Double Bay unit a stable base for horsetrader James Ferguson

Being close to the racecourse and clients gives this agent a rails run.

Young bloodstock agent James Ferguson has gone from living a country life on a 688ha thoroughbred breeding holding in the backblocks of Central NSW to the comforts of a glitzy apartment in the heart of Sydney’s wealthy Double Bay.

It’s been a big transition for Ferguson, 20, who has just completed a four-month stint working with the Queen’s Racing Manager John Warren, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading bloodstock advisers.

“Warren is one of the most influential people in my life — he gave me a huge leg up,” Ferguson says.

It was John Warren who recommended Ferguson to top British bloodstock agents, Johnny and Susie McKeever, who buy and sell thoroughbreds for wealthy private clients in exchange for fat commissions across the northern and southern hemispheres.

In essence, bloodstock agents do the same job as stock and station agents but instead of buying and selling cattle, they buy and sell thoroughbred horses.

The McKeevers and Ferguson recently joined forces, forming a new bloodstock agency in Australia and Britain. In Sydney, it’s known as Ferguson Bloodstock, while in Newmarket, Britain, the company is called McKeever Bloodstock, with both companies acting in association globally.

“I am heavily involved in the thoroughbred industry, not just in Australia but internationally as well,” Ferguson says.

“There’s a range of jobs that I do which go from public horse auctions to private purchases of thoroughbreds to valuations and mating.”

In particular, Ferguson sources mares and fillies for three studs in the NSW Hunter Valley. “On top of that we try to find stayers from the European market to target such races as the Melbourne Cup and the Caulfield Cup.

“Johnny McKeever has recently done work with Gai Waterhouse with some great Group One imported horses in Sydney. He is heavily involved in the Australian market.”

But at heart Ferguson is a country boy.

“I had plenty of room out there in Wellington on the Bell River station. But for work I had to come into the middle of the city, with all the hustle and bustle. It’s a great location, Double Bay, and it’s great for my business,” Ferguson says.

“In Double Bay, I’ve got the big international stud Coolmore just across the road and Darley, another international stud, which operates in America, Europe and in New South Head Road, Double Bay, plus I have my accountants nearby.”

Royal Randwick Racecourse is also close, so Ferguson can inspect horses for private clients during track work.

Ferguson’s new contemporary city home is a two-bedroom and two-bathroom apartment just off Double Bay’s retail precinct. It’s near the Royal Oak Hotel, in Bay Street which attracts a lot of racing and country people.

Decorated in the popular Hamptons style, the apartment’s walls are laden with horseriding awards and pictures of Ferguson as a child riding his various ponies.

He was a champion boy rider at the NSW Royal Easter Show, where he won many prizes for his horsemanship. One of the trophies adorning the lounge room wall in the Double Bay apartment was won when the first horse bred by the Ferguson family at their Bell River mixed-use farm and thoroughbred stud in Wellington won its first ever country race for the Ferguson family.

The horse, Royal Thief, was bred from the family’s foundation brood mare, Fleecing.

Ferguson’s mother Georgie has added white plantation window shutters to create privacy in the apartment, which opens straight on to a laneway, while a replica photinia, a popular shrub used on fence rows, adds even more privacy.

While he forges ahead with his bloodstock business, Ferguson says he will remain in Sydney.

“The market is in Sydney, you have the most influential people in Sydney, the various agents and a number of the trainers are here. Double Bay is a great location for me for my business because out in the country it can be a four-hour drive for me to go and inspect a horse for a private client.”