BLESSED with a congenital capacity for hard work, Phil Bobic aims for honesty, continuous learning and humour in everything he does – especially working with horses.
Phil operates Universal Stables in Coleyville, 35km south-west of Ipswich.
He also trains racehorses from stables across the road from Ipswich racetrack.
Universal Stables has spelling, pre-training, sales preparation, and rehabilitation facilities for thoroughbred horses on a 48-hectare property.
Phil is busy riding and training, as well as managing staff so he keeps a flat-out schedule.
“All my family work really hard. My grandparents were Croatian and they were extremely hard workers. They immigrated to Australia 50 years ago to escape the war in Croatia,” he said.
“They started from nothing and ended up with a lot and I think it’s just bred in me to work hard.”
Phil and his partner Adam moved to Coleyville 10 years ago for the property, which was already set up for spelling and pre-training.
“It’s a great area and a great community of people and it is a really, really good place to live,” he said.
Phil and Adam recently separated but Phil plans to continue running Universal.
Phil grew up in Woodend about 15 minutes from Kyneton in Victoria, rode quarter horses and went to school in Kyneton.
When he turned 18, he eloped to Italy and trained quarter horses.
“I was going to be a chiropractor and I was deferring uni and sort of hiding overseas; wanting to be a horse boy,” he said.
The work ended but he didn’t want to come home so he went to the UK and secured a job with show horse people.
“I loved how they had a good eye for a horse. They found good horses, broke them in, trained them, and sold them on,” he said.
“It was the first time I thought I could actually make a career out of the industry.
“My family, they’re all accountants, so they’re always like: You can do it, but make money out of it.
“I’m like the black sheep; I’m not that intellectual, but whenever I’m having a dumb moment, my auntie in particular, I ring her and she talks to me from a business point of view and it makes sense.”
Returning from the UK, Phil moved to Pakenham in Victoria and worked with a top show horse producer. A few years later, he went out on his own.
He went to Queensland to be with his partner. They rented on the Gold Coast before they moved to Belcam Stud at Biddaddaba near Beaudesert.
“We were there for four or five years and outgrew that and wanted to buy our own place,” he said.
Four years ago, Phil started training racehorses for people he’d pre-trained for who had been sending their horses to other trainers.
“It challenged me to learn more and become better. I’ve always been obsessed with learning more,” he said.
Now his burning goal is winning a metropolitan race.
“I’ve won a lot of country races and provincial races, but I’ve got better horses now and I’ve got patient owners,” he said.
“I’m a real honest person and I don’t beat around the bush too much.
“Sometimes it’s lost me work but most of the clients I have, it’s the reason they’re with me.”
Toowoomba’s Tony Sears, who trains with his daughter Maddy, says Universal Stables is a key to their success.
Phil prides himself on his horses being well educated but an experience last month in Toowoomba showed even the nicest horse can surprise you.
Jockey Michael Hellyer made headlines – and TikTok fame – after Southoftheborder tossed his head as Hellyer was getting on and accidentally headbutted him.
“So ironic because everyone’s always carrying on about how nice they are to ride and then it just clocked a jockey in the head,” Phil said.
“We took him back to Toowoomba and he won his maiden the next start and Michael rode him.”
Phil also re-trains and re-homes ex-racehorses. One for the future is Sonic Arrow, who raced at Ipswich on Monday.
“I’ve done quite a bit of educating her already, so we’ll be able to find a really good home for her pretty quickly,” he said.
“She’ll have a good life as a show horse because she’s quite a beautiful mare. And she’s quiet.”