The good times roll with Bedggood’s bargain buy

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the temporary closure of his Mornington Peninsula restaurant, Anthony Jacobs went in search of a leisure pursuit to occupy his time - and soon found racing.

Fast forward six years and that initial flirtation with the thoroughbred industry - which began with a Saturday punters’ club - has swiftly developed into a full-blown passion, with Jacobs having since acquired a spelling farm and shares in almost 20 horses.

The vast majority are trained by Gavin Bedggood, including Almontego who belied his bargain basement purchase price with a powerful performance at only his second career start in the recent three-year-old contest at Flemington on Aurie’s Star Handicap Day on Saturday, 1 August.   

The son of Yulong’s Alabama Express was purchased by Bedggood and bloodstock agent Suman Hedge for just $25,000 from Blue Gum Farm’s draft at the 2025 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale. They say the best things in life are free and that certainly applies to Almontego, with his ownership group effectively acquiring the colt for nothing after reinvesting the VOBIS Platinum vouchers they had previously collected.

The VOBIS Platinum scheme offers winning owners an additional $7.5 million per season in $30,000 in VOBIS Platinum Vouchers which can be used to purchase an eligible yearling or service to a Victorian stallion. 

The program last week reached a significant milestone with over $5 million in vouchers redeemed since its inception four years ago.

Having already banked almost $100,000 in prizemoney earnings from just two competitive outings, Almontego is already well on the way to becoming the new poster boy for Victoria’s lucrative VOBIS program.   

“We’ve been on an amazing journey with ‘Bedggy’,” said Jacobs, whose restaurant and winery Barmah Park is conveniently located just a stone’s throw from Mornington Racecourse.   

“We also part-own Nasraawy, who was his first Flemington winner back in 2022, so it’s been a little while between drinks, but it was amazing to see this little horse we didn’t pay any money for win a nice race down the straight. Most of the other owners are either friends or friends of friends, so we had a pretty decent celebration afterwards. 

“We’ve owned a few horses together including Mistavain, who won a maiden race at Werribee in 2024 which carried the VOBIS Platinum vouchers. So, I asked Bedggy to try to find us a horse at the sales for around $30,000, and he managed to pick this bloke up for $5,000 less than that. We trusted his judgement, and have been well and truly rewarded. 

“This horse hasn’t done anything wrong, although you couldn’t have said he’s been a standout in the stable. But you can see how hard he tries and he just really wants to be a racehorse. It was never the plan to kick off his career at Flemington, but there weren’t many other suitable races around for him and then when he ran well on debut [behind Riverina Lulu], we were pretty keen to see him go back there. 

“He was at fairly big odds, so we weren’t expecting him to win, and I think I was in a state of shock after the race. It was all a bit of a blur and we were celebrating so much that I missed the post-race photo - I think only one of the owners made it in time!”     

The large support crew at Flemington included Jacobs’ six-month-old daughter and while Jacobs has tasted previous black type success when Diwali took out the Listed Sandown Cup (3200m), winning a feature alongside his partner Sandy and their lucky charm, Ylenia, remains a future goal for the family. 

“I think we first took our daughter to the races when she was about five days old, and we’ve had a pretty good run with our horses ever since she was born,” said Jacobs. 

“She was in my arms when Almontego won at Flemington, so she’s definitely been a lucky charm and I’ll be holding her every time he runs from now on. Funnily enough, we had a runner at Sale the week before and it loomed up in the straight, so I got pretty excited. But then my partner grabbed the baby off me and the horse went backwards, so she is now under very strict instructions not to do it again!”