Rex Lipp still the "captain" after taking on co-trainer

By Jordan Gerrans

Rex Lipp makes sure to mention he is still the captain of his team.  

The Group 1-winning Darling Downs trainer has prepared gallopers in his own right for decades and now edging closer to the date when he will call time on his days in the racing game, Lipp has added a co-trainer to his operation.

While the co-trainer title for young Toowoomba horseman Nicholas Hahn suggests a split in responsibilities around the barn, Lipp still runs the show, as he cheekily points out.

“For a start, I am still the captain,” Lipp says.

“Nick has worked for other stables and I have got my clients and Nick has to do it the way I want it done. 

“I believe I can always improve but I like to see things done my way.

“For a partnership to go on and be successful, that is how it needs to go.”

Hahn has worked for the Lipp operation on the outskirts of Toowoomba for just over a year and has been in a formal training partnership for around six months.

Hahn has grown up around the industry - his father and siblings also involved with the gallopers - and the opportunity to officially join forces with Lipp came about by chance more than anything.

“Out of the blue one morning at the track, Rex offered it,” Hahn said.

“We have gone from there.”

Not yet 30 years of age, Hahn leant the tricks of the trade from trainers such as Peter Moody, Michael Nolan and Kevin Kemp in his early days before ending up with the Lipp barn.

He spent four years with Moody and travelled away to big carnivals around Australia with his band of star gallopers, declaring he came back a better horseman after his time with the legend Queensland-bred trainer.

As a person who aims to eventually establish a big training operation of his own in the future, Hahn believes Lipp is the perfect experienced industry participant to learn from.

“He is harsh but fair,” Hahn says of Lipp.

“He is the type of person that he always has the time to stop and teach you something.

“Not just me, but anyone, heaps of young people at the track every morning ask Rex things and he will offer them advice and guidance.

“You learn something every time you speak to Rex.”

At 73 years of age, Lipp isn’t ready to ease into retirement just yet but thinks he may have a couple more years left in him, which played a role in taking on the youthful Hahn to help run the yard.