‘You have to have the hunger of a distance runner’ – From the saddle to the stable, Sue Jaensch continues to hold sway

 Sue Jaensch’s quietly extraordinary racing life is missing only a Group 1 on the mantelpiece, something which could be remedied with her Goodwood wildcard Sir Sway on Saturday. She tells Matt Stewart that the stable champ is just the latest of a string of cheaply bought dream horses over the journey.    

The beauty of the Sport Of Kings is that it’s not that at all. Not here, in this part of the world. The privileged don’t always win.

At Morphettville on Saturday, mother and son co-trainers Sue and Jason Jaensch will have a runner in the $1 million The Goodwood.

Sir Sway is a $41 shot in a field of elites, but he is also a magnificent wildcard, a dreamers’ horse. Over the years, the Jaenschs have had a few.

Some years ago, a couple of young horses appeared out of the blue at the Jaenschs’ hometown Cup day at Naracoorte. Floated from nearby Millicent, their owner took them to the track in the hope that someone might take them off his hands. Unbroken and feral, the chestnut and the bay somehow ended up with Sue Jaensch.

The bay, Letmedowngently won eight races at almost $200,000 for the stable. The chestnut, Helandy, won five.

It would be a remarkable story for anyone else, but not for Sue.

At 65, Jaensch has experienced many horse racing eras, specifically south-east of Adelaide and beyond the Victorian border. The last 40 have been shared with Bruce, a good horseman and rock. “To stay together we had to be able to work together. It was too important,” she said.

Sue, nee Cadzow, and Bruce met at school. Their fathers were farmers.

“We had nothing but we had everything,” she said.

Her father was a breaker and Jaensch grew up on horseback through pony clubs, the hunt, then amateur racing where she first competed at 14. “There were many over the jumps, some as gruelling as the Grand Annual,” she said.

To ride at the pros, Cadzow had to shed 20kg in less than 12 months. She rode in only two ladies-only races, now a distant relic of a time when racing really did seem the Sport Of Kings, or at least male-dominated.

She graduated from amateur rider, where point -to-point races were staged in paddocks in towns like Keith, to B class professional rider, then elevated to A class to take the only metro ride of her career. It was at Morphettville and she won.

“Down in the south-east there was me and another girl, from Western Australia, Raelene Russo. I got my (professional) permit at the end of 1979 and rode mostly on either side of the border; Warracknabeal, Casterton, Coleraine, Gawler, Strath, Penola …” she said.

Jaensch said there were plenty of girls about back then “but they never stuck around for long”.

“I hear the girls talking about discrimination now, but I never saw it. I was fiercely competitive, hated losing, and never wanted to look like a girl (when riding),” she said.

“Back then there were plenty of girls who wanted to be jockeys but they found out how hard it was and disappeared.

“It’s different now but there are still times I want to shake them and say ‘if you really want this you have to work hard’. The boys too, some of them.

“I say to them ‘you have to have the hunger of a distance runner’.”

Her first good horse as a trainer came at a time when the Jaenschs were so poor that they went without meals to make sure the animals got fed. They made their own bread and milked a cow gifted to them because it only had three functioning teats “which made life pretty difficult in the milk shed”.

In her riding days, she had ridden a horse called Sing Away.

“It had one start, stopped like a shot at the 400m and ran 100 metres last,” she said. The mare was sent to a sway-backed, no-name sire called Uphill. The result was Wozdac Hill. (read the first name backwards).

Wozdac Hill first raced at the picnics. “For three duck eggs, then he won his first race at Mt Gambier,” she said.

The gelding went on to win 17 races, including two stakes races, and over $200,000 in prize money. The humbly bred star built a new life for her and Bruce.

“We never had any money. They were tough times. Honestly, we sometimes couldn’t afford food for us but the horses got fed and the bills got paid,” she said.

“When Wozdac Hill won a race in Adelaide we put a deposit on a farm, we always made sure the bank was paid. We made our own bread, milked a cow that only had three good teats, grew our own veggies, had sheep.”

Buying horses, Jaensch always had her hands tied. They had so little money. They knew the horses they liked and sometimes fluked a cheap one that delivered.

“At the start we’d buy a mare in foal with one at foot, spend as little as possible and hope. Maybe $600 to $1000, not much at all,” she said. “We picked horses pretty much on monetary value. We bought a lot of duds, for sure, but it hurts less when you’re not paying a lot of money.”

Another bargain buy, Punter’s Lament, cost the Jaenschs $1000 and won 16 races, and now Sir Sway, who has earned his crack at the hoity-toity in The Goodwood on Saturday, just a third Group 1 starter for his trainer and a heartwarming scenario a true Sport Of Kings would not allow.

Sir Sway will be in the company of bluebloods owned by millionaires and billionaires. Race favourite Giga Kick won an Everest and is owned by billionaire businessman Jonathan Munz, Ameena is owned by Dubai royalty, His Excellency Nasser Lootah, while Climbing Star is part-owned by Qatari Sheikh Fahad.

Sir Sway was bred by Jason, one of two sons. Jason and brother Ray grew up around horses and rode work as teenagers but ventured off in their late teens; Jason for 12 years, including a stint in the vineyards, Ray to Darwin to play footy.

Jason reappeared just after COVID and now trains in partnership with Sue. He put Silent Sway, a winner of “a very slow 2000 metre maiden at Strath” , to local sire Sir Prancelot, a Cornerstone Stud import.

The result was Sir Sway.

SIr Sway is enormous first-up to take out the listed Manihi Classic & make it an incredible three wins on the trot pic.twitter.com/s2CJ0HAFv3

— Racing.com (@Racing) March 10, 2025

The Jaenschs bought a second farm near Murray Bridge a while back, where Jason runs a string that includes their stable star.

“He’s done it all himself, he’s trained the horse. We got lucky, we got a good one,” Jaensch said.

Sir Sway has won eight of 17 and $415,000 in prize money. He was pipped by late swooper Volcanic Express in a good race at Oakbank last start. He had previously been competitive a number of times against some key Goodwood rivals.

The race conditions are far from egalitarian. A change from handicap to set weight and penalties some years ago took it from the paupers and delivered it to the kings, at least on paper.

Giga Kick, the winner of $12 million, has 54.5kg, a kilogram less than last start Oakbank runner-up Sir Sway. It’s a cruel challenge.

“I guess we’re in the same boat as everyone else,” Jaensch said. “But I’d hate to be sitting here on Saturday night watching the replay thinking “damn, we should have run him”.

Jaensch’s over-achievers, the punter favourites, have made her among SA’s most respected trainers. She says there’s no secret to over-achieving, just a simple philosophy.

“I don’t know, I guess if you have them truly fit, you’re a step ahead of anything else. We’ve got the farm now, with a 2000m sand track, a walker,” she said. “With the right horse, we think we can compete in some of these big races.”