Galway native Ziva Mullins worked her way from backpacker to management in the Australian bloodstock industry before returning to Ireland to set up Doninga Bloodstock.
Ziva Mullins, who grew up in Kinvara, Co Galway, left Ireland for Australia in 2013 and returned in November 2024 after acquiring a wealth of experience and expertise in the horse racing industry.
She is a graduate of the Back for Business programme backed by the Irish Government aimed at supporting returned or soon to be returning Irish emigrants in staring and developing a business in Ireland.
“There was a great benefit in having exposure to people who’ve been through what you’re going through and having access to that knowledge base”
The free programme, which is funded by the Irish Abroad Unit, Department of Foreign Affairs, was created to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among emigrants recently returned to Ireland.
Now in its ninth year, the programme has up to 50 places available. The deadline for the next phase is 16 January and interested entrepreneurs can apply here.
Galloping ahead
For the first eight years that Ziva was in Australia, she was based in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales where she worked with horses on stud farms and stallion farms.
“I basically expanded my knowledge base there and worked my way up through the ranks from being a lowly kind of backpacker to being in management positions,” she says.
After a year in Victoria, Ziva moved to Sydney where she spent several years working for Australia’s leading thoroughbred auction house.
Like the horses she works with, Ziva also comes from exceptional racing stock. Her grandfather, Luke Mullins, managed Galway Racecourse, and his brother, Paddy Mullins, was a very famous champion National Hunt trainer.
Indeed, several of Ziva’s cousins and second cousins are very prominent in the Irish racing scene. “Growing up, we had horses in the background all the time. I would have spent a couple of summers with Paddy Mullins when I was younger, just to get a feel for it,” she says.
Despite all those industry connections in the family, Ziva returned to Ireland for personal rather than professional reasons.
“Professionally, the best opportunities were still in Australia, but for me it was about being close to family and our culture. I do have my Australian citizenship, so I knew that I could go back there, but within the first couple of months of being back an opportunity came my way to do some bloodstock work and the business sprung out of that,” she says.
Ziva’s business Doninga Bloodstock specialises in international bloodstock advice for owners and trainers in the racing industry.
“I provide tailored advice around the purchasing, selling, breeding and racing of high-quality racing and breeding stock. So, somebody will come to me looking to buy a racehorse or a broodmare and I would ask for a price guide, and then go looking and negotiate the deals,” she says.
Ziva also offers advice around the purchasing of race horses in Europe for the Australian market.
She says being back in Ireland has changed her lifestyle exponentially. “It’s been brilliant to be home. There’s a social aspect of being around Irish people, a sort of deep understanding of each other’s humour and of each other’s background. For me, it’s been a great move,” she says.
Ziva says the Back for Business programme was critical to helping her set up her business. “I would do it again in a heartbeat. There was a great benefit in having exposure to people who’ve been through what you’re going through and having access to that knowledge base.”
An early standout moment for the business came on her first trip back to Australia. “I was sent to a sale where we had highlighted a couple of high-end brood mares to try and purchase for a client, and we succeeded. It was exciting stuff and proof of my abilities because I was able to pull off the purchase of very high-end horses,” she says.
“This is a niche business but it’s competitive, there’s a lot of people trying to do what I do, so it’s great to be getting good results for the clients, especially when you’re starting off.”
Ziva plans to expand her client base in Australia initially before doing the same here in Ireland.
The deadline for completed applications for Back to Business 9 is midnight on Friday, 16 January. For more information or to register your interest in receiving an application form, click here
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