First race day winner – “I was ecstatic”

[Wandering Eyes]

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk

Jordyn Bublitz’s first win in the sulky couldn’t have panned out much better.

The 21-year-old was having just her second race day drive when Romeo Foxtrot, trained by her father Andrew, won the Agrowquip Handicap Trot at Cambridge last Thursday (January 26).

The Majestic Son six-year-old started off 10 metres and immediately got handy, staying outside the pacemaking Safrakova before going to the line by more than a length.

“To sit parked was not part of my plans really, it was plan D or E but he got keen and I just had to go with it.”

That she had won her first race didn’t register initially .

“I was ecstatic – it’s something I’ve dreamed of, I didn’t quite believe it at first.”

“Sean McCaffrey (driving Bun in the Oven) tapped the back of my helmet with his whip and said well done!”

McCaffrey can take some credit for getting Bublitz enthused about the sport.

“He took me for my first drive in a dual sulky at Cambridge … I was hooked”

Her family is the main reason for her interest in harness racing though. She grew up around horses and is the third generation of the Bublitz family to be involved in the sport following on from her grandfather Walter and father Andrew, who trains a small team at Cambridge.

Jordyn’s brother Kaleb is also a junior driver. Employed by Phil Williamson in Oamaru, he has had five winning drives so far – the first of them a double with Our Pinocchio and Von Art at Invercargill on October 28,2021.

“That just happened to my birthday,” says Jordyn, “I was 20!”

Jordyn Bublitz works full-time for Tony Herlihy and is grateful for the support she’s had from him and fellow northern drivers Tony Cameron, Zachary Butcher and Peter Ferguson.

She is also part of a growing number of female junior drivers who are excelling in the north, along with the likes of Crystal Hackett, Alicia Harrison, Monika Ranger, Taitlyn Hanara, Leah Hibell, Neita Balle and Steph Burley. Sophie Jefferies is another who’s only just recently got her junior drivers’ licence.

“There used to be just a few – now there’s a whole herd of us,” says Bublitz.

And now that she’s had the buzz of winning her first race Bublitz wants more.

“I want to give it a real crack,” she says, “it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

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