Sobieska creating new symphonies in key stable role

When Michaela Sobieska entered the world of thoroughbred racing in New Zealand, the industry was at a standstill.

But now Sobieska, who turns 31 later this month, is positively flying in her role as stable foreperson at Kingsclere Stables – the training operation for Roger James and Robert Wellwood - and was the inaugural recipient of the Equine Handling (Stud or Stable) Award at the Industry Excellence Awards, powered by Entain, last month.

Sobieska hails from Czechia (formerly known as the Czech Republic), growing up in a small city called Zlín. Other than a pony that was more of a pet, Sobieska had no association with horses growing up, and she went to university to complete a degree in marketing and communication before deciding to travel.

Sobieska landed in Australia and ended up working in racing quite by accident.

“I just started working with horses because I couldn't really speak English, and you don't really need English if you just muck boxes out. I needed money to survive, so that's how I got into it,” she said.

She enjoyed her time working for Michael Costa Racing on the Gold Coast before travelling around South Asia for eight months.

By February 2020, she arrived in New Zealand and was travelling around the South Island, but when the country went into lockdown in March 2020. She was stuck in the south before interviewing for the Kingsclere role, starting in May 2020 when the racing industry was working towards resuming racing.

A four-year stint wasn’t the plan when Sobieska interviewed for the stablehand role with Kingsclere, but she kept extending her stay, then was promoted to the stable foreperson role. Sobieska can’t say enough about the working environment at Kingsclere.

“I think that's the main reason why I'm still here, because they are really good people to work for. I didn't even work with anybody else, and I didn't even want to, because they just treat you so well.

“They are really fair people, and if you want to learn, and if you want to do your job properly, and if you love horses, then they just keep you and look after you.”

Working with the James/Wellwood partnership invariably means working with top-quality thoroughbreds, and Sobieska has been on the ride of her life, working with multiple Group 1-winning mare Prowess, and now strapping the precocious leading 3-year-old filly of last season, Orchestral, on both sides of the Tasman.

“I really appreciate it – Roger and Robert trust me, and we have some great results.”

Sobieska is also excited about the season ahead for Mark Twain, who has a guaranteed Melbourne Cup slot and is working towards the first Tuesday in November.

For someone who is involved with horses on the big stage, Sobieska isn’t all that keen on being under the spotlight.

“I did already last year say to Robert and Roger, please don't nominate me in anything like it, because I really don’t like to be in the middle of attention, I don't really enjoy it, I don't enjoy cameras and things like that, but they did (nominate),” she laughed.

“To be honest, it's a big honour, and I believe that there's many and many people who deserve it, maybe even more than I do, because they come from a racing background but yeah . . . I do appreciate it a lot.”