Inglis proudly bring you:
Joe Burges – A Young Horseman On The Go
By John Curtis
WILLIE Nelson had nothing on Taree trainer Joe Burges!
The legendary American country musician’s famous hit “On The Road Again” fitted the 36-year-old horseman to a tee.
When we caught up with Burges last Monday afternoon, he had just completed a marathon three days to attend two race meetings in the city and the bush, including a 15-hour round trip from his base near Bulahdelah to support the popular Forbes Cup Showcase fixture for the first time.
“I won’t need any rocking off to sleep tonight,” he quipped – and understandably so!
What an effort he put in to start his two horses, Mr Eighty Eight and Barry’s Lane, at the latter?
To say Burges covered more ground than the early explorers certainly wouldn’t be telling a fib.
Joe and Emma Burges with Forbes winners Mr Eighty Eight and Barry’s Lane.
He was up and on the go early a couple of days earlier, and headed to Sydney to run Zaru ($19) in the TAB Highway Handicap (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens at 11.20am.
After the gelding ran ninth, Burges put him back on the float and headed home to collect his Forbes duo, then was back on the road again.
We’ll let him take up the story.
“I have a mate at Coolah who was involved with camp drafting, and arrived there about 10.30 on the Saturday night and was able to put the horses in big boxes (stables) there,” Burges said.
“We got going again at 7.30 on Sunday morning and got to Forbes at 10.30. It was eight degrees, drizzling rain and windy.
“Someone told me if the rain kept up, they would be lucky to get through to the last race, and I thought to myself: ‘Fancy coming all this way because I was fairly confident both horses would run well.
“I need not have worried as the club did a terrific job with the track. It was downgraded from a Good 4 after the first, but was on the better side of a Soft 5.”
The bottom line to this yarn is that both horses won on the final day of the 2021-22 season, which obviously made the trip home very pleasant.
Nonetheless, Burges followed the same routine, stopping overnight again with his mate at Coolah and then loading up the horses one final time and heading back to Bulahdelah the next morning.
Mr Eighty Eight ($4.40), raced by a syndicate headed by former Wyong and now Taree racecourse curator Scott Olson, broke through in the Maiden Plate (1600m) at his 14th start, and Barry’s Lane ($5.50) made it a Forbes double for his trainer, in the Benchmark 58 Handicap (1400m).
“Mr Eighty Eight had run 10 placings, and because of that has been a bit difficult to place to try to win his maiden,” Burges said.
“I didn’t want to run him in a Class 1/Maiden Plate against winners, and when I saw this set weights Maiden over a mile at Forbes, thought it was worth having a crack at, especially offering Showcase prizemoney ($30,000).”
The Tavistock gelding was passed in at the 2018 Inglis Australian Easter yearling sale with a reserve price of $150,000 and began his career in Victoria, and had only two starts (both seconds) in the country before coming north last year.
Burges, who keeps a close eye on the Inglis online sales, picked up Barry’s Lane for $2750 in one of those in March two years ago.
“He was an unbroken three and a half year old colt by Sizzling who had been purchased for $42,000 at the 2018 Inglis Classic yearling sale,” Burges said.
“The chap who bought him apparently struck some financial trouble, and put the horse on the market.
“I thought he was worth a punt and cut (gelded) him after I got him.
“I own him myself, and he has already won nearly $64,000. He’s no champion, but is a b… ripper.”
Burges has been training for not quite two years, but don’t for a minute think this young man is a rookie horseman.
Far from it.
Born at Cowra and raised at Eugowra, he went to school at Forbes and Orange and cut his teeth working at various cattle stations, and met his wife Emma (from Bulahdelah) whilst based at Scone.
“I worked with a lot of good horsemen, and was always confident in my own ability to train,” Burges said.
It wasn’t until 2020 that he, in his own words, “was ballsy enough” to make the move.
But not before he had broken in and trained campdrafters and performance horses, and also become an equine dentist.
The couple has 120 acres at Markwell, near Bulahdelah, and the property has an arena where Burges can work his horses.
He takes them to Taree racecourse to work on a Tuesday morning if they are racing the following weekend, and also likes galloping them in a straight line on soft sand at low tide at Hawks Nest Beach, about 40 minutes from home.
Burges’ first starter was Emmy’s Our Girl at Port Macquarie on November 24, 2020 and two runs later she gave him his first winner, at Wellington on January 11 last year.
“We retired Emmy’s Our Girl last year, and have kept her at home,” he said. “She is now in foal to Spieth.”
Twelve months after that mare put him in the winning list, Burges hit the headlines on January 22 this year when he won his first city race, landing a TAB Highway Handicap (1100m) at Royal Randwick with Markwell Dreamer at $19 – and the victory had special significance.
Not only was he another Inglis online buy in June, 2019 (this time $4000), but it was the first horse he had purchased and his first starter at Randwick (our oldest racing venue) and only his second city runner.
And he turned 36 years of age a day later, so it was indeed a weekend to savour.
Burges races Markwell Dreamer with good mate Jayden Dorney, and bought the Dream Ahead gelding simply because he liked a filly he had broken in by the same sire for Tuncurry trainer Terry Evans.
The weekly TAB Highways, the Country Championships and, of course, The Kosciuszko, are all there on the calendar for country trainers.
And whilst Burges naturally would like to have a horse good enough to win either or both of the latter, for now his feet are firmly on the ground.
“When you get a horse who is a cast-off, it might take you six months to get it going,” he said.
“Winning a race anywhere with that horse makes you feel pretty good.
“It’s a very rewarding achievement.”
Burges currently has 15 horses in his name – and a few breakers – and his workload has recently been eased with the assistance of a young girl who comes out to Markwell to help him, after riding trackwork at Taree.
“It’s been pretty hard doing it all on your own, and for the time being I probably have as many horses as can be managed,” he said.
“Eventually, I’ll look to get another person to come on board, and then I’ll ramp things up a bit.”
So given his decision to throw himself headlong into his training career, what about the campdrafting and equine dentistry?
“They have pretty well taken a backseat already,” he concluded.
