As a predominant disease-causing culprit of the equine industry, virulent Rhodococcus equi is a multimillion-dollar pathogen that has threatened the well-being of young foals across the globe for almost a century. The lack of a developed vaccine and the bug's soil-animal host lifestyle means the management of this soil saprophyte is an ongoing challenge for horse breeding farms. There is substantial demand for an innovative alternative to control R. equi environmental burdens without driving the increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance. Bacteriophages offer an exciting opportunity for the management of R. equi soil concentrations that has yet to be fully explored. Our work aims to better define the growth patterns of virulent R. equi in the soil and determine the effect of six R. equi phages isolated from Thoroughbred breeding farms across NSW (Australia) on soil burdens under various environmental conditions. Exploratory experiments showed that virulent R. equi grows to high concentrations in the soil when the ambient temperature is between 30 and 37℃, and soil pH is between 6 and 9, regardless of soil type. This information was useful for establishing a biological reference for more complex experiments applying phage treatments to the soil. The phage candidates showed promising results in liquid media, maintaining lytic activity (suppression of bacterial growth) for over 20 hours without the development of bacterial resistance at multiplicity of infection doses of 100 and 1000. Initial results from trial experiments showed that these phages can successfully persist and amplify for 72 hours in soil in the presence of virulent R. equi. However, as mono-phage treatments, were not able to reduce R. equi soil burdens significantly, with most achieving only a 1-2 log reduction. Phage cocktails (equimolar mixes) are currently being assessed for synergistic activity in liquid media. 'Best' (most lytic, less resistogenic) pairs will be added to soil to observe population interactions between phage and bacteria and are expected to have an improved R. equi reduction potential. This work will ideally establish bacteriophages as a viable targeted control strategy for R. equi soil burdens on horse breeding farms.