Jordan Grob takes leaf out of Mick Price's book

By Jordan Gerrans

Just weeks after one of the scariest moments of his life, former jockey Jordan Grob has entered a new phase of his career in the racing industry.

The 28-year-old has not competed in a race since August of 2022 and has continued to ride track work on the Gold Coast for emerging trainer Adam Campton.

The Victorian has long been interested in the conditioning of gallopers from his days working under multiple Group 1-winning mentor Mick Price and Grob has followed his old boss into the training ranks.

Grob started his first horse in a race as a trainer on Saturday afternoon at the Gold Coast Polytrack meeting as maiden galloper Somax put in a credible effort to finish third.

While Grob’s debut training performance has been in the works for the last few months, Somax’s run on Saturday came just weeks after the former jockey was kicked by a horse at track work after a fall and spent multiple days in hospital recovering.

The Grob stable have two horses in work and with Jordan not yet back to full health, his wife Melanie has taken on the bulk of the responsibilities.

“She is looking after them and riding them all their work,” Grob said.

“She has ridden work for quite some time, she previously rode work for Rob Heathcote and when I was in Victoria, she worked for other stables like Ciaron Maher’s.

“She knows her stuff and she is pretty much training them at the moment and I am just the name in the paper as the trainer (laughs).”

With close mate Jackson Murphy in the saddle, Somax began from the inside barrier and eventually finished five lengths behind winner Fast Da in the Maiden Handicap over 1540 metres on Saturday.

The three-year-old gelding was previously prepared by Mick Price & Michael Kent (Jnr) in Victoria before being purchased by Grob and sent north recently.

In his first effort for his burgeoning stable, Grob was more than pleased with the performance and is hopeful his first victory is not far down the road.

“I thought the run was good – we were expecting him to go well without winning, I suppose,” the rookie trainer said.

“I thought if he could run in the top five, that would be good. He is the sort of horse that likes to get out and get rolling, he can be a little bit one-paced.

“The horse showed us enough in that race that we thought he could win a maiden and a couple more races.”

As well as Somax, the stable also have an unraced two-year-old that they have high hopes for.

Following his fall just over a month ago, Grob has been able to watch his horses work in the morning but will be unable to do anything hands on with his team until he is cleared by doctors next year at the earliest.

While it was a scary experience for the entire Grob family, the former hoop says there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

“Overall, the outcome was the best it could have been – I haven’t been too badly impacted,” Grob said.

In a riding career dating back to 2013, Grob piloted just over 50 winners and claimed city victories in Melbourne and Brisbane.

He also placed in a Group 3 race.

Toffie Lady was his last winner at Ballina in late 2020.

After struggling with his weight and race day opportunities, Grob thought training provided an attractive alternative.  

“I just thought I would give it a go and have something new,” he said.

“I always had that interest in training and how horses worked, the feeds and things.

“The training side of things always interested me but I was just trying to hang on to riding and see if I could get going again.

“But, that was when I ultimately decided that riding was not going as good as I would have liked so I wanted to give training a go.

“My weight was part of the issue with my riding.

"But, it was more so that I was going to country meetings with only one or two rides and getting down to 54kg – it was not a big motivator for me.”

Price was one of the trainers Grob had the most success with in his riding days, collecting five winners as a combination.

The up-and-coming trainer says he is aiming to use Price’s methods in his team as it grows.

“I took a lot out of his book, how he works and feeds horses,” he said.

“He is very straightforward and upfront.

“He would be the most influential person that I have had in my life that I have tried to bring into my training.

“Riding for him race day when I was on apprentice, he was always upfront and there was no garbage with him.”