Beckley batting for Roxburgh

Roxburgh horseman and President of Roxburgh Trotting Club Neville Beckley is very aware of the importance of community involvement in the local harness racing track if it’s to remain a race venue.

“It’s scary when the Racing Legislation says your Club grounds could be taken like Forbury. Over the last few years we’ve really got the community behind us. We’ve made it into a camping ground which is going well, the A&P have moved into our grounds now and we’ve put in a nice big arena. The Gun Club are there and can do clay bird shooting and the Pony Club is there too. We’ve also put in hydrants for the Fire Brigade so if there’s a fire over East Roxburgh they have water there. We’re all volunteers and the place is looking a picture,” he said.

Beckley and his wife Muriel have lived in Roxburgh for the last fourteen years since moving there from Southland.
“We came up here on holiday one time and thought it would be lovely to train horses up here and I’ve never trained a horse since we’ve been here,” he says with laughter.

Neville has had horses for most of this working life, getting hooked early. But having not much luck early on, he decided to get into the breeding game.

“I bought Auburn Time off Owen Crooks which was the Walker breed. The first foal I bred was Magnetic Chip.”

She had thirteen starts for Gil Shirley before Beckley took over the training and she was Neville’s first winner when she was successful at Forbury Park in November 1992.

She won four, her biggest win was in the 1993 Equine Stakes when she beat Silky Saila and Lento.

Beckley is self-taught. He picked up training tips on the way through from the likes of Ron Barron and Doug McNaught.

“I also knew young Donny McRae back in the day. I learned some good and not so good things off him (laughter). He was a likeable rouge.”

Beckley who was an engineer by trade, worked in the Merchant Navy travelling around the Pacific.

“I was working on a semi passenger ship. One of the passengers got crook and we pulled into Magnetic Island at the top of Australia. It was such a lovely place and that’s why I named the horses Magnetic.”

Beckley held a training licence for twenty two years and operated from a twenty five acre property at Ferry Road which had a 1200 metre training track.

He trained twenty one winners including Clock Watcher (5), Magnetic Chip (4) and Magnetic Charger (3).

Since is retirement his horses have been trained by Robin Swain. Swain’s first winner for Neville was Magnetic Watch in May 2016. Others since have been Magnetic Beckers (5), Magnetic Watch (5) and Magnetic Terror (3).

Magnetic Terror was sold to Australia where he’s won a further ten races including the Listed Devonport Cup.

Another good winner for Beckley was Cannon Smoke which won four before he was sold to America.

One winner he has strong memories of is Art Master which was part owned by junior driver Jessica Rabbitte.

“He was a cheating old bugger. One day I drove him and gave him a couple of flicks and he actually went slower. I thought we have to change that attitude so I put a plastic bag on the end of a short stick. It was blowing a bit that day and he took off. It took me 400 metres to pull the bugger up. The next time we went out he must have thought I had the plastic bag and when I asked him to go, he was off again. It woke him up. Jessica had a broken foot at the time and I wanted to wait until she got her clearance to drive him. But we lined him up and put Alan Scobie on him. He said ‘what are you training this thing for!’ I told him to drive him like a C3 horse and not to use the whip just raise your hands.”

The gelding won by half a head and paid $31.80 and $8.40.

Beckley’s latest winner is Magnetic Jim D (Lather Up) which is out of the Art Major mare Fun It Is.

“I bought the mare off Jim Dalgety in foal to Lather Up. When she had the colt I rang Cran (Dalgety) up and asked him if I could call the horse Magnetic Jim D. He asked his father and he said he’d be delighted.”

Magnetic Jim D which won last month at Winton is trained by Peter Hunter.

“I rang Peter up one day and asked him if he wanted a Lather Up, a Sportswriter or a Gold Ace. They were all two year olds and he took the Lather Up. He’s done a good job with him. He was one of those standoffish horses. I don’t know why he’s like that because I’ve got a Fear The Dragon sister and Captain Crunch brother and they’re the opposite. They’re all over you.”

Outside of the horses Beckley owns Bearing Replacements on North Road which he’s run for twenty five years.

“We mainly deal with farmers and contractors. Prime Range Meat and Pyper’s Produce have been loyal supporters over the years. We kept a lot of their critical spares. We sort of knew what they’d need for the next years maintenance.”

He’s also kept busy looking after his horses.

“I’ve got about fifteen horses including quite a few young ones. I teach them to lead and tie up and then send them away to a trainer.”

His wife Muriel is also requiring a bit more attention at the moment.

“She had major surgery on her back so it’s three weeks of washing dishes (laughter). I’m not too keen on that I tell ya.”

Beckley says the Roxburgh Harness Racing community works hard and put in lots of voluntary hours to make their venue a community hub.

Along the way there have been moments that have earned him some ribbing at the Pub.

“I was at our property on the south side of Roxburgh up on the riverbank in the Pajero. The electric fence was just shorting out so I hopped out and left the door open. I went back to grab something off the floor, and I must have put it into neutral. I looked round and here the truck was belting down the bank. I thought it was going to roll over, because it was quite a steep bank, or smash into the willow trees. But she found the smallest bloody gap and went through into the Clutha.”

After a few weeks of searching the vehicle was eventually found by a neighbour just thirty metres off the boundary and Beckley employed a Hymac to recover it.

“I got a young fella from the club to put a wetsuit on, go down and put a chain round her and we pulled her out. I had a couple of dead lambs on the back of her at the time and as we pulled her up there were a couple of eels feasting on the back of her. I had gear in the back and a cell phone. The funny thing about it was the cell phone still worked.”

Life in Roxburgh eh!!!

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink