Riverina couple now right at home

It’s been a big year for young Riverina harness racing couple Blake Jones and Ellen Bartley but they’re reaping the rewards for their enterprise and hard work.

They took the plunge and bought their own training establishment at Narrandera nine months ago and haven’t looked back.

“It was a big decision to buy this place, but we’d been looking around for a property that was suitable, and this came up,” Jones said.

“It was a former galloping stable, but 90 per cent of what we needed was here. There was already a big track but we put in an 800 metre fastwork track as well. With the weather over winter, it took a little bit longer than we had hoped, but we’ve certainly got all we need here now,” he said.

“We were lucky in that one of our good owners, Michael Boots has an excavation company, and he was able to build the track and get the right base and top on it for it to be ideal.”

Jones notched up 100 driving wins for the season for the third time in his career with a double at the Riverina Paceway last week. And Bartley also recently passed 50 wins for a season as a trainer for the first time in her career.

Technically, Jones has passed the century four times, but says he’s happy not to count the 115 he recorded for the extended 2020 season.

“The last time I got 100 in the season was back in 2017-18. But it’s always a nice milestone to get to and it’s especially nice given all we’ve done this year,” he said.

“We’ve got about 12 in work at the moment, and we’re pretty happy with how the team is going.”

One of the Bartley-Jones team’s rising stars in Nerano (Tintin In America – Jass (Village Jasper), is owned by Boots. Coming from New Zealand, the pacer won his first six in a row before being brave in defeat as runner up in a luckless run at Wagga Wagga last night.

“Nerano is getting down to a tight mark but has really good speed and should be able to continue on, I think. Forever Yin has made it through to the 4YO VicBred semi-finals (at Melton on Wednesday night), and he’s been fantastic for us (11 wins, 14 placings from 41 career starts).

“We also have some horses for Summit Bloodstock, and that’s worked well for us too. We do race quite a bit in Victoria because Shepparton is only three hours away and Cobram even closer, so if we have VicBred eligible horses or the races suit, we don’t hesitate to go there.”

Jones said he first took an interest in harness racing as a teenager, while he was still at school.

“My grandfather Joe Painting always had one or two that I used to love helping him with. Once I left school, I worked on a farm at Colleambally, just doing the horses when I could.

“But I wasn’t that keen on farming and was always more interested in the horses so when I was about 20, I went to Sydney to work with Trevor Munday for about 12 months. Then I went to Bathurst and worked for Steve Turnbull and Nathan Hurst for a while before I came back to the Riverina and helped David Kennedy.”

Jones said he and Bartley had been together for about nine years and loved the experience of working together on their own property.

“I work on the trackwork and fitness, Ellen is the expert on the health side. She works a couple of days a week for clients doing horse massage as well,” he said.

“We’re thoroughly enjoying it, but I think I’d certainly say for both of us that we would sacrifice some of those everyday race wins if we could manage to win one of those good races! That would be our goal.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink