By Glenn Davis
Hall of Fame trainer, the late Jim Atkins, has been a major influence on the career of young Toowoomba trainer Troy Pascoe.
Pascoe was living in Lismore in Northern NSW when he made a brave decision to pack his bags and head to Toowoomba hoping to join the Atkins stable.
“I was born in Ipswich but I spent most of my life at Lismore,” Pascoe said.
“My family moved to Melbourne but we only stayed a few months because it was so cold.
“We were on our way back to Ipswich and stopped off at Lismore and we liked it so much we ended up staying there for 15 years.”
Pascoe hadn’t been near a horse at Lismore but loved racing and had dreamt about being a foreman for the late Jim Atkins.
“I moved up to Toowoomba in the hope of joining J.J.'s stables and I started off working for a local trainer for nothing for a few months,” he said.