Long-time Marburg horseman Peter McKay is optimistic his stable can end a run of defeats with consistent pacer Nesters Hill and get the cash on Wednesday evening at The Triangle.
Hobby trainer McKay bred the gelding from the mare he raced – Saunders Jewel – and while he has not greeted the judges first in his last seven trips to the track, he rarely runs a poor race.
The five-time career winner has not run worse than fifth in his last seven efforts, which includes a trio of minor placings.
After a solid spin around his home track on Monday night in preparation, the 67-year-old McKay feels the 2040 metre assignment around Redcliffe on Wednesday evening is a winnable race for his reliable gelding.
“He goes good and he is a bit of a chance on Wednesday night, I hope,” McKay said just moments after he jumped out of the sulky on Monday.
“He won five or six starts back but it is difficult, he is a horse that needs to be drawn right and you need to have luck in running.
“It will all depend on where we end just after the start.”
McKay was previously based in Victoria earlier in his life before relocating to the Sunshine State, where he has trained his small team of horses at Marburg for over three decades.
Nesters Hill has drawn two on Wednesday evening at the Peninsula-based track and will again be partnered by regular driver Taleah McMullen.
McMullen is the last reinswoman to win on the gelding and has been in the bike in his last eight races.
McKay described McMullen as a “great little driver” and is glad to have her helping his stable.
On a cold Monday morning at Marburg, McKay is working his horses around the country circuit alongside fellow local trainer Karen Schulz.
Schulz – who also stables her pacers around the area – says there is a distinct community feel to the trainers who use the facility, which is based west of Brisbane.
“Because we are all little trainers – and even sometimes the bigger trainers – we all help each other out, lend each other our gear if someone had forgotten something,” Schulz said.
“Everyone pitches in and helps every one, it is great, people will often go out of their way to help others or work their horses next to others when they need it done.
“It is a good feeling between the trainers and participants.”
In the stall next to Nesters Hill is a newcomer to the McKay barn, a Mr Feelgood yearling from the most recent APG Sales.
A purchase of $20,000 by McKay and his wife Julie, the veteran trainer has high hopes for his new bloke, who comes from the dam Favourite Miss.
He thinks he will be at the races for the first time in around 12 months.
“He is a lovely little fella to work and handle,” McKay said of the product of Kevin and Kay Seymour's Solid Earth.
“He has a lot of brains and has not done much wrong at all.
“I certainly wouldn’t part with him, I like him.”
The stable have had plenty of luck with sons of Mr Feelgood over the years.
Nesters Hill is also a Mr Feelgood and is bred out of the mare Saunders Jewel - a mare that McKay trained to five victories.
“I have bred four foals out her,” he said.
“The two-year-old is racing now, Hurrikane Jewels, she has raced one time and will win races.”
