Jabez Johnstone - A name worth remembering

Jabez Johnstone’s path to Melbourne is a story that keeps coming back to the same theme: none of it was planned. He grew up in Hobart, no racing family to speak of, just a Shetland pony in the paddock and a childhood spent riding in the bush and at rodeos with his sister Taylor. It was Taylor – now an apprentice in Adelaide under Andrew Lewis – who inadvertently started the whole thing.

“She just said one day, come to trackwork tomorrow,” Johnstone recalls.

“I went, had a look around, and I haven’t missed a day since.”

He was in Grade 10 at the time, doing a workplace apprenticeship three days a week – school, by his own admission, was never really his thing. But horses? That was a different story. From the first thoroughbred gallop to the first jump-out to the first race ride, something clicked.

“I never actually decided on being a jockey,” he says. “It just happened.”

If Taylor set Johnstone on the path, it was Stephen Maskiell who built the road. Johnstone spent 12 months with the Hall of Fame jockey and now Apprentice Jockey Coach at Tas Racing before signing his apprenticeship with trainer Sarah Cotton. He couldn’t be more grateful for the support from both.

“Sarah has been absolutely fantastic, and Stephen really opened my eyes,” he says. “I was always at his place doing replays and mechanical horse work behind the scenes. He set me up to succeed – I wouldn’t be where I am without him. I feel like we understood each other a lot.”

Before Johnstone ever set foot in Melbourne, the National Apprentice Race Series gave him his first real taste of what was waiting. Representing Tasmania alongside Jackson Radley, Kirra-Lee Lane and Lauryn Bingley, the team made history by claiming the 2026 national title for the first time – a significant moment for Tasmanian racing and a reflection of the strength of the state’s apprentice program under Maskiell.

For Johnstone personally, the series was a turning point. “It really opened my eyes up to riding outside of Tasmania,” he said. “It somewhat prepared me to come over here.”

Riding at different tracks, against different apprentices from around the country, gave him the experience and the confidence to back himself when the call from Ciaron Maher’s stable came.

“When I first found out about the opportunity, I was kind of lost for words that such a big trainer could be interested in an apprentice from Tasmania,” Johnstone says. “I didn’t think I was ready to make the move or good enough to make the move.”

He arrived in Victoria and proved that he was, riding a double for Maher at Sandown in early June. He then had his first ride at Flemington, which wasn’t quite what he had in mind. The saddle slipped on Terrortorian early in the race, leaving him with next to no control as the gelding hit the front but then faded to last. “In racing, things happen and you have to move on race to race,” he said. “It was a bit of a messy start but I went out in the next race confident.”

The confidence paid off, as thirty-five minutes later he was in the winner’s stall, sharing a dead-heat aboard Maher’s Kaleo (alongside fellow apprentice Holly Durnan on Patrick Payne’s Dirnaseer) before adding a second winner on the day with Duchess Zou.

A midweek double at Sandown followed, making it seven winners in three weeks for Maher since he arrived. Not bad for someone who wasn’t sure he was ready.

Now settled into his own place five minutes from the Cranbourne track, with a routine that involves being up at 3:30am, at the track by 4am then off to the races all day, the routine is demanding. But when you’re riding for one of the best trainers in Australia, the early alarms feel less like a sacrifice and more like a privilege.

Off the track, he’s doing his form, watching replays at home, obsessing over the one-percenters, and studying the rider he admires most: James McDonald.

“If you can perfect the first half of your race and give your horse every chance late, that’s what wins you the race,” he says.

“James McDonald can achieve things that most can’t, as far as putting himself where he needs to be. That’s why he’s the best jockey in the world.”

RSN’s Trav Noonan has already declared him the most in-demand apprentice in Victoria this winter, and the spring is firmly in his sights too. “If there’s a really light opportunity in a good race come springtime, I’ll be grabbing that with both hands,” he says.