{"id":12242,"date":"2025-07-21T06:03:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T06:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/12242\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T06:03:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T06:03:31","slug":"gabba-curator-dom-pelusi-mixes-cricket-with-horse-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/12242\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabba curator Dom Pelusi mixes cricket with horse racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gabba curator Dom Pelusi will be tickled pink if he can achieve two major goals this year \u2013 helping Australia smash the Poms in the second Ashes Test and cheering home his first city winner as a thoroughbred horse owner and stablehand for Brisbane trainer Jason Edwards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cricket and horse racing are deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric of our country and 33-year-old Pelusi happens to have a \u201cdriving passion\u201d for both sports.<\/p>\n

He will help prepare the wicket for the pink ball day-night Test between Australia and England at the Gabba from December 4-8.<\/p>\n

And when time permits during a gruelling summer schedule, he will also be readying gallopers for Deagon trainer Edwards while keeping a sharp eye on horses running under the banner of his syndicate Broke Lads.<\/p>\n

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Asked what skills and lessons he could transfer as a cricket groundsman to horse racing, Pelusi said: \u201cI guess it\u2019s just trusting the plan. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times when even wicket preparations might not go your way and it\u2019s the same with horse racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can turn up to the races and think you\u2019re going to have a good day and a win but it doesn\u2019t always go to plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go back to the drawing board and just trust the process. You do it for a reason and you have to remember that at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pelusi grew up in Tenterfield, about 20km south of the Queensland border, in country NSW and wasn\u2019t really into horse racing back then, despite his grandfather Ian Halliday being a trainer during the 1990s.<\/p>\n

He moved to Brisbane eight years ago and developed the bug, establishing Broke Lads with a group of mates shortly after the Covid pandemic struck.<\/p>\n

Edwards trains three horses for the syndicate \u2013 filly Resolute Lady<\/a>, gelding Bodysnatcher<\/a> and an unnamed Spirit Of Boom<\/a> colt.<\/p>\n

Resolute Lady (one win from six races) finished second in a 1200m race for fillies and mares at Ipswich<\/a> last Thursday while Bodysnatcher will likely make his debut at Doomben<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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Taylor Marshall<\/a> rode Resolute Lady at Ipswich in close to the same colours as Pelusi\u2019s granddad \u2013 tangerine with black seams and a black-and-orange quartered cap.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandfather gifted me his silks so I thought it\u2019d be something special if I could register and race in his colours,\u201d Pelusi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cResolute Lady was the horse we bought, albeit I couldn\u2019t register his exact silks so I put a bit of a twist on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have much of an interest in horses when I was living in Tenterfield but it was something that was always in my blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I got on the tools with Jason, I never looked back. He took me under his wing and I can\u2019t wait to keep learning from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pelusi admitted juggling his dual roles could be difficult, especially during summer when cricket dominated the Australian sporting landscape, but he wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn winter I work with Jase in the mornings and then leave at 6am to go to work (as a Gabba curator),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSummer is crazy. They\u2019re very long days but it\u2019s self-inflicted because I\u2019ve got a driving passion for both industries. It\u2019s well worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So would he prefer to see the Aussies beat up the Poms at the Gabba or watch one of his horses win a big race?<\/p>\n

\u201cI have done one Ashes Test so it\u2019s a bit selfish but I really want to cheer home a winner in the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in saying that, it\u2019s always great to see Australia win at the Gabba.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do it (grounds keeping) for the crowd to come in and cheer the boys home. But they\u2019re both amazing feelings so it\u2019s very hard to split.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published as Gabba curator and horse owner Dom Pelusi will be tickled pink if Australia smashes the Poms and he can jag a winner in the city this year<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabba curator Dom Pelusi will be tickled pink if he can achieve two major goals this year \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[428,7614,8041,8040,8032,8028,8037,8044,8043,8033,309,591,8031,8034,8029,8049,8045,7613,3604,7618,7611,8050,5017,8038,8047,8030,3004,101,8048,8036,8046,8035,8042,56,54,55,8039],"class_list":["post-12242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-sporting-landscape","tag-boys-home","tag-brisbane","tag-city-winner","tag-cricket-groundsman","tag-daniel-pace","tag-dom-pelusi","tag-driving-passion","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-gruelling-summer-schedule","tag-horse-owner","tag-horse-racing","tag-ian-halliday","tag-jason-edwards","tag-new-south-wales","tag-northern-europe","tag-oceania","tag-punters-racing","tag-punters-racing-queensland","tag-queensland","tag-racenet-people","tag-racenet-qld","tag-racenet-racing-queensland","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-taylor-marshall","tag-tenterfield","tag-the-gabba","tag-thoroughbred-horse-owner","tag-time-permits","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wicket-preparations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}