First harness racing win in 31 months for Magic Eye Mick

The path to his win on Tuesday (Aug. 1) at Bunbury has been far from straight forward, but Magic Eye Mick put it all together on the day to bring up his first harness racing win in 31 months.

Now trained by Brad Chinnery and driven by Lorne Steer, they were given the opportunity to lease the now six-year-old from John Bell around 18 months ago, and although he’s only been racing for the past six months for their stable, the previous 12 months has been a hard slog.

After a training accident at Colin Browns, Magic Eye Mick became harder to handle and after making the decision to send him home after a few failed attempts on the track, Lorne and Brad had an affiliation with the family already, so the decision to take him was easier than the journey of getting him back to the races.

“I had his mum as a three-year-old, she was a nice little thing. She only had two foals, this one and Master Jaxon, who was a really nice horse,

“I also had Danieljohn he was a half-brother to Kenzie May Belle (the dam),

“So, we took him, and he was just a handful, would try and bolt and kick you out of the cart, all sorts of things, it took ages and several times I thought I was just going to send him back because it was too hard,

“He had a couple of things along the way that stopped him from racing, he had an abscess in his mouth, that blew out of the side of his mouth, and then he got a really bad virus and his legs swelled up and it took him a while to recover from that, but we kept going and basically it’s only been in the last three months that he’s actually started to improve.”

MAGIC EYE MICK REPLAY

Although his form line doesn’t suggest it, Brad Chinnery did confirm that Magic Eye Mick has been racing well of late, and just two starts ago when he finished 12.8m behind the well performed Cotton On NZ at Pinjarra, he clocked a last half in very quick time.

“Russell Betts texted me after the race and said, ‘do you know how fast your horse ran home in, I said must have been quick, I don’t really know, he said 54.5,’ which is pretty amazing, we know he can run its just a matter of learning how to race,

“Then the next start, the one before this one, he got knocked over, the horse in front galloped and he ran into it, he’s not very good at going left or right and he tends to get a bit keen and run forward, so he couldn’t avoid him, but he actually went pretty well, he made up a lot of ground and ran ninth,

“His form looks terrible, but his runs haven’t been bad.”

Chinnery has gone back to basics now, removing majority of the gear they initially had on the horse to try keep him settled, he now races in an open bridle and 64 inch hopple, with their next challenge to get him back in the draw.

Magic Eye Mick has now had 26 starts for 5 wins and 3 placings, with the lightly raced six-year-old looking to have more success in the future.

Chinnery currently has five or six in work, including Miss Stefani, Atomic Swing and he has even pulled Jimmy Recard out of retirement for his comeback tour. Jimmy Recard last raced in June 2022 for the stable.

“He doesn’t change, he’s 10 now but he acts like a two-year-old, bouncing around, I just thought I’d put him back into work and aim him for Busselton.”

For complete race results, click here.

by Ashleigh Paikos, for RWWA