IT is a long way from Katoomba in the cool of the Blue Mountains to Kidston in hot and dusty north-west Queensland. But that was the route of teenager Bobby Jones who was to devote all his working life to the rugged Queensland outback.
He established himself as a top class cattle and horseman – and became a racing legend in his adopted state.
The highest accolade comes from Tolga’s famous jockey and trainer Ronnie Ryan, who rates Bobby Jones as “the best horseman I have ever seen”. Now, that is a statement.
Bobby is 84 this year and said recently to his daughter Colleen, “I don’t know what I am going to do when I get old.”
“And he was he was totally serious,’’ Colleen said.
The old ringer, drover, station cook, horse breaker, trainer and punter of repute lives in “downtown” Einasleigh and keeps watch over the town common as the self-appointed and unofficial caretaker. He hasn’t missed an Einasleigh race meeting since he turned up to work on Blackbrae station in 1960 and remembers the days when horses – all grassfed – came out of the paddock 10 days before the Easter two-day meeting.
Everyone would converge on the track for a 10-day party.
“Every station had their horses and we trained them on the track in the morning and sort of caught up with each other during the days and nights before the races –it was different then,” he said.
The crowds at Einasleigh today are mainly city folk from the coast between Townsville and Cairns.
Back then it was a meeting place and annual ‘get-together’ for the stations from Mt Surprise, Hughenden, Kidston and other centres over the North West and Gulf.
He recalls keen and serious racing with amateur jockeys and a strong betting ring where a punter could get “set for anything”. Einasleigh is now reduced to a one-day meeting on Easter Saturday but according to Bobby the meeting two weeks ago was well attended and adequately served by six bookies.
“No, it was not what it used to be but really what is?” he said.
Bobby Jones’ first taste of Queensland was a mango – plucked from a tree not far from the Hughenden railway station and under which he “camped” for three days waiting to be picked up by his new employer from an outlying station.
“I had arrived by rail with no money and didn’t know a soul. I just waited – and all I had to eat was mangoes from the tree that I slept under waiting to go to my first job. I haven’t eaten a mango since”.
He was sent from a Sydney orphanage to work on a cattle
station. Until then he had seldom seen a horse, let alone a mob of cattle, but was grateful for the opportunity and was obviously a quick learner.
From there he went to Charters Towers for a few years, then to the famous Rutland Station near Kowanyama where 10,000 cattle were on a huge property that he recalls had no fences.
What about cattle duffers? I asked. There was silence, then he laughed: “Next question.’’
His next stop was Blackbrae station on the outskirts of Einasleigh where he had his introduction to racing. And also to matrimony. It was there he met his wife-to-be Ivy, who (apart from Bobby) had also become attached to a filly bred on the station and wanted to buy her.
She cut a deal with the station boss to work so many hours at no charge to cover the filly’s purchase price and it was agreed.
Bobby recalls the horse was “not much good” but they persevered and took her to their next employment at Spring Creek station, owned by the Collins family in the Gulf.
They put the filly to a new station sire, Matman – by the immortal Todman – and the result was a colt that was to virtually change their lives.
They named him My Matador and old timers from all over the north will no doubt remember him. He is perhaps best known as the horse that won the XXXX feature on the first day of the three-day Innisfail carnival in October 1979. On the second day, Wednesday, he was narrowly beaten in the coveted Johnstone River (1200m) and remarkably won the Innisfail Cup (2000m) on Saturday.
Jockey Ron Ryan won’t forget the carnival, either. He rode My Matador to win first day and after he pulled up a bit lame in the Johnstone River there were grave doubts about him starting the Cup.
So he took another ride and Tommy Ball went on a starvation diet to ride My Matador (who recovered miraculously) and they went on to win the cup –by the barest margin. It was the best week ever for the horse and his devoted master.
My Matador was as prolific winner on tracks all over the North and his best was probably the 1980 Cairns Amateur Cup.
But his conquests at Innisfail are the highlights in the memory bank of Bobby Jones.
They will be remembered too for the mode of transport used to cart the horse over bumpy roads all over the North West.
From his home at Einasleigh to Cairns and as far as Townsville.
Bobby drove an F100 ute. My Matador stood in the back, often with another horse as travelling companion. They had no float.
“I had three blow-outs one day going from Einasleigh to Cairns races in the pouring rain. I had two horses on, and the load was a bit too heavy. The tires couldn’t cope.
“When I pulled up at Mareeba about midnight to check out the tires I discovered that My Matador had eaten my port (suitcase) with my race-day clothes packed inside. He might have been a bit cranky with all the stops – and the rain – and it was his way was getting square.”
But all was forgiven when he beat the “unbeatable’’ Findon Lad in Cairns.
My Matador travelled hundreds of kilometres on all sorts of roads in all sorts of weather in the back of the F100. His stable was under an old tamarind tree on the Einasleigh town common.
It was where he stayed and strayed through his racing career – and where he ended his days after retirement. Little
wonder Bobby Jones still keeps an eye on the common.
“I haven’t got much to do these days and I have all day to
do it,” he says.
He hasn’t bothered about another horse since My Matador.
“You only get one like him in a lifetime.
“I got mine and am happy and contented with just the memories.”
