Joe receives helping hand from late brother

By Jordan Gerrans

Joe Halpin’s stable has quietly developed one of the strongest strike-rates in the Sunshine State this season and the Roma trainer says he is doing it all to honour his late brother.

While the regional Queensland hobby trainer only has a small team in work, it has been on fire this term.

Joe has taken 11 starters to the races in the 2024-25 campaign and has collected five winners.

Stable favourite Package has accounted for four of Halpin’s five victories with the most recent one added by a newcomer to the team in Modiste.

Joe is the younger brother of revered Darling Downs horseman Jayson Halpin who was tragically killed in a car accident in November of 2022.

Jayson was renowned as a trackwork rider and educator of young gallopers.

Jayson was alive to see the start of Joe’s training tenure about four years ago and he says his late brother would be proud to see the stable producing consistent winners as they are now.

“He had been in the racing industry a long time and he gave me the inspiration to do it,” Joe said.

“He did a lot for Lindsay Hatch and Bernie Lowe – he rode a lot of young horses for them – and did so since he was a teenager.

“It has taken me a few years now - at the start I was not getting many winners, but they are coming now.”

The five victories this season has already become Halpin's best in his training career, bettering his previous high mark of three in 2021-22.

Long-time Toowoomba trainer Hatch revealed the late industry identity played a key role in the rise of leading Brisbane jockey Angela Jones’ development.

“He was a champion bloke and extremely good horseman,” Hatch said of Jayson. 

“I sent Angela Jones out to him to ride for a week at the Bahram training and spelling centre when she first come to me he said she was a natural and had a great seat.

“He was a champion person.”

Modiste was racing under the Natalie McCall banner at Caloundra through the back end of 2024 before being purchased by the Halpin stable and a group of owners.

The four-year-old mare took two starts to break through in the new environment, scoring by two lengths at Roma on Saturday with apprentice Caine Stuart doing the steering in the QTIS Maiden Plate over 1000 metres.

“Racing up at the Sunshine Coast, that is harder racing and that held her back a bit,” Halpin said.

“She got held up at Dalby a fortnight ago and lost a bit of ground but she was not beaten far, which I thought was a pretty impressive effort.

“She just kept going. I thought I would give her a go at home and the track suited her on Saturday.

“Young Caine put her in the right spot and away she went.”

Modiste heads to Goondiwindi this Saturday for a tilt at the QTIS Class B Handicap over 1200 metres with the trainer noting the mare should be full of confidence following the win.

Modiste followed on from Package’s recent run of strong form.

The veteran gelding has won four races since early August of last year.

After starting his career with Scott Morrisey at the Gold Coast, Package has now won nine races and been placed on 13 more occasions for Halpin.

He has collected $111,445 in career stakes.

”When he comes back from a spell and gets to the middle of his prep – that is when he hits his peak,” Halpin said of Package. 

“We have tried to put him in the right races.

“It took him a good two years to get used to the sand out here. He has always been in the money for me, he gets close all the time which is pretty good.

“He always goes good around here at Roma.”

Halpin works in a trucking yard for a day job at Roma as well as preparing his small team of gallopers.

After paying just $1,250 for Package, Halpin has been thrilled with what the son of Love Conquers All has been able to achieve.

A couple of Clifford Park victories in 2021 and 2022 stand out above the rest.

“We have had a lot of fun with Package,” he said.

“Jayson helped me a lot early on with him, giving me a few tips. He would strap him for me at the races at Toowoomba, that was fun.”

As well as his late brother, Halpin also leaned on leading Roma trainer Craig Smith for advice in the early days of his training journey.

The respected Smith recently called time on his training career and was celebrated at a function to highlight his achievements over the decades.

“I have picked up a few tricks from Craig over the years,” the trainer said.

“Craig’s stables were near mine at the track and if I had any questions along the way, he would always give me a bit of advice.

“He has helped me out a fair bit as I travelled with him to the races a few times.”