Donna Logan will return to New Zealand late next month after seven years in Singapore with a newfound perspective on training racehorses and, just as importantly, on life. The accomplished Kiwi horsewoman is in rarefied air, having trained Group 1 winners in three different countries. She is comfortable with what she has achieved in the Lion City and is ready for the next phase of her career.  With the sport of thoroughbred racing in its final throes, with just two Singapore meetings to go in what’s been described by some participants as a 16-month-long funeral procession, Logan is focused on what lies ahead. She will relaunch her career in her native New Zealand in the coming months, readying herself for the challenge that awaits her with words of wisdom from her son Robert echoing through her ears.

If there was any self-doubt from a self-deprecating Logan to start a new stable from scratch, they were soon whisked away.

“Excitement has to be the word because it’s something I know and it’s not something new, unlike when I came to Singapore,” Logan told The Straight this week. “I said to my son recently, ‘oh, it’s a little bit nerve-racking at times’. He said, ‘what do you mean? Seven years ago, you went to Singapore, you didn’t know anything about the place, and you tackled it. You’re just coming home to do what you know already’.”

Fellow Kiwi Stephen Gray, who trained in Singapore for 25 years, returned to New Zealand earlier this year to resume his career while Australians Tim Fitzsimmons (Bendigo) and Dan Meagher (Pakenham) have also chosen to set up new bases in their home country.

Australia could have also been on the cards for Logan and her husband Peter Woods, but in the end they decided against such a move. “We looked at Australia, but I’d be a small fish in a very big ocean over there,” Logan says. “And I’ve even felt, ‘gee, will people remember Donna Logan when she arrives back in New Zealand?  So, I’ve probably been quite shocked that a lot of people have made contact, saying, ‘you know, we’re looking forward to your return and we really want to get a horse with you’.  But Australia’s a different kettle of fish. If you’re not in the league of Ciaron Maher, Gai Waterhouse or Annabel Neasham (it is hard to compete). You need numbers; you need to be that corporate-type trainer.”

At 63, Logan feels reinvigorated, believing she is re-entering the New Zealand racing industry at the right time, with more than 1000 winners under the belt, 194 of them coming at Kranji. Those 194 winners, and the many more that didn’t, she says, have also made her a better trainer by broadening her horizon, particularly about feeding methods and exercise regimes of horses.

“We’re Kiwis, so we’re pretty renowned for being trainers of stayers, but sometimes I now look back and think, ‘jeez, did we make them real stayers? We worked them pretty hard’,” says Logan, who inherited Te Akau’s Singapore stable in 2022 following Mark Walker’s decision to return to New Zealand.”

Doona Logan
Donna Logan will train out of Byerley Park near Auckland when she returns to the New Zealand racing scene. (Photo: Supplied/Donna Logan and Peter Woods)

“Those are things you learn in Singapore that the horse’s work schedule doesn’t need to be as heavy. I’m hoping that some of the new methods I’ve learnt here will be for the betterment of me when I do return home.” 

The new home base will be at Daniel Nakhle’s Byerley Park near Auckland, rather than at the coastal Ruakaka from where Logan trained before being granted a Singapore licence in 2017. About 12 horses are already in pretraining with her daughter Samantha at Cambridge.

Logan wants to focus on quality over quantity, hoping to once again compete at the top level, as she has in the past through the exploits of such horses as New Zealand Oaks winner Vapour Trail, Australian Oaks winner and Caulfield Cup runner-up Rising Romance, Rosehill Guineas winner Volkstoknbarrel and Minister, the Group 1 Kranji Mile winner of 2021.

“Singapore teaches you that you don’t want to be travelling day after day. You can spend your whole life in a car or a truck going to races,” says Logan, who has trained 61 Group and Listed winners.  “So, to me, it was a no-brainer to base myself close to the big racing action in that Auckland area.”

Logan is scheduled to arrive in New Zealand on October 28, about three weeks after the final Singapore race meeting. There are a few procedural matters still to be ticked off, but for all intents and purposes, Logan’s trainer’s licence has been reinstated by New Zealand officials.

Experienced New Zealand horsewoman Angie Dorrian will reunite with Logan, having worked for the trainer many years ago, while immigration papers are in the process of being stamped so some of her Singaporean staff can join her at Byerley Park, a facility that is also used educate apprentice jockeys and stable staff.

“Working with young people that want to learn excites me. They’re the future of our racing,” Logan says. “I think it’s a really good time to build a new stable in New Zealand after the disastrous closure of racing here. I just can’t wait to get back and work with real racing people again who have a true passion and knowledge for racing”

That’s not to say there will be elements Logan and Woods will miss about the Singaporean racing community. ‘I say ‘good morning’ to everybody I see and they go, ‘good morning, ma’am, good morning, Boss Peter’,” Logan says ” It’s just their mannerisms; they are never uptight or aggressive with the animals. They’re always just completely calm and relaxed and that’s important to have people like that handling the horses. I’ve really become a calmer person for having lived here.”