87-year-old Fred still has that winning touch

Echuca hobby trainer Fred McKenner acknowledges he’s “one of the cranky ones” who likes to get up and get his harness racing team worked early – and, at 87 years of age, that’s pretty good going.

And more often than not, the 7am early shift is spent with his good mate, steadfast 10-year-old gelding Cobber Mac (Gotta Go Cullect).

Cobber Mac last week (Oct 15) recorded his seventh career win – the same number of wins that McKenner has recorded since making a belated return to the training ranks in 2015.

“I had been in harness racing years and years ago.  I did an apprenticeship with (trainer) Tony Buckley.  But then an electrician offered me a job on a 24-7 roster, and I wasn’t going to get that with the horses, so I gave them away,” McKenner said.

“I’d had what looked like being a good horse back in the 1980s called Northern Denza – but I just couldn’t keep him sound. I gave it away probably 40 or 50 years ago but when I retired, I started looking for a horse again,” he said.

“It was just for something to do, something to get me out of bed in the mornings instead of lying about reading the paper.”

McKenner tried a couple of horses, but then in 2018 he purchased Cobber Mac and brought him back to his stables at the Echuca track, where he rents three boxes.

“I got Cobber Mac when he was six, nearly seven,” McKenner remembered.

“His breeder had leased him to a fellow in Pyramid Hill, and I don’t think the horse had left the farm in three years.  He didn’t know too much when I got him, but I kept at it with him, and slowly and surely, we’ve got there.”

Cobber Mac was driven confidently at Echuca by Codi Rauchenberger, with the front-running win kicking the pacer’s career earnings past $50,000 for his 96 starts.

It was the second win for the season for both Cobber Mac and McKenner.

“He’s a bit of a one-pacer and he just plods away, but Codi drove him well in front.  They seem to click a bit – she’s only driven him the three times for a third, fifth and a win,” he said.

McKenner said his wife, Joan, who is Cobber Mac’s part-owner, helped out around the stables in earlier years, and he is now assisted by his daughter-in-law Maureen McKenner.

“Maud came up to me one day about four or five years ago and said I was looking a bit tired, and she thought she could come and give me a hand if I could teach her what to do,” McKenner said.

“She’s been here ever since – I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for her!” he laughed.

“But it’s great, it keeps us busy and doing things and gives me a reason to get up and get going in the mornings.  I think it probably keeps me alive.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink