Expatriate Kiwis chasing Group 1 glory

Jack MacKinnon believes the aptly named New Zealand mare Silver Power should prove competitive in harness racing’s Group 1 TAB Sumthingaboutmaori Trotters Free For All at Tabcorp Park on Saturday night.

MacKinnon, an expatriate Kiwi, took delivery of the five-year-old daughter of Monkey Bones recently following a phone call to the horse’s owners across the Tasman.

“I had a bit to do with her in New Zealand and I know the owners quite well,” MacKinnon said.

“She won a feature race at Waikato as a young horse and with the ratings system in New Zealand she now has to race against the best trotters in Australasia.”

MacKinnon concedes the grey mare, who hasn’t raced for six weeks, will be better for the run.

“She will need the run as she isn’t 100 per cent wound up, but I’m sure she won’t disgrace herself,” he said.

MacKinnon, 26, arrived in Australia four years ago after receiving an offer to work at Pat Driscoll’s Yabby Dam Farms complex in Ballarat.

He is now domiciled at Shelbourne on the outskirts of Bendigo, where he works a team of 24 horses in partnership with Kate Hargreaves.

“This mare has been doing most of her racing over long trips from the stand, so the distance of Saturday night’s race should suit her.”

MacKinnon has his sights set on the remainder of the country cups circuit.

“I’ll see how she pulls up, but all going well her next start will be in a country cup,” he said.

MacKinnon is realistic enough to concede the task of downing the $1.65 favorite Im Ready Jet could be too great for the new addition to the stable.

“I drove Im Ready Jet in her first two starts and I don’t think Silver Power can beat her, it would be nice to sit on her back,” he said.

Im Ready Jet has emerged as one of the best products bred and reared at Yabby Dam Farms, winning four Group 1 races along the way to amassing more than $370,000 in prize money.

The race also shapes as the final leg of the Kerryn Manning Trotting Mares Triple Crown, which Aldebaran Crescent (10 points) leads ahead of Im Ready Jet (eight points) and Vacation Hill (eight points). Click here for more.

To view the fields for Melton on Saturday night click here.

By John Dunne for HRV