‘I was grateful just to have a licence’: Trainer Paul Shailer’s journey back from the brink

But that’s where Paul Shailer’s road to redemption started as he took the first important steps to rebuild his life and his career in horse racing.

Chris Waller’s long-time lieutenant had just been given his marching orders by Australia’s top trainer after an out of control Gold Coast stable party in 2021 which escalated into physical violence.

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“I wasn’t an alcoholic, by any stretch of the imagination, but that party got out of hand,” Shailer tells Racenet.

“Everyone’s view was it happened on the night that Shaquero won the Magic Millions, but that wasn’t the case.

“It was just a Wednesday afternoon, believe it or not.

“We were having a few drinks after work and the wheels gained momentum, it turned into a party and then there was an altercation that night.

“That is how it crescendoed.

“There was a bit of violence, but that’s not me.

“It was a red flag to me, I thought what am I doing, what’s going on here?

“I fronted the police and the racing stewards and I wasn’t charged with anything.

“But I lost my job out of it and I could understand that.

“I just needed to get away and have a break and a freshen up, clean myself up both mentally and physically.

“The first and foremost thing was to get my state of mind and my health right.

“I went away, I went to a health retreat, I cleaned myself up and concentrated on my mental and physical health.

“I came out of it a month later feeling absolutely fantastic to be honest.”

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The stable party was Ground Zero for Shailer, the former Kiwi who had spent a dozen years with the Waller stable and had been one of the driving forces in it becoming an Aussie powerhouse.

In the hectic aftermath, Shailer was without a job and didn’t have a plan.

But he knew he needed to get himself right and make some key changes in his life.

At one stage, he thought about buying a courier van and quitting racing altogether.

But it was a stint at a health retreat which uncluttered his mind, the first steps in a lengthy process which eventually saw him get a trainers’ licence and prepare horses for some of the most powerful owners in Australia, including Winx’s owner Peter Tighe.

No-one has to tell Shailer who his real friends are … because they were there for him in some of the darkest days of his life.

Tighe and other big-time owners such as Noel Greenhalgh, Nev Morgan and Darren Frame were quickly on the phone offering their help and guidance.

Shailer doesn’t have any hard feelings towards Waller but says he will always be grateful to some of Waller’s owners, who he ironically now trains for on the Gold Coast.

“Chris Waller is a well respected man, he’s got good values, he’s the leading trainer in Australia and one of the leading trainers in the world,” Shailer said.

“He’s got a reputation to protect and I was front and centre of his Gold Coast stable.

“When it happened, I knew I had let Chris down and let his ownership group down.

“But it’s funny how things work.

“One of the first people who came and put their arm around me was Peter Tighe and the other one was Nev Morgan and the other one was Noel Greenhalgh.

“They were blokes who rang me and asked if I was OK and if I needed any support.

“Without them I am not where I am now, that’s for sure.

“I consider them all family.”

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The path back to racing was a winding one.

Shailer returned to work for good friend and successful trainer Matt Dunn and ended up running Dunn’s stable in Murwillumbah, in far northern NSW.

Then came a major moment when there were available horse boxes at Port Macquarie.

Shailer sensed he had to seize the day and apply for a trainer’s licence in his own right.

But nothing came easy as racing authorities in NSW did their due diligence.

“I had a feed room full of horse feed, 22 boxes at Port Macquarie full of sawdust and not a horse to put in them,” Shailer said.

“I had horses waiting, but my licence wasn’t approved.

“I was set up, I had paid a bond, and I was sitting there paying a lease on empty boxes.

“I was sweating bullets every day waiting for my licence to come through, if it even was going to come through.

“It wasn’t an easy process and Peter Tighe went into bat for me, he wrote a letter to Racing NSW saying he would support me with horses.

“The good news came via a phone call.

“And from there, I knew I had to do some serious work.

“It was just head down and arse up from there, I was really hungry.

“I was just grateful to have a training licence and to be able to do what I love to do.”

After his time at Port Macquarie, Shailer stepped up his training operation by moving to the Gold Coast where he has now become a formidable training force.

With support from a powerful ownership group, the former Kiwi his big dreams and wants to become a Group 1 winning trainer.

It is not only his life in racing which has changed completely, but also his life outside the racing bubble.

While in Port Macquarie, he met his now wife Michelle.

The couple have identical twin boys, two-year-olds Hunter and Hudson, and Michelle also has six children from a previous relationship.

There is never a dull moment in the Shailer household.

“This is a whole different aspect of how my life has changed, meeting Michelle was a real turning point for me,” Shailer, 46, says.

“I was a single bachelor for a long time.

“But you can only be a dickhead for so long, it takes hold.

“And at times I was a dickhead.”

Shailer now has 40 horses in work on the Gold Coast and his best moment since returning to racing was when his two-year-old filly Isti Star landed a $1m race, scoring the Magic Millions National 2YO Classic on her home Gold Coast track in May.

Originally published as ‘I was grateful just to have a licence’: Trainer Paul Shailer’s journey back from the brink