FOR three decades, Tim Brummell was a fixture of Queensland’s bush racing circuit. Known as one of the State’s tallest and most resilient jockeys, Brummell’s career took him to all corners of the Sunshine State, from foggy mornings at Toowoomba to the rugged red dirt of Mount Isa.
But after a harrowing, career-ending fall shattered his body, the 49-year-old station manager has found a new way to give back to the industry he loves: stepping up as the Outback’s newest racing steward.
Brummell’s riding career came to an abrupt halt at Aramac in 2024 following a severe racing incident that left him with a laundry list of injuries, including a shattered pelvis, a damaged hip socket, a torn liver and kidney, and broken ribs. Inspired by his tough-as-nails dad, who raised him on a property near Jandowae, Brummell initially tried to do what every bushman does – grit his teeth and push through the pain.
“With my background on the cattle station… you get injuries and you teach yourself to be a bit resilient to pain,” Brummell reflects. “I really thought without a doubt I was going to come back and I was definitely going to ride … sometimes you realise that your body can only mend so much.”
After a gruelling 12-month recovery process and another six months of testing his limits while managing a 41,000-acre cattle property north of Barcaldine, Brummell eventually conceded that he wouldn’t ride again. “It was kind of like a realisation that after a year of all the physio and everything, and another six months… I just thought, ‘You know what? I don’t think it’s going to get any better,'” he said. “It was just a thing of maturity, a thing that stopped me from saying ‘I can do it’ when I knew in my heart I probably couldn’t.”
### A MAN OF MANY HATS
BRUMMELL is no stranger to demanding lifestyles. Alongside a 20-year stint living in Mount Isa – working in the mines and riding on Saturdays at just about every far-flung track in Queensland, from Birdsville to the Gulf – he has also spent 15 years in the Army Reserves. Today, Sergeant Brummell (pictured above in his Army Reserve role) still helps lead remote patrols, “chasing people smugglers and black-market traders” as part of the 51st Battalion, which covers a huge expanse of Far North Queensland. It is this unique blend of skills that made senior racing officials eager to recruit him into officiating. Initially, however, Brummell hesitated due to his unconventional childhood. “I struggled terribly at schooling… my literacy and all that was bad,” Brummell admits openly. “All my life I have stepped away from anything that would bring me into the line where I had to do paperwork… but with the stewarding, (QRIC Regional Manager) Shane Larkins chased me quite hard… he steamrolled me into the role, and that’s where it all started.”
### CHANGING VIEWS OF THE OLD GUARD
NOW working as a casual steward in Central West Queensland, Brummell is seeing the sport from a completely different perspective. He quickly realized the intense pressure and time crunches that country officials face. “As a rider, I used to be now and again quite sceptical of stewards that let things slide or didn’t address something,” Brummell said. “But now I have seen it from their side, you can quite understand that they just don’t have the time. And sometimes the resources… I’ve seen stewards out in the west chair a whole race meeting all by themselves.”
Rather than acting strictly as the “racing police”, Brummell uses his 30 years of experience to mentor the next generation, transforming official reprimands into practical teaching moments. “I approached an apprentice that ran off on a corner, and instead of just turning it into an official thing, I’ll sit and explain… ‘just check your horse harder into the corner and that way it’ll rail better,'” he says. “Instead of chipping them, you’ve given them advice and they’ll actually go, ‘gee whiz, thank you very much, Tim.'”
### PROTECTING THE FUTURE OF BUSH RACING
FOR Brummell, taking up the clipboard and binoculars is about much more than enforcing rules, it is about preserving the social fabric of regional Australia. He strongly believes that Queensland Racing needs to tap into ex-participants to keep country racing alive. “I understand the importance of the annual race meetings at these country towns because there is no other entertainment this day and age,” Brummell explains passionately. “If you don’t have a race meeting… I think it’s a social network that keeps people entertained and yeah, [it helps] for mental health with people.”
Despite the fact he misses being legged up on a horse in the mounting yard, Brummell is content with his new position at the track. “I feel good that potentially I can put something back into an industry that was good to me,” he says. “I really can’t stand to see young people struggle with no help and have to do it the hard way like we did 30 years ago.”
### WEEKEND LIKES
#### JULIA CREEK CREW CELEBRATES
ONE of the feature races in North West Queensland is, uniquely, a Class 2 Handicap known as the Artesian Express at Julia Creek. Usually held in April to coincide with the local Dirt N Dust Festival, this year’s meeting was pushed back to the end of May after flooding hit the region in March. The Artesian Express is highly sought after by local trainers and owners, so it was fantastic to see a local syndicate of Julia Creek residents take out the feature on Saturday. The horse they bought specifically for the race, Great Cosmic, was an impressive winner for Mount Isa-based trainer Jay Morris. Veteran jockey Jason Babarovich gave the gelding a 10/10 steer in the $22,500 event, scoring in front of a massive roar at McIntyre Park. The Fegan family, which includes local Mayor Janene Fegan, are huge supporters of bush racing, and it’s always pleasing to see that loyalty rewarded.
#### TESTATOR SILENS BACK ON TOP
THE Birdsville Carnival is still months away, but did we see the 2026 Birdsville Cup winner at Tambo on Saturday? The Clinton Austin-trained galloper carried a whopping 65.5kg to victory in the $23,000 Tambo Cup with Amie Meissner in the saddle, beating Echo Point by one-and-a-half lengths. Of course, we’ll wait for the swab to come back clear, considering Testator Silens was disqualified after winning last year’s Birdsville Cup due to a mistimed treatment. Backed by a strong group of Outback Queensland owners, navigating a path to Birdsville without being asked to carry the grandstand will be a difficult task, but it’s one I’m sure Testator Silens is capable of handling.
#### WINNER FOR BELYNDA
I don’t know exactly how many horses Belynda Kliese has in work, but it couldn’t be more than a half dozen. The wife of veteran jockey Graham Kliese – who is currently sidelined after a nasty fall at Townsville in February – celebrated her second career win on Saturday at Bowen with Remember Roy. Funnily enough, it was the exact same horse that put Graham out of action. The five-year-old gelding, owned by Sue Hammer, is fairly limited but proved too good in the Benchmark 55 over 1000m with Tasha Chambers in the saddle. The Kliese family have long been giants of racing in North Queensland, and it’s great to see the legacy continue while Graham recovers.
### WEEKEND DISLIKES
#### RQ ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
HOW much punting money went down the drain on Friday because Cairns raced at 10 o’clock in the morning? Put simply, the boffins at Deagon completely botched it last week. There were two Queensland TAB meetings programmed for Friday: Sunshine Coast Turf Club and Cairns Jockey Club. Yet, Cairns (track pictured above) was shifted to an early 10.14am start, with races run every 30 minutes to get the bulk of the meeting done before Caloundra started. I get that broadcast windows on Sky Racing are limited, but what the brains trust at Racing Queensland failed to consider was the atrocious weather south of the border. Given that Brisbane is just a couple of hundred kilometres from Casino in northern NSW, it wouldn’t have taken Albert Einstein to work out there was zero chance of racing down there given the biblical rain that fell last week. As it turned out, Friday’s NSW racing was wiped out completely, with both Casino and Goulburn abandoned. With no thoroughbred racing in Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT, or the NT on Friday, the daytime schedule dropped from five scheduled gallops meetings to just three: Cairns, Sunshine Coast, and Bendigo. The problem is that Cairns finished by 2.10pm. A heap of wagering revenue was left on the table because Racing Queensland lacked the foresight or flexibility to adapt the timeslots. The betting pools tell the story: the last race at Cairns held $7,000 in the Queensland win pool, while the first race – run at 10.14am – attracted a miserable $473.10. Considering there was a $1.08 favourite in the opener, let’s use the second race as a better example: it held just $1,334 when they jumped at 10.44am. By contrast, the last race at the Sunshine Coast held $12,486 in the win pool. So, the next time you hear Racing Queensland complain that finances are tight or that they can’t afford to increase prizemoney, just remember that acting CEO Lachlan Murray and his team are in charge of driving revenue for the industry and they missed an open goal here. Last week I praised the industry for being nimble enough to shift a Saturday Cunnamulla meeting to Sunday, but this week it’s a massive thumbs down.
#### SNEAKY TAB MEETINGS
I’VE written about this before and I’ll write about it again: the Queensland trainers’ and jockeys’ associations are fast asleep on this issue, highlighting a frustrating lack of bite in their respective unions. Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen TAB meetings held “by stealth” without the participants being fairly compensated. On Saturday, a five-race program at Bowen was run for non-TAB prizemoney ($10,000 per race), yet it was broadcast nationwide on Sky Racing and open for betting on the TAB and corporate bookmaker platforms. The industry should be furious. Everyone knows non-TAB prizemoney falls well short of expectations – it is almost impossible to make a living racing exclusively on the non-TAB circuit. These stealth upgrades of country meetings to the national broadcast grid should come with increased purses. I cannot for the life of me understand why the trainers’ and jockeys’ unions are rolling over and letting RQ get away with it.
#### REGIONAL CAST FAILS AGAIN
I’LL keep hammering away until something is done about the ordinary service Regional Cast provides the industry. Once again, they failed to deliver a live stream from every non-TAB venue on Saturday. This week, Julia Creek missed out. Furthermore, instead of the streams being hosted on their regular website, punters were directed to Facebook to watch the feeds. Why should anyone have to hand over their personal data to Mark Zuckerberg just to watch a live stream of a race at Tambo? Someone at Racing Queensland needs to step in and ensure Regional Cast is actually complying with its contractual obligations.
