Jet set for take-off

While Yabby Dam Farms principal Pat Driscoll is eagerly anticipating the horse he bred competing in the world famous Elitloppet, he’s also busy building plans for another star trotter from the harness racing barn to ply her trade overseas.

Multiple Group 1-winning mare Im Ready Jet (Quaker Jet) could soon be racing in France as Driscoll and the farm’s head trainer Anton Golino plot a path towards the upcoming winter races in that country.

Im Ready Jet was third in last weekend’s Group 1 Macarthur Trotters Mile at Menangle, with the daughter of Quaker Jet now being given a short freshen-up ahead of a potential campaign in Europe.

Driscoll said it was a “very realistic possibility” that the six-year-old would be sent over to compete for a different trainer later in the season.

He also said it was unlikely that Im Ready Jet would race again here in Australia before the trip abroad.

“We’re not sending her across to race in the Prix d’Amerique or anything, we’re just sending her across to race in good-level French racing,” he said.

“I would have thought we’d get her up and if Anton’s happy with her – he doesn’t have to race her to be happy with her – then we’d send her across.

“If it was one race it’s a bit different, but when we’re looking to send her over there and let the trainer pick out a few races with Anton, that’s a different scenario.”

Driscoll said after a period of racing in France, Im Ready Jet would then be put in foal and brought back home to Australia.

“We’d look at putting her in foal to southern hemisphere time,” he said.

“Turn her out, make her a broodmare, put her in foal to something we can’t get here and bring her back.

“That said, if she’s suited okay, we could leave her over there for a couple of years.”

Driscoll would have loved to campaign former star mare Dance Craze overseas, but sadly that never came to fruition as she was retired after injury in 2021.

“We probably should have gone earlier because if you wait for the right opportunity it never comes,” he said.

Im Ready Jet is a 20-time winner from 51 career starts with earnings up over $500,000.

Late last month, she was crowned the Victorian Aged Trotting Mare of the Year for her standout 2022 season which included victories in the Group 1 Maori Mile and Sumthingaboutmaori Trotters Free For All.

Driscoll and Yabby Dam Farms bred Just Believe, who is now leased by a group of owners and trained by Jess Tubbs in Myrniong.

That horse has been invited to compete in the Elitloppet at Solvalla, in Sweden, on May 28.

by Tim O’Connor, for Harness Racing Victoria