Simon McMullan taking a break from fulltime training

Simon McMullan has trained successfully with northern harness racing trainer Steven Reid. But he’s taking a break from training full time, and Reid will train on his own account again.

The thirty three year old, who’s been in the sport since leaving school, has taken on a fulltime role with International horse transport company IRT.

“I’m just having a bit of a career path change and doing the horses like a hobby. If I get a paying client I’ll still train a few. If Steven has a horse that needs to be worked in company I’ll got out and help him because I’m still at the Pukekohe track. I get the best of both worlds. I still get to do the horses and get to make a living which is the toughest thing in this game,” he said.

McMullan’s career began with Brent Lilley in Canterbury. He then worked for Brendon Hill and from there went on to Paul Court at Harcourt Lodge.

In the 2014 season he joined forces with Reid and they spent the next four years training in partnership.

He trained on his own account between 2017 and 2020 and rejoined Reid in partnership in 2021. Over those two stints the Reid/McMullan barn produced one hundred and ten winners.

As a trainer he was associated with Mo Szyslak (Sweet Lou) which won five of it’s twenty starts, Star Galleria (Art Major) which had fourteen wins, Gold Ace (Bettor’s Delight) which won $1.2 million and Magic Four (Bettor’s Delight) which won the Listed $200,000 Magic Millions.

“We had Magic Four and won the Harness Million and then he went to another stable. A few other things happened and it made me go a bit stale on it. I got this new opportunity from Richard Cole of IRT, and they’ve slowly given he more work. I’m really enjoying it.”

McMullen’s partner Cara Holmes was also involved in harness racing, working for Derek Balle. She now works for MPI at Auckland Airport.

“So we’ve both got out of stable life in the last three months. The other thing that convinced me to change was, you see a guy like Steven. He’s a Group One winning trainer and trained a hell of a lot of winners and even he’s struggling to get new owners into the game.”

McMullen isn’t completely lost to the sport though, as he still owns two horses. Baz (Gold Ace) is a ten start maidener and Busy Canoodling, (Used To Me) who’s a half-sister to four win trotter Rosie (Peak).

McMullen also fashioned a reasonable record as a driver. His first winner was on Another Matter (Life Sign) at Hawera in March 2008. As a junior between 2008 and 2014 he drove fifty five winners.

His best winner was Charge Forward (Grinfromeartoear) which won seven races.

McMullan hasn’t driven a lot since then and in the last two seasons has just held a trials license.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink