Vanessa Sierra is hardly your typical punter but there’s little doubt she’s one of us.
And as someone with almost 500,000 Instagram followers, nearly 200,000 fans on X and more than 615,000 tuned into her content via TikTok, she commands an audience wider and more diverse than any other figure in Australian racing.
But who is the 31-year-old, who was relatively unknown within racing circles until recently?
A quick Google search will show that Sierra has worn a few different hats, including reality TV star, digital content creator and crypto queen.
But her favourite title, by some margin, is racehorse owner.
Her idea of fun is jumping in the car and driving several hours from her current Sydney base to spend a day at the races. This week it was Wyong to watch Skycatcher on Thursday and Gosford for the $500,000 The Coast, in which Zambardo was top weight and a leading fancy.
“I love watching them and I like to be present (at the track),” Sierra said.
“It’s a real passion of mine.”
“On Thursday, I had no friends to come out with me to Wyong so I drove to watch the races by myself.”
“I had a great time, even though Skycatcher didn’t quite get the win.”
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For Sierra, a love of horses was fostered during a childhood growing up in Vanuatu.
The fascination with racing came via the computer game Starters Orders – essentially a Sims-style horse racing simulation game in which users curate and manage a racing stable.
“I started riding when I was five years old so it’s definitely something I grew up with,” she said.
“My mum was a horse rider and we had a little farm with some horses so I’ve always been around them.”
“I used to play this video game when I was nine or ten, it was called Starters Orders, I’m not sure that it was meant for kids but basically you’re a trainer that can buy horses and manage a stable.”
“I was obsessed with that game and it probably built this dream of becoming a racehorse owner one day so I guess you could say it’s always been a childhood dream to be involved with racehorses in some way.”
“But when I moved out of home at 15, I didn’t have the funds to keep riding so I stopped for quite a while.”
Sierra returned to horses recently, first via show jumping in her sometimes-home Dubai, then as a part-owner in several racehorses in Australia.
Her recruitment into ownership was orchestrated by Carl Holt, the former London financial market trader, whose now-iconic blue and red colours have been carried to victory by star horses Zaaki and Lost And Running.
Sierra said Holt offered her the chance to race Taken, who was bought off a trial win in New Zealand and has since banked more than $560,000 for connections.
Others like Zambardo and Skycatcher have followed.
“I didn’t get back to horses until about five years ago when I moved to Dubai and I could actually afford it,” she said.
“I started doing show jumping lessons and competing again, just for a bit of fun.
“I ended up getting injured and that knocked my confidence a bit.
“I think I took about a year or two off riding and during that period I connecting with a friend who is heavily into racing, Carl Holt, who I got to know through crypto.”
“I asked him for advice on potentially moving my show jumping horses to Australia and during the conversation I made a joke about getting involved in his next racing opportunity.”
“He gave me one opportunity that I said no to but then he offered me a share in Taken, who became my first ever racehorse.”
“He’s been quite successful and I’ve also made money backing him so everything I’ve made I’ve put back into horses.”
“I think I’ve got seven horses now so it’s grown pretty quickly.”
“Carl helps me a lot and we’ve got a really good group of people that races these horses together.”
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The best horse in Sierra’s burgeoning stable is Zambardo, the lightly raced four-year-old who ran second to Via Sistina in last year’s G1 Champions Stakes at Flemington.
Come to the countryside racetrack with me
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— van00sa (@van00sa) May 7, 2026
That near-miss only fueled Sierra’s hunger for elite success and she hopes it might materialise during the Queensland Winter Carnival, where Zambardo could tackle races like the G1 Doomben Cup and the $1.2 million Q22.
“He’s turned out to be a bit of a star,” she said.
“Everything is tentative at the moment but I think he’s in the mix for some nice races in Queensland.”
“That (G1 win) is everyone’s dream, isn’t it?”
“I never thought it would even be on the cards this early into my ownership journey.”
“I’m living out my 10-year-old dreams.”
