $95,000 at the Gold Coast Magic Millions. Importantly, the colt will end up in the stable of Gai Waterhouse.
It’s a fair hike for the young bloke who studied accounting for four years before scoring a Horse Business Management scholarship at Marcus Oldham in 2002.
By his own admission, Luke – now widely known as Lucky – “stuffed around” for a couple of years, doing stints at Chatswood Stud, Racing Victoria and Winning Post before deciding to syndicate his first horse in 2004.
From small acorns do sizeable acorns grow and Lucky now has 22 horses in training with Price.

One of the first horses he syndicated was the mischievously, albeit somewhat accurately named, Tulsami (spell it backwards!), who would win three and placed on nine more occasions.
Tulsami is one of two mares owned by Lucky and, after retiring to stud last spring, is now in foal to Shinzig (Mick also trained the latter to victory in the CF Orr Stakes-G1).
Lucky’s other mare – Maneater – has a Tale of the Cat filly at foot and is now in foal to Haradasun.
He has high hopes for the well bred Belong to Me mare with her God’s Own colt being sold via Eliza Park’s Gold Coast draft.
It was a change of pace for Luke who has purchased a number of horses from Eliza Park, but the God’s Own was the first one through them.
Some of his prior Eliza Park buys include multiple winner Kurotaka who won her debut by eight lengths and subsequent try at Sandown, plus the winners Grassfire and Gigantor (two wins “and many more to come”) and city placed Neurotic Princess, a ready to run horse.
There’s more waiting in the wings too with the promising Jarrod McLean trained Catalina Toff (by Delago Brom), a Testa Rossa colt and Timber Country filly all poised to strut their stuff.
Actually, Lucky’s association with Eliza Park goes much deeper than mere commerce, having worked in the sales and nominations division for two seasons before taking up the role of sales executive for Moonee Valley events for a couple of years.
At 30, life is travelling fairly smoothly for young Lucky. He and his partner, Liane, are expecting their first child in a few weeks and credits Eliza Park for the ‘mating’.
“Sue Ellis (Eliza Park’s General Manager Racing) talked me into purchasing Neurotic Princess (closely related to Doncaster winner Triple Honour) and I met Liane after she purchased a share.”
So Luke, you have a foal on the way, a booming business (Luke Anthony Bloodstock) and full time involvement in an industry you’re passionate about.
How did you manage all that?
“Just Lucky I guess!”

The God's Own - Maneater colt purchased for $95,000 at the Gold Coast Magic Millions