‘It just wasn’t financially viable’ – Nick Olive and the stable reset he had to have
After a challenging financial period that forced a move to Queanbeyan, Nick Olive is back in Canberra racing and on the verge of 800 career winners as he tries to plot the right path for stable star Spicy Lu.
Nick Olive is back where he has always belonged – as one of Canberra’s foremost racehorse trainers.
In a move akin to the return of the prodigal son to the ACT’s ranks, Olive’s second incarnation as a Canberra trainer has been as seamless as it gets.
When he left in 2022, Olive, like so many other Canberra trainers trying to maintain stable numbers to compete with his NSW contemporaries, faced a financial burden that had almost crippled his business.
Insurance premiums had made it almost impossible to stay afloat. Workers’ compensation costs had skyrocketed.
With that expense came the pressure involved in the day-to-day running of a stable that only a few years earlier found national prominence through the deeds of Single Gaze, a Group 1-winning filly who blossomed into a Caulfield Cup-placed mare and the earner of more than $2.3 million in prize money.
Olive moved his team across the NSW border to Queanbeyan. It’s less than a 30-minute drive from Thoroughbred Park in Canberra to the Queanbeyan Race Club.
But for Olive, it was the chance to strip away the financial noise and refocus on what he does best – training racehorses.
Staying in Canberra was untenable. It was an easy decision to leave, just as it was to come back.
Olive returned to his ACT roots in November, once the Canberra Race Club’s chief executive Darren Pearce had navigated a web of red tape to secure a better deal for trainers who use Thoroughbred Park.
It marked a subtle but significant shift for Olive, who had learned his trade from fellow Canberra trainers Barbara Joseph and Ken Callaughan.
“It was totally to do with the insurance … just financially it wasn’t viable for me to train at Canberra while the insurance was what it was,” Olive told The Straight.
“It felt like it was day-to-day training to survive at one point with the workers’ comp drama, and when we moved to Queanbeyan, that lifted off my shoulders, and I could focus on training.”
The resolution of that long-running issue has allowed Olive to return with a clearer mind as he approaches 800 career winners and is ensconced in the top 10 of the NSW country trainers’ premiership.
Queanbeyan was a refuge that allowed the stable to keep turning out the winners, but Canberra always felt like home.
“That pressure is not there now, and I think the staff know that, and it takes the pressure off everyone,” he said.
If recalibrating his stable in the national capital was the best decision Olive has made this season, choosing between Adelaide and Brisbane for his stable star Spicy Lu amounts to one of his hardest.
Olive entered last spring’s Group 2 Ethereal Stakes winner for the $1 million Australasian Oaks at Morphettville and the Listed Princess Stakes at Eagle Farm.
An unfavourable barrier in the Adelaide Group 1 became a deciding factor in a race that has meaning for Olive after Zenarta was narrowly beaten in the 2006 edition in his first season of running a full-time stable.
“I thought Zenarta was home that day and it would have been nice to go back and go one better,” Olive said.
“But when the draw came out, it was a big factor for us.”
Spicy Lu ran in the VRC Oaks after her Ethereal win, finishing midfield.
Olive isn’t sure if she is in the same form after three unplaced runs across two states in 2026, hence his preference to take a conservative route that is nevertheless filled with Queensland Oaks ambitions.
“It’s probably another reason we are going up there (to Brisbane), just to try and get her carnival back on track,” Olive said.
“If she can go well in the Princess Stakes then we can stay up there and aim for a few more.
“She’s been just a touch disappointing in the last two (starts).” he said.
“She just hasn’t raced up to her best and we need to find out what’s going on. Going to Adelaide probably wasn’t going to tell us anything from a wide barrier.
“But at least in Brisbane, we should know if she’s going well enough to keep pushing on during the winter carnival.”
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