Jemeldi is the first Winning Rupert in Tom Button’s barn, and while he said he’d happily buy another by the Written Tycoon sire, it was Jemeldi’s half-brother Rollinwiththeflow (Love Conquers All) that led the jockey-turned-trainer to his rising star.
Button bought Rollinwiththeflow at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale from Goomburra-based Queensland stud, Daandine for $45,000 and was back two years later looking at the colt from Elusive Quality (USA) mare Schipper he would buy for $50,000 and now known as Jemeldi.
Winning Rupert | Standing at Newgate
“Rollinwiththeflow was the first one we bought off Daandine and since then we have bought a couple more,’’ Button said. “There’s no real relationship as such but I do get along with them quite well and I do inspect their yearlings whenever I can.
“We wanted to go and see him, just with Rollinwiththeflow, that’s what made us go and look at him,’’ Button said of his buying of Jemeldi. ''From there, I thought he was not a bad style of horse. He was a little bit small, and he still is a little bit small, but reasonably neat and he wasn’t too expensive so we were able to get him.
“This is the first Winning Rupert I’ve had, and I’ve only got positive things to say about Winning Rupert….this one’s fast so I will be happy to buy another one,’’ Button added.
Skyline S. to tell the story
Button said Saturday’s Skyline S. would provide the indication of just where Jemeldi sat in the ranks that he desired.
“We'll find out a little bit more (Saturday) where he’s at but both his wins had a bit of merit in them and I’m not sure where the bottom of him is yet. Both times he was starting to step away from them in the end when he got challenged,’’ he said.
“I think Saturday’s race, we’ll definitely know a little bit more about him but he’s definitely been doing nothing wrong."
While hard to line up the form lines, Button said the unbeaten 2-year-old would handle wet conditions that are a certainty at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
“I don’t think that will be any drama to him. Hopefully he just turns up and races up to his best and he can be competitive, and if he was to win, it would be the silver lining,’’ said Button. “He’s very easy to handle. He’s a dream to have around the barn, he’s easy in every aspect. He’s a lovely, quiet horse.’’
Racing far and wide
Button has his main stable at the Sunshine Coast with around 25 horses in work there and also runs a satellite stable at Townsville with around a dozen horses racing out of there.
The former jockey, who left racing for a while to join the Army, placed predominantly in Darwin, has been back in the game for around a decade and was not eagerly building his operations.
Sunshine Coast trainer Tom Button
“I was a jockey when I was younger and skinnier and so have always been around racing,’’ he said. “I went to the Army for a while but always kept my hand in racing and rode a bit of trackwork and got into training about 10 years ago. It’s been a progression from there.
“When I gave up riding, I didn’t want to go straight into training, that wasn’t my thing at the time, so I waited a little while but found my way into the training ranks.’’
Moving from Rockhampton to set up his main operations on the Sunshine Coast, the establishment of his Townsville stable had given Button the opportunity to race all the way from Cairns down to the Gold Coast.
Asked by TDN AusNZ what the highlight of his training career had so far been, Button said some metropolitan wins since moving to the Sunshine Coast would be it.
“On Sunday, I will be able to tell you that the Skyline S. is my biggest race win hopefully,’’ he added.
