Far from being daunted, country horseman Josh Brown is excited by what the future holds as his pursues a long-held racing dream in the big smoke.
Reared in Kalgoorlie and Esperance his home for the best part of the last decade, 35-year-old Josh Brown has packed up, moved out and relocated to Perth.
Brown cut his teeth on country racing tracks, preparing nearly a century of winners, but believes the time is now right to forge new connections in town.
In an industry where success can be fleeting and failure long-lasting, Brown is not afraid to have a go, trusting his racing acumen to get him going.
Ambitious and motivated in a sport that bears rich family heritage, Brown says a shift across the state will help his training career go to another level.
“It’s always been in the back of my mind to come to Perth with my partner, Chelsea Forder, and do something different,” Brown told Racing WA.
“It’s been a long-winded plan for about two years, looking at properties, housing and what not.
“I’ve got 18 boxes and two stables at Ascot, a block of 12 and a block of six.
“It’s now or never sort of thing, if we don’t do it at this age, we’re not going to do it when we’re fifty.
“It’s another challenge to be honest and I feel as though I’ve gone as far as I can go at Esperance.
“The isolation as well, you can only go so far training and development in that regard.”
Reflecting Brown’s determination to make it big as a trainer, he’s been diligent at the sales in the aim of unleashing what he hopes will be several exciting youngsters.
Although successful in generating success with tried and tested horses in the past, Brown is looking forward to putting his own slant on a new crop of yearlings.
“We’ve really concentrated on buying some babies,” Brown said.
“We have been committed in that regard.
“I bought six at the sales this year at the Magic Millions and bought one in Adelaide.
“We are sticking our neck out and obviously understand we need juvenile horses and they’re the only way we are going to get some good ones, rather than trying tried horses all our lives
“I’ve never trained two-year-olds or early three-year-olds because of where we are.
“That’s a new challenge and I’m looking forward to that, getting a clean slate on horses
“Generally, as soon as a horse walks into our stable it’s what’s wrong with them, why have they been sent to us.
“It’s a nice feeling to go to untouched babies to see what we can make of them.”
Brown is a new face to Ascot but no stranger to the wider racing community.
A fourth-generation trainer, he follows in the footsteps of his father, uncle and grandfather.
For multiple years, the Brown family have been the bedrock of country racing in Esperance and Kalgoorlie.
Aside from his families full blooded support, another friendly face Brown can depend on is Luke Fernie.
Childhood friends from Kalgoorlie, Fernie is the ‘poster child’ of young men taking the plunge into full-time training.
Fernie made the move to Perth on his own accord several years ago and it’s been an unqualified success.
In a short space of time Fernie has won a string of big races, campaigned in Melbourne and has established a reputation as an up-and-coming trainer with the racing world at his feet.
“I’m close friends with, Luke,” Brown said.
“I’ve lent on him a fair bit in the past 12-months, too.
“We are Kalgoorlie kids who grew up together.
“He’s been really helpful and I’m happy with his success.
“He stuck his neck out at a young age.
“Good on him.”
It’s all guns blazing for Brown, all roads are leading to Ascot, but although relatively young in years he’s experienced enough not to get ahead of himself in the competitive bubble of metropolitan racing
More than ever, he wants to hit the ground running and make an early impression, but he understands the hard knocks of racing can also hit your ego hard before you even land the first blow.
“I’m under no illusion it’s going to be a slow start,” Brown said.
“We don’t have horses ready to go, literally we’ve got two-year-olds and yearlings.
“We’re not going to come in and break the world apart.
“We’d be just happy to be competitive and hope we can get one of those juveniles to a city class horse.
“We’ve been in the game a long time and knows how it works.”
