Gold Coast trainer Kurt Goldman nearly quit racing to travel around Australia with his dog

Kurt Goldman now trains with success on the Gold Coast but there was a crossroads moment where he considered giving up the caper and going on a road trip around Australia with his dog.

Arts Object after causing a boilover in The Wave for trainer Kurt Goldman and jockey Angela Jones on the Gold Coast earlier this year. Picture: Grant Peters/Trackside Photography.

Kurt Goldman has stable weapon Arts Object in a stakes race at Doomben on Wednesday, but it wasn’t so long ago he was contemplating packing his dog in the car, quitting training and going for a road trip around Australia.

Goldman had enjoyed success as the Goulburn-based private trainer for former Australian rugby player Alan Cardy but the trainer was suddenly at the crossroads in 2021 when Cardy passed away.

Cardy’s property and horses were sold and Goldman was on the brink of travelling around Australia with his dog as he took a break from training and considered his career options.

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But a mate purchased back Arts Object from a dispersal sale and it was one of the horses which turned Goldman’s career around and brought him to Queensland where he currently trains on the Gold Coast.

Arts Object is a $51 chance in the Listed Tatt’s Recognition Stakes (1350m) at Doomben on Wednesday but was the same price in betting when the mare scored the $250,000 The Wave on the Gold Coast in January.

Goldman is now making positive strides as a trainer on the Gold Coast but it could have been different but for a sliding doors moment several years ago.

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“I was thinking about packing up and getting in the car and doing a year or two travelling around Australia with my dog,” Goldman told Racenet.

“The way I was looking at it was that I had no ties to anything.

“I thought that it was potentially a time that I could have a break and make sure it (training) was what I wanted to do in the future.

“I was just going to go for a drive around Australia with the dog in the car, essentially I was going to do a lap of Australia stopping at stud farms and racing stables and do some networking and also take it as an opportunity to see the country.

“I thought I would see what opportunities might arise from that.

“Everything was at a bit of a crossroads and it was unexpected when some owners bought some horses at the dispersal sale and wanted me to continue training them.”

Arts Object causes a boilover in The Wave for trainer Kurt Goldman and jockey Angela Jones. Picture: Grant Peters – Trackside Photography.

Goldman’s move to Queensland was sparked when he decided to send Arts Object north for a winter carnival campaign in 2023.

“I mentioned to all of the owners that I would be racing Arts Object in Queensland and I didn’t have enough horses to split the team up and have staff in NSW and Queensland,” Goldman said.

“So I basically just took all the horses to Queensland and told the owners that if they did want me to train for them, they had to know their horses were going to be based at the Gold Coast.

“They were all happy and, for the most part, most of them just wanted to support me.”

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Arts Object, part-owned by popular Sky Racing presenter Paul Joice, is headed on a path towards The Wave in January which will be worth $500,000 in 2025.

He is hoping the five-year-old mare returns well on Wednesday and whatever this campaign holds, she has already done an amazing job for Goldman.

“I’ve got about a dozen horses on the books on the Gold Coast at the moment and she is the best credentialed of them,” Goldman said.

“I’m not expecting too much out of her first-up, she has never really been that effective first-up and the long term play again is The Wave.

“That win in The Wave earlier this year was so satisfying because I packed up my life and moved to the Gold Coast with only a handful of horses and I managed to pull off that win within the first six months.

“When I trained privately for Alan, it was probably very easy for some people to sit there and say that I just got given all these good horses to train.

“People were probably thinking that I should be winning races.”

Originally published as Gold Coast trainer Kurt Goldman nearly quit racing to travel around Australia with his dog