Joe on twofold mission

13 April 2012

You could pick out Brother Joe easily in the Tote Ebor at York last month. He was the one who got into more trouble than a rat at a Jack Russell convention. In fact, it was amazing that the gelding managed to finish third in one of the hottest fields ever for the big handicap.

It was won by one of the Ballydoyle brigade, Mediterranean, while the run of Foreign Affairs, who finished second, was thought so good that connections supplemented him for yesterday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

But 'Joe', who was running on strongest of all at the end, is not your usual big Flat race candidate. He comes from a jumping background, being trained by Philip Hobbs in Somerset and owned by top National Hunt identity Robert Ogden.

Despite his third place at York, and his unusual background, the New Zealand-bred seven-year-old could compensate for that disappointment in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket in just under two weeks. He is presently at 12-1 for the two-and-a-quarter mile marathon with Ladbrokes, and Hobbs is hoping that the problems he experienced in the Ebor won't be repeated on the Knavesmire.

"He couldn't get a proper run until it was too late," said the Minehead handler. "It was terrible to watch. He was going well in the middle of the field until Jamie Spencer had to take him back about a dozen places to deliver a run. When he got to the outside it was too late, but he was still finishing best of all. If the ground is on the fast side for the Newmarket race, he will have a great chance."

Win or lose, Hobbs has a fine prospect over the timber this winter with 'Joe', along with several other promising jumpers from his near hundred-strong string at his Sandhill stables which cover 450 acres.

Last season, Hobbs finished fourth behind the big three of Martin Pipe, Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson in the jump trainers' table with nearly £745,000 in prize money. What's Up Boys contributed £85,000 of that and looks sure of winning more this term.

The grey won a Grade One hurdle at Punchestown last season and was outstanding in atrocious conditions at the Aintree Grand National meeting. He came home first of three finishers in the Mildmay Novices Chase, beating Shotgun Willy by a distance.

Hobbs said: "The Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury is the plan for him, and he will have a run before that somewhere. To go two races ahead with a horse is about all you can do. God only knows what can happen to the best-laid plans."

Flagship Uberalles, who won the Irish Independent Arkle Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in 1999 and returned the following year to be third in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, is now with Hobbs after being trained by Noel Chance.

The gelding won the Doubleprint Tingle Creek Trophy at the headquarters of jump racing last term and has been about a bit, also having been trained by Nicholls.

Hobbs said: "Flagship Uberalles is fine and everything is going all right. Plans are flexible and a possible start is the Tingle Creek at Sandown in December, but the Queen Mother Champion Chase is the main aim."

The trainer, who was a useful jockey in his day, added: "I rode 160 winners, yet my younger brother Peter, who is now the Jockey Club inspector of courses for the Midlands, was much better than me and ended up with over 400 winners before he retired from the saddle."

Hobbs started training in 1985 with six horses, which he pretended were nine to get his licence, and by the end of that season had 12 winners and was up to 20 horses.

The stable, which has had National Hunt Festival winners and triumphs in some of the best handicaps, has never really hosted a big name. It has been close though. Hobbs had See More Business bought before the prospective owner changed his mind, and on another occasion he bid 12,000 guineas for Master Oats, until Kim Bailey came up with 15,000g.

If Brother Joe misses all the traffic problems in the Cesarewitch it would be a feather in Hobbs's Flat racing cap, but his jumping trilby will still be his favourite headgear.

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