Terra Mater’s trainer Jarrod Austin and her twelve enthusiastic owners had a few heart stopping moments before the mare’s number went into the frame at Randwick on Saturday. The form students rated her the best bet of the day in the Sacco Group Midway, which explains why she went off at $2.05 with second favourite Chief Conductor at $7.00. Connections were comfortable enough with Nash Rawiller’s decision to take her straight back from an awkward draw, but their composure had waned by the time the field came up the rise.
Badly held up for a few strides, Rawiller had to wait for Uzziah to drop off slightly before he was able to angle Terra Mater into clear space. The lightly raced mare had exactly five lengths to make up on the leaders, but she made light of the deficit with a lightning dash from the 200m. So quickly did she rein in Ningaloo Star, that Nash was able to give her an easy time in the last fifty metres. That explosive turn of foot was a sign that loftier goals await the little mare who came from left field. Jarrod Austin clearly recalls the day his current stable star came into his life.
Nash Rawiller allowed Terra Mater to coast in the closing stages of Saturday's Midway - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
“My valued owner and friend Garry Carden is a keen observer of the Inglis Digital Sales,” said the trainer. “In 2020 he noticed that Widden Stud had catalogued a number of weanlings for the online sale. Some of them didn’t appeal to me, but I didn’t mind this filly’s pedigree. He called me later the same day to tell me he’d secured her for $1750 and would make arrangements to have her relocated to the Cadman Lodge Breaking, Spelling and Pre-training facility at Mount Hunter. It’s hard to get excited about $1750 horses, and I can tell you my optimism took a further hit the first time I saw her in the flesh. She was tiny, massively immature and totally unimpressive. She was in a paddock with other weanlings which absolutely towered over her.
“She was broken in by the team at Cadman Lodge and had grown a little by the time she arrived at my stables for some early education. She looked a little bit better every time she came in for a light preparation. It was obvious back then that she had a brain, and a very good attitude. Most importantly she moved nicely. We hoped she’d have a decent motor to go with all of those other good points. Her pedigree suggested speed. Her sire Wandjina won a Gr 1 and is a son of Snitzel, while her unraced dam is by Black Caviar’s sire Bel Esprit.”
Jarrod's the first to admit he wasn't impressed the first time he saw Terra Mater as a weanling - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Terra Mater’s online discoverer Garry Carden gathered friends and friends of friends to form an ownership syndicate. One of the lucky dozen is Jarrod’s father Brian Austin, a former trainer himself and an outstanding all round horseman. The trainer didn’t even consider sending Terra Mater to the races until she was a November three year old. She was still on the immature side when Jarrod opted for a 1000m Wyong maiden with Jess Taylor in the saddle. To Jarrod’s delight she began well and travelled tractably behind three leaders to the turn before popping off the fence at the top of the straight. She failed by a narrow margin to peg back Hard To Say who’s since won another five races including four on metropolitan tracks.
Two weeks later she beat all but Richon at Gosford. Jarrod resisted the temptation to try for the maiden win, and wisely put her away. The filly had two quiet trials before resuming in a 1000m Nowra maiden in April of this year with Jess Taylor retaining the ride. “I’ve got to say I went to Nowra feeling pretty confident,” said Jarrod. “She had strengthened quite a deal and was very well in herself. This time we ran into a first starter called Frilled who beat us pretty comfortably, but now we know why. She’s unbeaten in five starts, the last two at Moonee Valley in October.
“Sixteen days later we had a crack at an 1100m maiden on the Kenso track, finishing third to Charity Joy after a luckless run. Frustrated by not being able to break the maiden we headed all the way to Bathurst where she finally got the monkey off her back.
Aided by a confident ride from “Choco” Cavallo she won with a bit in hand. She bounced off that with a Cl 1 win at Hawkesbury followed by two straight seconds at Warwick Farm and Randwick. She was going well, but every time I looked at her I could see she still had some furnishing to do. We put her away again.”
The mid year spell worked wonders with Terra Mater. She came back stronger in every department and many kilos heavier. Testimony to that development is the authority of her two recent wins. Nash Rawiller was surprised by the ease of her BM 72 win at Canterbury on November 24th, when she cantered outside the leader before careering away from the opposition. The champion jockey was equally surprised at Randwick on Saturday when the rapidly improving mare toyed with the opposition to give him one of three wins for the day. As a further endorsement of the usefulness of the Inglis online auction, Terra Mater has now banked over $193,000, a huge return on her purchase price. Four wins and six placings from just ten starts make her one of the “finds” of the year and a real prospect going forward.
Terra Mater surprised Nash Rawiller with the ease of her win at Canterbury 24/11/2023 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
The ever patient Jarrod Austin intends to keep his stable star on the fresh side, and doesn’t expect her to run again for three weeks, perhaps four. With Terra Mater just beginning her journey, it’s time for the trainer and his loyal team to farewell their old favourite Looks Like Elvis who hasn’t raced since his unplaced effort in the Goulburn Cup almost six weeks ago. The nine year old is the veteran of sixty eight starts for ten wins, twenty three placings and $1.06 million in prize money. He already had eight wins on the board in Queensland when the owner decided to relocate him to Sydney.
“He was on a tough mark when he came to us but continued to race consistently for the rest of his career,” said Austin. “We sneaked him to Victoria in search of better tracks a couple of times, and he was able to win two races there - one of them a metro class race at Pakenham with Brett Prebble and a race at Flemington with Linda Meech. He was placed in three stakes races and ran out of his skin a few times in tough company. One of his best was a fifth, beaten only 1.6 lengths in Probabeel’s Epsom. He looked a bit disinterested at his last two runs, and the decision was made to retire him. He’s as sound as a bell and a pleasure to be around. We’ll find him the home he deserves.”
Linda Meech secures a dream run through the field to win on Looks Like Elvis at Flemington in June 2022 - courtesy Racing Photos.
In this era of huge training operations, Jarrod Austin is happy to keep chipping away at Warwick Farm with a team rarely exceeding twenty horses. His training career began more than thirty years ago from his father’s stables at Kempsey. “I was riding most of Dad’s trackwork in those days and decided to give training a crack in my own right,” recalled Austin. “I was lucky enough to get hold of a mare called Kincaroo who won a string of races for me on northern rivers track. I’ll always remember her as the one to get me started as a trainer.”
In the mid 1990’s he made the move to Wyong where he enjoyed moderate success for a few years before deciding to take a complete break from racing. He managed a couple of pubs and worked in the building game for a while, but it wasn’t long before the lure of the thoroughbred crept back into his life. Denise McGrath’s departure from the Sydney training ranks in 2011 was the catalyst in Jarrod’s return to the business. “When Denise told me she was vacating her Warwick Farm stables, I simply put into operation something that had been bubbling under the surface for quite some time,” he said. “She very kindly passed a couple of handy horses over to me, and I got up and going fairly quickly.”
Yonderstar was his very first runner this time around - a winner on the Kensington track with Shaun Guymer in the saddle. Another “gift” horse from Denise was Spinnawitch with whom Jarrod won a 1600m stakes race at Warwick Farm with Blake Shinn up. Denise also bequeathed him a promising youngster called Urquidez who was earmarked for sale to Hong Kong. Before his departure Urquidez won a two year old race for his new trainer and was later placed in The Rosebud and the Royal Sovereign Stakes.
Spinnawitch (Blake Shinn) won the listed Winter Challenge at Warwick Farm not long after Jarrod's return to training - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Austin has maintained a steady strike rate ever since. Winners to keep the stable to the fore include Tresse D’Or, Austreet, Havelka, Carluca, Territory (4 city wins), Appetizing, Lady Kirkham, Raijinz, Hirokin, Miss Antares, and Inanup. Like so many smaller trainers around the nation Jarrod faces the age old problem of limited spending power at the yearling sales. “You can only do the best you can with what you’ve got,” is his philosophical approach. “We all dream of the day when a life changing horse might walk through the gate.”
Life changing might be a fanciful way of describing Terra Mater’s recent emergence, but the little mare is sure as hell going to give her many owners a ride they didn’t expect from their online bargain buy. Those owners can rest content in the knowledge their four time winner is in the hands of a very good horse trainer.
Jarrod was all smiles after a city win with Territory in 2012 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
(Banner image - Terra Mater let down brilliantly in the straight to win Saturday's Midway - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.)