Move over Jack and Jill, Jack and Kate are here!

Jack MacKinnon is excited by the opportunities that await in his role as stable foreman with prominent Shelbourne trainer Kate Hargreaves.

The 26-year-old New Zealand native is no longer in a training partnership with Anton Golino and will finish working at Yabby Dam Farms at the end of this week before embarking on the new venture.

MacKinnon trained and drove across the Tasman before moving to Victoria in 2018, with his job at Yabby Dam Farms eventually leading to a formal agreement being established between he and Golino late last year.

But it’s now time to move on and try something different, with MacKinnon planning to take up offers to train horses for old connections back in his home country and some bred by his father Jamie.

“The opportunity came up to go there and give Kate a hand and do some of my own,” MacKinnon told thetrots.com.au.

“I thought with the opportunities that I’d been given, if I was going to do it, I might as well do it now.

“Anton and Pat (Driscoll) were really good about it – I had a good chat to them about it – and they were supportive.”

MacKinnon is certainly not new to training. He had a taste of it in NZ, winning the inaugural $25,000 Haras des Trotteurs North Island Oaks for three-year-old pacing fillies with Kissmeimloaded in 2017.

He has worked for a number of leading stables in NZ, including husband and wife Bernie Hackett and Michelle Wallis, Paul Nairn, Robert Dunn and Steve Telfer.

“I used to really enjoy driving. I used to drive quite a bit in New Zealand, but my focus sort of changed over the last year. I went more into training and that’s what I really enjoy,” he said.

“I’m really looking forward to the opportunity (with Kate). It should be good.

MacKinnon’s biggest success as a driver here in Australia came when he partnered Xebec to victory in the Group 2 NSW Trotters Derby in 2019.

Hargreaves has trained over 240 winners in her short but successful career to date, highlighted by Dont Care’s success in the 2020 Vicbred Super Series 2YO Trotting Colts and Geldings Final.