Kipling's Journey to put bite on opposition

By Glenn Davis

As a young horse Kipling’s Journey was once described as a spider and he’s now set to put another bite into his opposition at Ipswich on Wednesday.

Trained by the father and son partnership of Peter and Will Hulbert, Kipling’s Journey will be chasing his fifth win in 22 starts in the Class 5 Handicap over 1680 metres.

Kipling’s Journey has started five times at Ipswich for two wins and a second and is coming off a gutsy second to the Barry Lockwood-trained Evocator in a 1400 metre Benchmark race at Eagle Farm on September 6.

It was his second run back from a spell and followed a first-up win in a Benchmark race over 1350 metres at Ipswich in the middle of August.

Co-trainer Peter is confident Kipling’s Journey can give the stable a change of luck after finishing second five times from their last 11 starters.

“He led last time and probably should nearly have won but he was allowed to slide too early in front when he got a break on them,” Peter said.

“It might have been a different story if he could have been held up a bit more.”

'Team Hulbert' have always had a good opinion of the five-year-old and had him nominated for Eagle Farm last Saturday before scratching him following the barrier draw.

“He was due to run in a Benchmark 70 over 1500 metres at Eagle Farm but we had to scratch him when he drew so poorly,” Peter said.

“He had 58kgs at Eagle Farm and drops two kilos to 56kgs at Ipswich and he knows the track well having won there twice.

“He should be very competitive again and he looks magnificent.

“If there’s such a thing as dapples on dapples he’s got them.”

'Team Hulbert' believes Kipling’s Journey will eventually find his way into open company but are in no rush to get there.

“We’ll just take things one race at a time with him and go through the classes but he should make open company one day,” Peter said.

“We’ve got no big plans for him during the summer carnival.”

'Team Hulbert' had an $80,000 kitty to buy the son of Zoustar as a yearling and managed to pick him up for a paltry $20,000.

Kipling’s Journey is raced in a big syndicate including the estate of Dave Garratt who was a keen racing enthusiast and part-owner of several other horses in the Hulbert stable.

Garratt, a former SAS soldier and criminal lawyer, died suddenly at his home just before Christmas last year. 

Garratt’s young son Alexander was given a share in the ownership of Kipling’s Journey following his father’s death and the Hulberts now train his share for free to help pay for his education.