Kevi is a warrior

On 14 November 2011 Lilydale ship builder John McGillivray looked across at his new born colt only to see a portion of the horse’s small intestines protruding from its stomach. 

“Half of his small intestines were hanging out, so I immediately called the vet,” McGillivray said. 

“The vet asked what his name was and as he was only five hours old he didn’t have one,” he said. 

McGillivray turned to his partner Rhonda Brogan and suggested  the horse should  be called Kev, named after her father. 

“I never met Kev but apparently he was a tough old bloke and I thought this colt would have to be just as tough to survive,” he said. 

Fittingly, the colt turned out to be Lotakevi (Stonebridge Regal) one of the warhorses of Victorian harness racing who chalked up his 16th win from his 202nd start in a heat of the Southern Cross Sprint Series at Geelong this week. 

McGillivray concedes his patience was tested when Lotakevi injured a suspensory as an unraced four-year-old. 

“He had a hole the size of a 10 cent piece in the suspensory and the vet said that I might get one race out of him,” he said. 

McGillivray’s tolerance was further tested when Lotakevi took 37 trips to the races before he broke his maiden status as an eight-year-old. 

He credits champion reinsman Chris Alford with turning around the pacer’s fortunes. 

“The horse used to drop the bit at the 800 metres and one day Chris hunted out of the gate from a wide draw to find the death and he ran a fantastic race to finish second,” he said. 

Popular freelance reinsman Ross Payne has now steered the 12-year-old to six wins and McGillivray revealed he and Payne shared a health battle synergy five months ago. 

“Last Christmas I was diagnosed with bowel cancer and around the same time Ross was undergoing heart surgery, so we were both in hospital at the same time,” he said. 

“Luckily, we are both in good health now.” 

McGillivray, who only has the one horse in work, recalls briefly putting the polish on the Group 1 Australasian Trotting Championship winning trotter Diggers Idol. 

“I trained Diggers Idol for a short time when Terry (Meredith) was suspended for six months,” he said. 

McGillivray believes Lotakevi’s durability stems from the fact that he only sees a sulky on race day. 

“For the past three years he only works behind the jogger and he probably races every week to a fortnight which keeps him fit,” he said. 

Lotakevi sustained a second suspensory injury a couple of years ago however it necessitated only a relatively brief absence  from the race track. 

“I got him back to the races in 93 days,” he said. 

Meanwhile, McGillivray is hoping Lotakevi can repeat his heat win in the Southern Cross Feeds Final at Geelong next Friday.  

“We received 12 bags of feed for winning the heat and the winner of the final will get 24 bags of feed from Southern Cross,” he said. 

Following the win at Geelong Lotakevi now boasts a 33% strike rate of starts to wins and placings for more than $107, 000 in prizemoney. 

“Not bad for a horse who has never rated more than NR50,” he said. 

“If ever a horse has been suited by the National Ratings system, he’s the one.” 

  by John Dunne, for Harnesslink