Big trip pays off for Jobe team

Ballarat’s Julian and Alison Jobe set themselves a new road-trip challenge earlier this week, and despite 550-kilometres round trip and a 2.30am tuck into bed they took it all in their stride.

The couple hit the road from their Mount Rowan base to compete at the north west Victorian track of Swan Hill for the first time last Monday night but made the trip worthwhile, returning home winners.

“We took three up there. We decided the races suited, and they all travelled very well in the float,” Jobe said.

“It’s a beautiful track and the club officials were great. They couldn’t do enough for us which was nice. We got a racebook, free cold drinks and they had a barbecue going.

“If we reckon there’s some nice races for our horses in future, we won’t hesitate to go back up there again.”

And the Jobe team didn’t have to wait too long for success with their first runner Vapar Fortune (Used To Me FRA-Pocket Of Fortune (In The Pocket) scoring an all-the-way victory in the second race, the Bithub Crypto Exchange 3yo Maiden Pace.

It was only the pacer’s second start and John Caldow, who has been a regular driver for the Jobe stable over the years, got him home at the long odds of 33/1, much to the delight of followers of the popular Melton-based freelance reinsman.

Jobe said Vapar Fortune was bred to trot but didn’t have a future in that at all.

“We tried and tried him as a trotter. In the end I gave up because all he wanted to do was pace. It’s quite funny because his mother was the other way-bred to pace and turned out to be a trotter,” he said.

Once she found her way into square-gaiting, Vapar Fortune’s mum Pocket Of Fortune proved to be more than handy with five wins (one at Melton) and 14 placings for $36K over four or five seasons beginning in 2011.

The Jobe’s other Swan Hill runners in Vapar Fire and Vapar Brenda were unplaced. The horses are raced by enthusiastic owner-breeders John Vagg and Keith Parry-who race their horses under the Vapar tag, formed from the letters in their surnames.

In recent years, Jobe enjoyed success with My Skyrocket, owned by John Vagg, who is Jobe’s cousin. The trotter won a number of Melton races including the $20K Woodlands Stud Trot, the Aldebaran Park VicBred and SBS car sales VicBred Trot.

Jobe, a renowned excellent conditioner of horses, has prepared several hundred winners over the years. He had a standout season in 1999/2000 with 31 wins and 37 placings for $116,000. Some of the horses he’s been associated with include Simply Next, Kentucky George, Emmy Lowman, Low Bronze, Cameroon, Felix Rex, Artificial, Rosalee Hanover, Cobargo Jack, Cobargo Barney and the exciting Boorhaman.

Jobe said he’s been involved in harness racing “since the year dot”.

“I was born into the game – my father Claude had horses. That was back in the day when they use to ride them. And there’d be fields of 25,” he said.

“Dad had a pretty good one called Claudies Hope that won trotting and pacing races. And then there was Foundation Man who was also dual gaited and raced in the 1940s.

“I’ve got race photographs dating back to 1954 featuring many of his winners. I can remember when we won the 1963 Oaks at the old Melbourne Showgrounds track.”

Jobe said his father was a wheeler and dealer for a bit, buying and selling old bottles and hides.

“In 1954 he bought his first pub and that started us in the hotel business. It was in Portland and he bought it from Reg Ansett,” he said.

“Mum and dad ran hotels for years and I was with them for probably 30 years. We always had horses at the same time, though. I think we saw them as an escape to get away from the hotel.

“I mainly did the shoeing. That would have been for 40 years, but I think it’s starting to catch up with me.

“Now I just train the horses. My wife Alison helps out and comes to the meetings. We’ve got four in work at present.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink