“I always wanted to train,” he said. “But I didn’t have the money to set up properly at first. You need infrastructure – stables, tracks, a property. While I had a good set-up for showjumpers, it wasn’t suited to racehorses. So, I started breaking in horses and really enjoyed it. From there, it was a natural progression into training.”
Among the horses he helped pre-train early on were Revenue, who won the Victoria Derby and placed in the AJC Derby, and What A Nuisance, who would go on to win the 1985 Melbourne Cup. Initially, he trained flat horses who had some success, but over time, Musgrove found his true niche in the jumping ranks.
The horse who changed everything, though, was Karasi. A son of Kahyasi, Karasi had been a tough, consistent stayer on the flat, running fourth in the 2001 Melbourne Cup for David Hall. When Hall moved to Hong Kong, he suggested Musgrove might take the horse on.
“I remember David saying, ‘He’s small, not sure how he’ll jump, but he can stay.’ I went to have a look, brought him home – and the rest is history.”
Karasi became a legend, winning the Nakayama Grand Jump three years in a row from 2005 to 2007 – at the time, the richest jumps race in the world. He was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2018 and lived out his retirement at Musgrove’s property, Karasi Park, until his death last year at 30.
“Financially, he changed my life,” Musgrove said. “But more than that, he was a pleasure to have around. He was honest as the day is long and a real character. He was just a tough, honest, lovely horse.”
Karasi Park – named in his honour – is where Musgrove still works from today. Set on 88 hectares at Coronet Bay, it’s a property Musgrove built from scratch. “All the tracks were excavated – we’ve put in pools, dams, drainage. It’s designed to make life easy. Not overly labour-intensive. Everything’s built to save time and effort, to work well and be good for the horses.”