Sweet Albury Cup win is tinged with sadness

Twenty years ago, it was Joe Painting who began mentoring his young grandson Blake Jones into a harness racing career.

So, there was a sense of destiny that Jones scored one of the biggest wins of his career on Friday night, just a day before his grandfather passed away after a battle with illness.

Jones drove a superbly judged race on Glenledi Elvis (A Rocknroll Dance) trained by his wife Ellen to win the richest ever race held at Albury HRC, the $60,000 SS and A Club of Albury Cup, in track-record time.

“We won the $100,000 TAB Championship Final at Wagga with Brooklyn Bridge (Sweet Lou) in May last year, which was our biggest win stakes wise, but this would be our next-biggest,” Jones said.

“Grandpa was 92 and had been pretty crook with a tumor on his chest.  He passed away on Saturday, but his mind was still there, and he knew we’d won that race,” he said.

“My mum and dad and brothers and sisters weren’t into harness racing at all, but Grandpa always had a horse or two in work.  From the time I was about 12, he would pick me up at the weekends and take me to the stables and we’d do the horses together.

“He was really the reason that I got into harness at all.”

Joe Painting always had a handy horse in the stable, but his best was Go Like Lyal (Northern Lights), a winner of 17 races in the Riverina in the early 2000s, before he sent the horse to Sydney to John Tapp.

Go Like Lyal won four Metropolitan races at Harold Park in just over a month in the summer of 2006 and retired with stakemoney just short of $100,000.

The 34-year-old Jones, who last year passed 1000 driving wins, has honored his grandpa’s legacy by forging a successful career in the sport Joe Painting loved.

Based at Narrandera, Blake’s wife Ellen has recorded more than 50 wins in each of the past four seasons, while Blake combines working at the stable in the mornings with freelance driving around the State.

“It’s pretty busy – I did Blayney, Bathurst, Young, Albury and Menangle this week, so that’s a pretty busy week and we have 18 in work at the moment,” Jones said.

“We’re just very lucky to have a great team that supports us. Ky Bloomfield is with us full time, Sarah (Jones) does the boxes and waters, and we have Harvey Odgers with us as well on weekends and school holidays.  Without all of them, I wouldn’t be able to be going off doing the driving I do,” he said.

Glenledi Elvis is a half-brother to open class performer and multiple group race winner Zeuss Bromac and has been a terrific purchase by big owner Michael Boots since arriving at the Jones stable in September last year.

“He’s a lovely big strong horse and a great horse to do anything with,” Jones said.

“He’s a pretty cool customer and good to get along with.  He’d only had the one start for a win before he came from New Zealand, and he’s come a long way from that.  He’s really outdone our expectations about where we thought he would be at by now,” Jones said.

Glenledi Elvis has was won six of his 10 Australian starts, but the win on Friday night was a significant step up in grade on his previous assignments.

Jones pushed Glenledi Elvis out of the gate from barrier five. They were caught four wide around the first corner, but worked to the lead, before handing up to Missed The Truth (Cameron Hart).

The opportunity presented for Jones to go three wide on the home corner, but he elected to stick to the fence, which proved a winning move.

“I noticed down the back straight that the leader had a tendency to run off so I thought I might be a bit of a chance for a bit of luck in the home straight and it all panned out pretty well.”

A big crowd cheered a “Riverina” victory, prompting a celebratory salute from the usually reserved Jones.

“There was a good crowd and a good atmosphere and quite a few of my family there. The horse did such a great job at his first step up to that class – I think I just got a bit excited there on the line!” he laughed.

“We will have to have a think about what’s next for him.  There are a couple of country cups around here and in Victoria and there’s a possibility of taking him to Menangle,” he said.

“In all honesty he probably won’t stay with us long term – we’ve got to do what’s right for the horse and for Michael so we will probably end up sending him to Menangle so he can race there and give his best without a 12-hour round trip in the float each time.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink