And he loved a punt, so he was filling up his pockets on a regular basis. Smith was having a ball playing footy and helping out around the stables. It worked and Bairstow quickly became one of Victoria's leading trainers, which saw some wonderful horses through that period, including Eye Wonder and True Identity, just to name a few. “Fitness was what he relied on and his training techniques were exactly the same.” He would get them rock-hard fit, a trait that was so successful throughout his football career. “He was a big believer in a happy horse equals a better horse. “He set up this magnificent property with all horses having day yards where they could run around giving the horses a sense of their normal habitat. “’Toby’ was ahead of his time,” Gooba said. Straight away, Gooba fell in love with the horses and set himself a goal of one day training in his own right. Smith would go out a few times a week and give Bairstow a hand at his Freshwater Creek property, just out of Geelong. “The Cats were up and about in the early 90s, it was a great place to be around and an even better town to live in when they were flying.” “He was the Cats’ skipper I was simply in awe that he was even talking to me. “We had similar interests and he said come out and give me a hand anytime,” Gooba recalls (a nickname that was given to him by one of his teammates he can’t remember how or why, but it’s stuck for years). Through his time at the Cats, he got to know Mark ‘Toby’ Bairstow who was just starting to get into horse training. This is a story about a good mate of mine, his name is Dean ‘Gooba’ Smith.Ī talented footballer with St Joeys in the Geelong Football League back in the 1990s, he spent some time on the Geelong Cats VFL list, playing a handful of games, and was VCFL vice-captain for a number of years.Ī tough centre-half back who could play footy, he also had a keen interest in training horses and it turned into a passion.
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