‘He just knew the sales ground better than anyone’ – Turf and sales giant John Jeffs remembered

John Jeffs made his name knowing racecourse turf inside and out, but it was his knack for people where his true qualities really shone.

The industry allrounder was being remembered on Tuesday as a man who never forgot a face or where he came from, with his death triggering an outpouring of emotion from thoroughbred figures across Australasia. 

Jeffs died on Tuesday morning at the age of 83 after losing his battle with cancer.

He grew up in Central West NSW and took over as secretary of the Cowra Jockey Club in 1969 and within two years he was managing five clubs in a 160km radius.

Soon after, in 1972, Jeffs’ reputation saw him headhunted by the Sydney Turf Club as an assistant racecourse manager despite admitting he “knew nothing about running tracks”.

“But they were prepared to teach me,” Jeffs told New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing at Karaka last year. 

Such was Jeffs’ ability in managing Rosehill, in particular, that he was recruited by the Hong Kong Jockey Club in the late 1980s as clerk of the course where he stayed for five years.

“After that, I went to Randwick for four years as racecourse manager and then I just felt it was time to retire and that was in 1998,” Jeffs said. 

“And that’s when I started to sell horses at (the) sales. It’s my hobby, it’s my love and I love doing it.”

Mick Malone can’t remember exactly how Jeffs began working for him, firstly at Kitchwin Hills and more recently at his own North Bloodstock operation, but he’s forever grateful that he did.

“He had time for everyone, but he suffered no fools,” an emotional Malone said. 

“He was just a legend and what he did for my business over the years is just huge. A bloke could walk around the corner and he could rattle off where he was from and what he’d bought recently. 

“He just knew the sales ground better than anyone.”

It was Tyreel Stud, when owned by the late Jim Fleming, that saw Jeffs first work the sales circuit. It soon became apparent that he had a natural affinity for the cut-and-thrust and the many moving parts that make up bloodstock markets. 

It was also during that time that he was given the nickname JJ.

“The stud manager was John Vincent and somebody would sing out, ‘John’,” Jeffs recalled.

“Nobody knew which John (it was), so he was JV and I became JJ .. and it’s stuck ever since.”

Former top Kiwi jockey Nigel Tiley became close friends with Jeffs in the late 1970s when making hit-and-run missions to Sydney.

Their mateship was solidified when Tiley rode full-time in Sydney in the 1980s while they were also together when both of them were based in Hong Kong.

“My kids have been ringing me today very, very upset,” Tiley said. 

“He was like a grandfather to them, because when my three kids were born in Hong Kong, we lived in the same apartment block, so he’s basically been in their lives since the day they were born.”

Tiley recalled a time when a plane was chartered so he could ride a horse in a NSW country cup one Sunday. Jeffs and his mates came along for the excursion, fleecing the local bookmakers’ ring in the process.

“I distinctly remember coming back from Coonamble one day on a plane that I think the TAB had chartered for us, and we were throwing money around like you wouldn’t believe. Honestly, it was like confetti, it was unbelievable,” said Tiley, who visited Jeffs on the Gold Coast last month and had maintained regular contact with him until recent days. 

Jeffs, who spent his latter years living near Port Stephens on the NSW Central Coast, worked the Magic Millions Horses in Training Sale in early October for his great friend Tal Nolen. 

He was also back in Sydney a week later to perform the same task at the Inglis Ready2Race Sale when his health took a turn for the worse.

Nolen had relied on Jeffs for the past decade to manage the on-the-ground selling of his two-year-olds.

“He’d do everything. He got the staff and he’d get everything organised,” Nolen said.

“I didn’t have to do anything and he was so accurate with (horses). He’d say, ‘this’ll sell for around that price’ or ‘we’re in trouble here’.

“He was just on the pulse. I can’t remember names, but he could just, bang, straight off the top of his head. All the Asian buyers would come and he’d know them all. He was an amazing man.”

New Zealand vendor Tony Rider called on Jeffs’ services in 2019 for the Karaka Yearling Sale and he’d assisted him in the years since.

“I tried to do (cards at the sales) and I couldn’t do it and then I gave it to Grant (Bennett), my farm manager, and I don’t think he was much better than me,” Rider said on Tuesday. 

“But JJ never got flustered. He would know everybody. He would call out the horses and give the cards to Grant and between the two of them, they just worked fantastically well together.”

Trainers and bloodstock agents, big and small. respected Jeffs’ opinion and that worked in the vendors’ favour.

“He knew them personally, whether it was Peter Moody or Mick Price, or any of those guys, and he would say to them, ‘hey, there’s one that you should look at’ because he knew the type of horses that they liked and they respected him for that,” Rider said. 

“He could do that, but not everyone can. He’s a great loss and he’s a great loss for the industry.”

The outpouring of condolences on social media and via phone calls and text messages in the hours after his family confirmed his death summed up what Jeffs meant to so many people.

“I’ve had numerous text messages and phone calls since the news broke from friends and text messages from all over the place,” said Tiley, who visited Jeffs at the Gold Coast last month. 

“He was a very popular man.”

Jeffs is survived by his sons Michael and Dale and their wives Kelly and Raelene. Funeral arrangements will be confirmed in the coming days.