9 2026 COUNTRY ACHIEVER AWARD A LIFE BUILT AROUND HORSES Alderson’s path to thoroughbred training was not completely linear. A gifted equestrian in her teenage years, she competed successfully across multiple disciplines and won state-level championships. After completing a teaching diploma in 1987, she spent two years working in stables across the UK, USA and New Zealand, gathering experience and perspective that would inform her training philosophy for decades to come. Cindy held her trainer’s licence for 10 years before she went into fulltime training in 2000, having spent the intervening years working in industry roles at Victoria University and Racing Victoria. The breadth of that background – equestrian, educational, administrative, international – shows in the way she approaches her horses. Each one, she believes, requires its own understanding. “Each horse trained by Cindy benefits from her strength of horsemanship, experience, innovative ideas and uncanny understanding of the equine psyche,” is how Alderson Racing describes its philosophy. In practice, that means reading the animal in front of you rather than applying a formula – a skill that can be taught only so far, and the rest must simply be lived. OPPOSITE: Cindy and her star sprinter Jigsaw at Cranbourne trackwork. (Image credit: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images) ABOVE: Cindy on Sky Heights (right) at Carrum beach just days prior to his momentous 1999 Caulfield Cup win. Colin by her side on the stable pony. (Image credit: Tony Feder/ALLSPORT via Getty Images)
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