J O H N S TO N E
A NAME WORTH REMEMBERING
By Celia Purdey
J abez is not a name you hear every day, but it is one Victorian racing fans are quickly getting used to since the 20-year-old Tasmanian apprentice has made an impressive start at Ciaron Maher’s Cranbourne stable. Jabez Johnstone’s path to Melbourne is a story that keeps coming back to the same theme: none of it was planned. He grew up in Hobart, no racing family to speak of, just a Shetland pony in the paddock and a childhood spent riding in the bush and at rodeos with his sister Taylor. It was Taylor – now an apprentice in Adelaide under Andrew Lewis – who inadvertently started the whole thing. “She just said one day, come to trackwork tomorrow,” Johnstone recalls.
8
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software