About

I was raised in South Australia near a very small town on the end of the Murray River. The town was called Narrung and my father, Les Irwin, taught me so much at Narrung Stud and later Blandford Park. 

My hands-on horsemanship started with the thoroughbred horse at the age of four. I was my father’s shadow and it was alongside my father that my passion for racing began. I would ride track work before school, and as soon as I would get off the bus, I would head straight to the stables in the afternoon. From there, I went on to a successful career in the thoroughbred breeding game, specialising in yearling preparation. I also competed in a non-racing sport called “cutting” on quarter horses (hence the big hat). 

I retired from being a hands-on horseman in July 2020. My passion was preparing yearlings for sale, and I was very fortunate to sell many champions and million-dollar plus yearlings over my time, and also run my very own successful farm as well.

I never realised until about ten years ago I had an artistic flair and could also write. My artist side is making metal sculptures and I have been fortunate enough to win a few significant awards. The front cover of my very first book, Contention, is actually a sculpture I made called “Taking the Plunge” that is now in the Sculpture Garden in the town of Mudgee, NSW. (That is also me in the circle posing ). The prize money from winning those awards bought my beautiful wife Shannon her engagement ring. 

My whole career in the racing game has provided me with a memory bank of so many characters for my books. Writing is now my number one passion in life. All the highs and lows in life, the victories, and the heartbreaks in the racing and breeding game enable me to draw on my memory bank and bring to life my fictional stories. The fact is that much of the stories are true in some degree. I’m sure I’ve rubbed shoulders with a quite a few “colourful racing identities” along the way, while not knowing the real truth behind their wealth. Most of them get caught in the end, and it shocks the hell out of us all with their underbelly lifestyle we never actually knew about. I’m very fortunate to say that 99% of the people I have met in the horse industry are simply decent, horse-loving people. The fact is everyone loves a villain in a story, and my books always have a touch of an underbelly/gangster side to spice things up. 

Enjoy the read, and please feel free to send me reviews and emails about what you thought about the book.