Vicky Leonard

Lover of thoroughbreds, racing, marketing & tech. Owner & MD @kickcollective & @ttrausnz. Founder @kickupforracing 🇦🇺 // @lightupracing 🇺🇸

[Jo McKinnon @Jo_McKinnon]

It’s live! 🎙️🐎 So proud to launch my Off the Track Horses podcast today—sharing real stories, honest conversations and celebrating the Thoroughbred beyond racing.

Search “Off the Track Horses” on your favourite podcast platform and join me!

#OffTheTrackHorses

[Little Avondale @AvondaleLittle]

Thrilled to be part of the National TB Week, opening our gates on 26th Nov from 1-3pm

🐴 Meet our stallions, watch our vets at work, get close & personal with some foals & observe the daily routine of Yearlings being prepped for sales

Register on the National TB Website

[Tzaferis Racing @TzaferisRacing]

We’re opening up our stable as part of National Thoroughbred Week later this month.

Whether you’re a racing lover or keen to get a bit of insight into what goes on behind closed doors, we’d love you to visit.

📅 Fri, 27 Nov
⏰ 3.30pm-6.30pm
📖 https://t.co/KTN2pNuZo6

[Gai Waterhouse AO @GaiWaterhouse1]

📣 NATIONAL THOROUGHBRED WEEK

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at one of Australia’s most successful racing stables? To celebrate National Thoroughbred Week, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott are opening the doors of our Randwick stables for a special morning, and we’d love you to join us 🐎

Take a look around the stables, meet the team who care for our horses every day, and get up close to the stars of the stable. You’ll also have the chance to chat with some of our owners and hear first-hand what it’s like to be part of the thrill of racehorse ownership 💥

Enjoy a glass of bubbles and some delicious nibbles while you explore, and bring the little ones along for pony rides. It’s a relaxed, family-friendly morning for racing fans of all ages, whether you’re a seasoned enthusiast or simply curious about the world of thoroughbreds ✨

📆 Sunday 15th November 2026
⏰ 11:00am – 12:30pm
📍 Tulloch Lodge, 8 High Street, Kensington
🚙 Parking is available inside the racecourse via the main entrance on High Street

✍🏻 Register your attendance here ➡️ https://t.co/eFFiPpek10

📧 If you have any questions or queries, please contact Emma Coleman
[email protected]

[TTR AusNZ @TTRAusNZ]

⭐ What Point Of Law produced over the final 200 metres of the Melbourne Cup is reserved for stars!

📊 @Nic_Ashman breaks down the standout performances, sectional figures and talking points from a phenomenal Flemington carnival.

https://t.co/PBPVOwJtoM

[National Thoroughbred Week @NationalTBWeek]

Starting a race takes a LOT more than pressing a button ▶️

EP 5: Learning Horse Skills (with absolutely no idea)

If you want to get behind the scenes of racing too, find your nearest National Thoroughbred Week event at https://t.co/g5rIXbmaJa 👈

[Tom Ryan @TomRyanKY]

FRONT ROW KIDS is officially in business. The boys landed hip 2757 tonight for $65,000 @keenelandsales, in foal to @BobBaffert Champion 2yo Citizen Bull, carrying a colt. Reach out if interested. Please RT—we’d love to introduce kids from all over to participate and follow along.
My Cell 859-619-1976

[TTR AusNZ @TTRAusNZ]

🔥Aerosilks - The fastest fabric in racing!

https://t.co/oVTQgrARhd

[Nic Ashman @Nic_Ashman]

Some carnival @FlemingtonVRC 👏👏

Records broken
Champions winning
Big upsets
Raceday drama
Monster crowds
Huge TV audience

Probably the best Cup carnival in a long time IMHO

In fact, the entire spring carnival from the moment Moods took SHEZA ALIBI up the Hume Hwy for the Winx, has been sensational ❤️

[Nick Williams @NCW717]

The board and management led by Chairman Neil Wilson and CEO Kylie Rogers of @FlemingtonVRC deserve huge congratulations for delivering one of the greatest major events Melbourne has seen this week. The racing was terrific, hospitality fantastic and entertainment world class. Not to mention the enormous crowd!👏👏👏👏👏👏

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

It takes a thousand years to build 3 centimetres of topsoil, and the world loses a football pitch of it every 5 seconds.

A third of the planet's farmable soil is already degraded. The UN's own warning was 60 harvests left.

Iowa, the richest ground in America, has lost close to half its topsoil since 1850, ploughed loose and sent down the Mississippi.

Warming gets the summits and the placards. The soil that grows 95% of your food is washing away right now, and that is the one that starves you.

The deepest, blackest, most fertile ground on earth, the American prairie, the Russian steppe, the Ukrainian black earth that feeds the world, was built by one thing.

Herds. Tens of millions of bison, trampling, dunging and moving on, over roots 15 feet deep, packing carbon into the ground for 10,000 years.

The plough switched that off. The cow, moved like the wild herd, switches it back on. Graze it right and the carbon sinks, the soil thickens, and the rain soaks in instead of tearing the field down the river.

A tractor cannot build soil. A fertiliser bag cannot build soil. Only the herd ever has.

So saving the world's dirt means more cattle on grass, not fewer, and the best machine ever built for the job is the animal they want off your plate.

You will hear about the cow's burp right up until the last of the topsoil reaches the sea.

[The Australian @australian]

Opinion: The ‘Nup to the Cup’ protest movement drew poorly attended lunches, while Flemington welcomed its largest crowd since the pandemic and TV ratings climbed. Here's why: https://t.co/uU8QXOcBO5

[Keeneland Sales @keenelandsales]

A mind-blowing $5.2 million for Quietside. Lynn Hancock reflects.

@stonefarmky #KeeNov

[National Thoroughbred Week @NationalTBWeek]

Fresh off a Melbourne Cup win and @cmaherracing is letting you behind the scenes 🏆

📍 Crown Lodge, Warwick Farm NSW
🗓 Thursday 26 November
⏰ 10:30am to 12:30pm

Not in Sydney? Don’t stress. There are plenty of free events happening across the country: https://t.co/g5rIXbmaJa

[Kick Up @KickUpForRacing]

Part 2 of the whip debate - why are there limits on how often jockeys can use it?

So should the whip still be used? Let us know what you think in the comments 👇

[Kick Up @KickUpForRacing]

The Guardian says 68% of Australians have low or no interest in the Melbourne Cup. Here’s what it left out.

First, the poll jumps around massively from year to year. It asked just 1,003 people, and low or no interest went from 52% in 2022 to 62% in 2023, then back to 52% in 2024. Without a major crisis, public opinion doesn’t swing 16 points up and back down in two years. Small polls do.

Even taking it as fact, the Cup is right where you’d expect. If 68% aren’t interested then 32% of Australians have an interest in the Cup. When the same pollster asked about other major events:

Australian Open: 45%
Cricket World Cup: 42%
Melbourne Cup: 32%
Australian F1 Grand Prix: 23%
Bathurst 1000: 14%

Nobody is writing headlines about the Grand Prix losing the nation’s interest...

Even the footy codes don’t reach most of the country. 42% of Australians call themselves AFL fans and 30% call themselves NRL fans. The AFL and NRL grand finals are two of the most watched programs of the year, and each was watched by less than 25% of Australians.

And the people who care still showed up. 97,112 people went to Flemington yesterday. That’s the biggest Cup Day crowd since 2016.

No sporting event in this country has most of the population on board and The Cup is no different. The same numbers could’ve read “Almost 1 in 3 Australians show an interest in the Cup” but there’s no prizes for guessing why they didn’t 😂

[brad davidson @braddavo]

Another safe Melbourne Cup. The scans might seem strict but the proof is in the pudding and we underestimate how important their introduction has been for our sport #melbournecup

[Victoria Racing Club @FlemingtonVRC]

Cue the sing-a-long 🎶

Flemington sings as one with @robbiewilliams ahead of the Lexus Melbourne Cup.

#MelbourneCup

[National Thoroughbred Week @NationalTBWeek]

Three horse names. That’s all she had to remember 😭

EP 4: Learning Horse Skills (with absolutely no idea)

This time @briar_spittle tried her hand at race calling with Matt Hill, the voice behind the Melbourne Cup.

Think you could do better? Come test your memory at an event!

[Kick Up @KickUpForRacing]

Ever wondered who’s actually watching the horses on Melbourne Cup day? 🤔

It’s a lot more than just the vets. Hear who’s keeping an eye on every horse from the mounting yard to the starting gates and why the number goes up on Cup day.

Got questions? Let us know in the comments section.