Tony Cavanagh
 |
At 64 Tony Cavanagh has achieved more than most, and he is still going strong. A musical connoisseur, he appreciates Beatles references wherever they may pop up.
|
Tony is best known for his work as a bloodstock agent, administrator and mentor, buying and selling thoroughbred elite of the horse-racing world. But it is not where his life started out. As a child Tony didn’t know more about racing than any other Baby Boomer, but he was fascinated by pedigrees – couldn’t get enough of them. He fell in love with a horse, Aquanita, trained at Flemington (a hike from Tony, coming in from Pascoe Vale South). Aquanita went on to win the Cox Plate, among many other now-Group One races, and Tony was hooked to racing.
When Tony left school in 1964 there were very few jobs available, so he went into the Victorian Public Service, where, after four years, he transferred to the Racecourses’ Licences Board as assistant secretary and government tote inspector. It was during this time that he made his first neddy (apparently some kind of horse!), the six year old Manchu Prince. Two days after Manchu Prince’s first win in 1970 Tony started as a pedigree clerk with Wright Stephenson.
In 1978 he left and moved to Toolern Vale Park Stud, before heading to Glefern Park Stud at Romsey a year later. In 1980 he opened his own bloodstock agency, and his bloodstock reads like a who’s who of racing of the 1980s and 1990s. In 1995 Tony formed the International Thoroughbred Racing and Share Trust.
Tony is a lover of more than just bloodstock, however, and in recent years he has participated in the promotion of music throughout Victoria.
He has three children, Georgina, Victoria and Daniel, with whom he is very close.