IN RACING, as in life, there are few certainties.
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But one thing you can pretty much guarantee is that every morning around 9am, you can find Ted Jepsen at the Elmore Harness Racing Club.
Without fail, the spritely 85-year-old hobby trainer makes the 54 kilometre round trip from he and wife Faye's home at Lockington to work the lone horse in his stable, Wenthestarzzaline.
Jepsen wouldn't have it any other way. And if he had to travel further, you could bet he would.
"I can't train on my five acres, so every day I go down to Elmore and back, which is a 54-kilometre round trip," he said.
"I do it every day - put her on the float, go down and then come back.
"I've only got another 10-months lease on her, so I'm hoping she does well during that time before she has to go back."
The six-year-old daughter of Four Starzzz Shark and Chelsea Hanover has given her trainer plenty of joy, with four wins and seven placings from 29 starts.
Her latest win came last week at Bendigo's Lord's Raceway in the NR 51 to 54 pace, with the mare showing plenty of toughness to lead all the way, with Greg Sugars in the sulky dictating terms.
Jepsen admitted he had plenty of confidence the mare could break through for her first win since emerging victorious at Tabcorp Park Melton in early January.
He hoped the win was a sign Wenthestarzzaline had overcome some of the problems which plagued her earlier in the year, including one issue brought on by last summer's bushfires.
"One of the problems we had last year, she won at Melton and then in the final she started favourite and ran down the track," Jepsen said.
"I found out in between the two runs, the smoke from the fires at Lockington - for three days you couldn't see anything - and it put her backwards. I was battling to get her lungs right.
"What they say is some horses get affected and some don't. Her lungs were restricted anyway.
"I got some advice from America because the vets here were treating her and it wasn't working. But the advice from America did."
Her run at Bendigo was the mare's third this preparation, coming off a two-month break.
Jepsen believed the writing was on the wall following her return to racing at Shepparton on August 24 that a win was not far off for Wenthestarzzzaline.
Despite finishing last in a field of 10, the veteran trainer was not at all disappointed with the run, and was buoyed ahead of her next run at Echuca eight days later.
"When she ran second, up against that tough horse Lochinvar Chief, Greg Sugars said he had plenty left at the end and she would win next start, which she did," he said.
"Greg was very confident. If only it worked out that way all the time."
Jepsen, a former VFA footballer with Yarraville and Sunshine and also a handy boxer and athlete in his playing days, has gotten used to the contrast in Wenthestarzzaline's performances in track work and on race days.
"She is a lazy, lazy trainer if she trains by herself, which is what I mainly do at Elmore," he said.
"When a horse comes up beside her, she turns into an actual racehorse.
"She's like a human - when she gets to the races she does nervous droppings - she knows where she is and what she has to do. It makes for a good racehorse."
Jepsen, who has been training since the 1970s and recorded some of his most memorable race wins with Epona Sunshine in the late-1990s and early-2000s, rated his 62-year marriage to Faye and their move to Lockington 10-years ago as hands down the best decisions of his life.
And neither has involvement in harness racing brought any regrets either.
"Once I finished football, I said to Faye, 'what do we do?' So we got into harness racing," he said.
"We were in Gisborne for 36 years and had our own track and everything, but the horses started going badly.
"Faye and I decided to buy a property up here 10 years ago. We lost our son 10 years ago to asbestos cancer at 51, so we decided to make the move.
"Faye has been to America three times and we went for our 60th wedding anniversary. Faye has been to Malaysia, we've been to Indonesia, so we've travelled a bit, which we wouldn't have been able to do before."
Jepsen will be 86 (he celebrates a birthday in November) by the time the lease expires on Wenthestarzzzaline.
But that doesn't mean he's ready to give training away. Anything but.
The energetic trainer insists he is already on the lookout for the mare's successor.
"I don't want to stop - I'm sure there's one out there for me," said Jepsen, who insists training horses keeps him young and active.
"Everybody says I'm fit, but I say, 'no I'm not fit, I'm active'.
"There's a difference you know."
Everybody says I'm fit, but I say, 'no I'm not fit, I'm active' There's a difference you know."
- Ted Jepsen
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