Taking a punt is part of the Australian way of life and no one knows this better than Father Joe Giacobbe. He has taken a punt on everything. It’s his philosophy. The good old Aussie maxim of ‘giving it a go’.

Fr. Joe took a punt when, as a young student priest, he established the Doxa Youth Foundation which now generates more than $2 million a year to fund a variety of youth programs.

He took on another massive gamble when he started the racing form guide Winning Post and gave it away free of charge. A couple of years ago Winning Post was sold, yielding around $2.5 million for Doxa.

He established the Doxa Social Club which has hospitality and leisure outlets which bring in most of the revenue to fund the activities of the Doxa Youth Foundation, which caters for the needs of disadvantaged children. More than 150,000 have attended its recreational and educational complex at Malmsbury, about 100 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.

Yet none of this would have happened had it not been for Fr. Joe’s interest in thoroughbred horse racing.

He has been dubbed ‘the punting priest’ and it’s an apt nickname because he loves his racing and he is partial to a bet. It was through his contacts in racing that he got his original concept for a residential holiday complex off the ground. He won’t mention individual names because he has had help from so many people.

Fr. Joe was only 22 and a student at Corpus Christi College, Glen Waverley, when the idea of a camp for disadvantaged children came to him. ‘As students we were sent out to various parishes to get an experience of the priesthood and I was posted to Flemington,’ he explains. ‘It was there I became aware of the circumstances of families living in the high-rise flats at Flemington and Fitzroy. They were in a very cramped environment. It was underresourced in social capital and the people didn’t have a lot of money.

‘There was no-one to organise activities for the children during school holidays so I decided to take them on a camp. It was pretty hard work organising the food and the accommodation and what have you, but it showed me what could be done. I could see that if something like this could be established permanently many people would benefit. My first thought was to acquire a guest house and I went to a friend I thought could help — a bookmaker, the late Jim Carroll. I ran the idea past him and he said: “Look, if you are going to take people from their poor environment and show them something good, you don’t want something second-hand. You should establish something big”.

Racing contacts

‘I started working on the project in 1972 and found it exciting and challenging. I was 22 and in my sixth year at the College. The first thing I needed was a grant of land, which I got, but that was all. I wanted to secure some government support to take it further but they wouldn’t come to the party. Not unless I could show them I had a significant amount of money to proceed. That’s where my racing contacts came in and I got Roy Higgins to host a couple of functions — sportsmen’s nights — at the old Custom House in Flinders Street. I think we made over $10,000 the first night. The Government put in dollar-for-dollar and that got me up and running’.

Fr. Joe’s interest in racing began when his father took him to Flemington when he was about eight or nine, an era when there were champions like Rising Fast, Redcraze and Tulloch. His parents came from Italy — his father from Foggia and his mother from Sicily. They migrated to Australia in 1938 and lived at Ascot Vale where Fr. Joe was born in 1949.

‘They were typical migrants,’ Fr. Joe recalled, ‘hard working and wanting a good education for their kids. They didn’t want their children to have the financial difficulties they had encountered. It was a good time for me to grow up… the 1960s. They were eventful times — space exploration had just begun; John F. Kennedy was assassinated; decimal currency was introduced; the Vietnam War was happening; and the Beatles were all the rage, but to kids like me we just played in the streets and were happy.

‘Then my dad went into business and didn’t have the time to take me to the races anymore. But by the time I was 13 I started to go by myself. I remember backing Even Stevens to win the Melbourne Cup in 1962. I became really fascinated with the sport. My home in Ascot Vale was within walking distance of Flemington and Moonee Valley and I made the most of every opportunity to be there when the races were on.’

At this time Fr. Joe was attending secondary school at St. Bernard’s in West Essendon and as he approached Year 12 he knew he had to start thinking about his future. ‘At St. Bernard’s they encouraged students to pursue a university degree,’ he reflected, ‘but I didn’t think I would fit into that category very well. I thought I would like to do something different. I knew some priests and 1 thought that working in a parish would give me the opportunity to do things for people. So I entered the seminary at Werribee to study for the priesthood in 1967. I’ve always been headstrong and have never been frightened to be an individual. I wasn’t going to be stereotyped.

While Fr. Joe was at Werribee he started going to the races more often and making new friends.

‘Going to the races was good for me because you made friends with people. It’s one of the amazing things about racing. People forget all differences; religious, racial, matrimonial even, because you are all there to back a winner. You meet people at the races and everyone is sort of an equal — it’s a leveler. If you meet someone at the races you can say “do you know someone who can do something”, or “do you reckon you could help me out with this”. That’s one thing in my character, I’ve never been afraid to ask. If people say “no”, I say “no hard feelings”, or, “if you can’t do it yourself give me some guidance”. I find racing people are very friendly people — probably because you have to cop a loss just as you have to cop a win.

Silent givers

‘I have got very close to a lot of people in racing and I have found there is a certain attitude about them – a magnanimous outlook. Racing people are always good for charity, and they are always there to help someone out if they get into trouble. You don’t feel you are butting in or invading someone’s privacy if someone is in a bit of strife and you want to help them out. I know a lot of people in racing who are silent givers. They help out other people anonymously, but you get to hear about it one way or the other.

‘One of the things I say is that you can sit on a tram and see everyone going to work with a serious look on their face, or you can walk around the city and it’s the same. But you see people on the racetrack in the morning and it’s hard work. They have to get up early and it is monotonous work, yet everyone talks to each other. Another aspect of racing is that you don’t have to push yourself to be accepted. Just by going to the races over the years you get to know people and that’s a great thing — it’s a bit like a club. If you go into a club you know you are always going to have someone to talk to because you know another member. I never need to go to the races with anyone because over a period of 35 to 40 years you get to know a lot of people.’

Father Joe was ordained in 1974 and began working in a parish for the first time. His first church was St. Fidelis in Moreland then he moved on to East Brunswick and North Fawkner. But by 1982 Doxa was taking on more significance in the community and demanding more of his time. It had its own office but Fr. Joe was needed to be there to give moral support to the volunteers who looked after the administration. But at the same time he has never neglected his priestly duties, saying two or three Masses every Sunday, officiating at weddings, funerals and baptisms and is on call 24/7 to help those in need. As well as being a priest he is an entrepreneur. His association with Winning Post and establishing the Doxa Social Club is testimony to that.

The right offer

Father Joe pointed out that Doxa is now in two divisions. The Doxa Youth Foundation is responsible for delivering the recreational and education programs and it has its own Board of Directors. Doxa’s businesses, like ‘Clocks’, are run under the banner of the Doxa Social Club and it has its own separate board. The Social Club was started for the specific purpose of raising funds for the Doxa Youth Foundation.

You might think Father Joe has his hands full and has a stressful life. He does, but to a point. Racing is his outlet. It lets him have a beer with friends and opens up all kinds of situations away from the hard-nosed business life. Like on the occasion he was visiting a family to make funeral arrangements. ‘Until this day I had never encountered any form of discrimination,’ he recalled. ‘But in this house I could sense there was a barrier because of my background. Whether it was because I’m of ethnic origin or because of my religion, I don’t know; but my interest in racing saved the day. I remember being in the room with the brother of the deceased and feeling uncomfortable until I happened to look around and see the photo of a horse on the wall. “I remember that horse winning”, I said. “I got the quadrella that day”. And I mentioned the names of the horses who had won each leg. Well, it broke down all barriers. Once the guy knew I was interested in racing I think we spent the first three-quarters of an hour talking about horses. That photo on the wall had taken away all the pressure. That’s when I said: “thank God for racing”.

Then there was the time Fr. Joe was asked to bless a horse. It was something he had never done and had never considered. ‘I’ve always regarded the blessing of horses as a little bit superstitious,’ he said. But on this day I was doing a baptism — one of Des Spain’s grandchildren — and I met Gavin Kelly, a horse trainer from Adelaide. After that I would meet him at the races and I got to know him. I ran into him at Breakfast with the Stars at Flemington on the Tuesday before the Derby. He said: “I’d love you to come and bless this horse; it would mean so much to the people who own it”. He asked me so nicely I thought: “oh well, yeah”. So I blessed the horse. It was a maiden called Redding. It won the Derby. On the Sunday after the race I was at function and met up with Brendan Cormack who writes for The Australian. He said: “is it true that you blessed Redding before he won the Derby? Is it OK if I write it up?” “Of course it is’’, I said. He told me he would put my phone number in the story for further business but I said, “no, I’m going to be like a good magician; never try the same trick twice and retire with a 100 per cent result”. I’ve never blessed a horse since… until I blessed King Cove for a picture in this book.’

Daily double

When Fr. Joe was appointed Chaplain to the Sacred Heart Hospital at Moreland as a young priest he was exposed to illness in a way he had never experienced before. But again it was his love of racing that helped him through. ‘I met this terminally ill patient and we got to talking about the horses,’ he recounted. ‘I used to go down to the TAB to put his bets on. But first of all I had to go to the State Bank to get his money out. The people there must have thought “this priest has a problem; he’s here again”. We used to sit down and go through the paper and try to pick out the Daily Double. We never talked about his sickness, just racing. I was very glad to be able to do that because, not only did it help him, it helped me as well.’

Fr. Joe’s love of racing and his organisational skills have taken him overseas many times, so much so that he can say ‘the world is his parish’. His attitude to religion is that there is goodness in all people. ‘My view of Christianity is that Christianity is inclusive,’ he says. ‘It’s accepting and non-judgmental. As human beings I think we tend to judge people too harshly and too quickly in terms of our own standards. The big thing about Christianity is accepting people and sometimes saying: “I wonder what would have happened to me if I had been in those same set of circumstances. I say every day I am thankful for what I have got”.

‘Since I became a priest there has been a lot of changes in attitudes and that has made my job a lot easier. You are part of life. If you are detached from life you are not going to get anywhere. I always go back to the words of a priest, Anthony de Mello. He said something I’ve always tried to put into practice. He said: “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day of the week”. So to try and act as a Christian is the better way.’

Excerpt from The Spirit of Racing, by Ron Taylor, Wilkinson Publishing 2008