Scott Eagleton has a talent that makes him a prominent player in the world of thoroughbred breeding. It's actually more than one talent - such attributes as a team leader possessing the ability to communicate with people at all levels as well as being an expert horseman - that together recognize him as one of New Zealand's valued group of commercial thoroughbred stud managers.

For the past four years Scott has controlled the day-to-day running of Fayette Park Stud, one of the country's significant nurseries with five stallions and a large resident broodmare band. This is an exciting task requiring single-minded application to the broad range of activities which combine to make such an operation function efficiently.

It also requires the respect and co-operation of the numerous staff member under Scott's control. "When working with horses, it's important to be a talented horseman," he says, "but that alone doesn't necessarily make for the best manager. Good skills can give a lead to other workers, but common sense and knowing how to deal with various situations are just as important."

Scott's stockmanship had its beginnings growing up on a hill country farm in the Taihape area, but he opted for business studies at university before deciding after two years to travel overseas. Horses had always featured in his growing years and he managed to find a job at one of England's established studs, Cheveley Park, at Newmarket.

After 18 months there he returned home to a position at Cambridge Stud for a breeding season, followed by a northern breeding season back at Cheveley Park. He added further to his overseas experience by then working at a stallion station in Japan, but during that stint received a call from his old New Zealand boss, Patrick Hogan.

The upshot of that was that Scott found himself back in the Waikato managing the Monarch Farm branch of Cambridge Stud. His five years there were an invaluable experience, enabling him to be an important member of an organization that has been an industry leader for the past two decades.

The skills that Scott had acquired by this stage made him an ideal candidate for the role of Fayette Park manager, and neither he nor his employers David and Maisey Benjamin have had cause to regret teaming up four years ago.

Scott is an excellent example of someone focusing on a career and making sound decisions in his desire to gain the right sort of experience at the right time.

"The biggest thing I would say to anyone contemplating a career in this industry is to be prepared to spend four or five years learning as much as you can. After you've done that try for the best job on the property with a sound reputation and if everything is in place, the rest will follow.

"The secret is to see out those initial years, be prepared to work and want to learn. The rewards are certainly there if you do that and prove yourself."