Robl Joins Patinack After 'left-field' Offer
The Age
Thursday September 25, 2008
FREE-spending Nathan Tinkler has made another major investment, taking on Peter Robl as first jockey for his Patinack Farm horses.
"They'll be calling me 'Patinack Pete'," Robl said yesterday of the job that will keep him busy educating, working and racing the bulk of Tinkler's 240 two-year-olds, part of an investment approaching $150 million.Robl, 37, who based himself at Warwick Farm when trainer Clarry Conners lured him to Sydney after the equine influenza shutdown ended last December, will move to Randwick, where Anthony Cummings, Patinack's main trainer, is based."It came a little bit from left field," Robl said of the offer made in talks with Cummings and Rick Connolly, Patinack's racing manager, on Monday. "I didn't need to go away and think about it. It was a very easy decision."Robl will ride some of Cummings' "outside" horses, but the trainer will use other jockeys, too - Cummings gave Robl his first group 1 win, on Dealer Principal in the Rosehill Guinea in April.Connolly said he hoped the jockey would be around as long as the new racing empire, "30 years at least".Robl, who will be on a retainer, said he would ride work six mornings a week at Randwick and at pre-training farms and, with a lot of young horses coming through, "there'll be plenty of hard yards".Connolly said Robl, who had been doing some of Cummings' riding, fitted the Patinack mould. "We admire his work ethic ... he's Mr Consistency ... he's a good, no-nonsense rider and a decent bloke," he said."His main focus will be in Sydney, but there will always be opportunities in Melbourne. With more than 200 two-year-olds, and at least half of them in NSW, he will be a key part of educating them and getting them to the races."Patinack also has 40 to 50 older horses in work, including good performers Raheeb, Murtajill, Siderius and Mansell.Robl rode hundreds of winners, mainly in northern Victoria and southern NSW, before going to Sydney. Asked if he had any clue two or three years back that he could be No.1 for a big city stable, he said: "Mate, I didn't envisage it three weeks ago, so I had no clue back then."
© 2008 The Age
