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On Sunday night Queen Elida (Love You), bred and part owned by Southland dairy farmer Gordon McKenzie, was named Victorian Three Year Old Trotting Filly of the Year.
McKenzie along with his sons Graeme, Blair and Brad, and Tony and Cheryl Barron own the harness racing mare that is widely touted as one of Australia’s up and coming trotters.
The Love You mare has now won four Group One races including the Victoria Trotters Oaks, Need For Speed Princess Final, the Breeders Crown Three Year Old Trotting Fillies and La Coocaracha.
“I wanted to get the next generation involved so I gave my sons a ten percent share in her,” said McKenzie.
The story began in February 2014 when Queen Elida’s dam Queen Kenny was purchased from Phil and Bev Williamson by Barron and McKenzie. Dhe had just run second on debut at Wyndham.
Although Gordon was keen to buy a young pacer Barron convinced him that this mare would be a great investment and how right he’s been.
“Tony said you only get one chance to buy into this family and it turned out pretty good,” McKenzie said.
Trained by Barron, Queen Kenny won nine races, her biggest win being the Group Three Greenlane Cup. She also ran third in the 2016 Rowe Cup won by Monbet. A handful of other starts followed, but McKenzie said “We decided to retire her then because we didn’t want to be chasing around those top horses and she was a valuable broodmare.”
She was sent to Love You and Queen Elida was the resulting foal.
After being broken in and prepared for racing by Barron he liked what he saw in Elida, giving her just a handful of starts before he was making plans to send her to good mate Brent Lilley in Victoria where he could see an easier pathway to success.
“You’re racing colts and geldings, so he (Tony) suggested that we send her over to Lil (Brent Lilley).”
From that base Queen Elida has fashioned an outstanding record, winning thirteen of her twenty starts in Australia and banking $207,985.
“He (Barron) said he was sending us over a V8, and he was dead right. Being able to race against your own age and sex is great. There were so many more chances for her over here,” Lilley said.
McKenzie was over in Australia to see her last win in the La Coocaracha and he stayed on for the Awards on Sunday night. It’s the first time he’s seen her race across the Tasman.
“When we took the cover off I could see that she’s really developed. She’s a hand higher and a brute of a thing.”
Gordon comes from a rich Southland racing and rugby line. His grandfather Eric McKenzie (Pirates Club) played nine games for Southland (1920-1921) while Gordon’s father Graeme (Seaward Downs) also appeared nine times for the maroons (1957-1958 and 1961).
He himself played his senior rugby for Woodlands and captained the side as a twenty year old, playing either lock or loose forward. He played until he was twenty five before he had to retire because of a back injury. Continuing the family tradition Gordon also played fifteen games for Southland (1981 and 1984-1985).
As well as having strong rugby roots in Southland the McKenzie family have been involved in thoroughbred racing for decades.
“Grandad and Bill Hazlett were best mates and Dad (Graeme) raced a lot of horses with Rex Cochrane.”
Good winners for Graeme included Glenturret and Star Rapier. Glenturret won eleven races, seven on the flat, three steeplechases and one over hurdles. He ran second in the Listed Otago Breeders Champagne Stakes and won the Listed John Grigg Classic. Star Rapier won eight races including the Wyndham and Kurow Cups.
Graeme also raced The Meista with sons Grant and Brent. He won a Canterbury Gold Cup and Timaru Cup and ran second in the Waikato Guineas and Coupland Mile.
Grant and Brent currently race Tavattack from Allan Sharrock’s stable which has won four races.
McKenzie’s involvement in galloping is mainly around buying and selling horses with his old school mate Ross Beckett.
“Ross and I used to go to the sales and buy seven or eight horses, get them up and going and sell them. I also got involved in trying to sort out the future of racing in Southland (2000). I got a bit p….d off because parochialism came in. I was President of the Wyndham Racing Club at the time, and they decided that they would go back and race at Wyndham, so I decided to get out.”
The McKenzies initially farmed in partnership at Seaward Downs but now Grant runs the home farm while Gordon’s farm is three miles up the road at Oteramika where 2,400 cows are milked. He also has a runoff block at Colac Bay (1,000 acres) and 750 acres at Tuatapere.
“Graeme works for Ravensdown in Te Awamutu, Blair runs the dairy farms and Brad runs the business side of the farms and the runoffs. I spend half my time at the runoff at Colac Bay and the other half at Lake Hayes.”
Leaving Queen Elida (named after McKenzie’s two eldest granddaughters Ida and Elsie) with Lilley has proved to be a masterstroke. The former Canterbury horseman has fashioned an outstanding record with the square gaiters and with the stock he currently has in training it looks as though it’s only going to get better.
His stable is at Bolinda, twenty five minutes north of Melbourne Airport and close to the Kilmore and Melton tracks.
He runs 110 acres with a 900 metre and straight tracks. The largest of two barns houses fifteen boxes and an older barn has five. Lilley said most of his horses are paddock trained and at any one time he has about forty horses in work.
Lilley trained Game Bid to win the 2002 Interdominions, and Māori Time which won twenty four of her seventy three starts including back to back Group One Bill Collins Trots. She broke the Australian 1609 metre record when she trotted 1-51.5 at Menangle and she also raced in Sweden.
Other good trotters who’ve been through his hands are Keystone Del (Dr Ronerail) which won over a million dollars. His Group One wins included Glenferrie Farm (2013 and 2014), V.L. Dullard Cup, Seelite Windows Grand Prix and The Knight Pistol and Kyvalley Blur (Chocolatier) which won thirty races and $611,790.
He currently has two top end colts in his stable in Kyvalley Hotspur (Muscle Hill) ($129,210 17-8-2-2) and Aldebaran Zeus (Muscle Hill) ($160,170 24-9-7-4).
Kyvalley Hotspur won the Group Two NSW Derby and Group One Victoria Trotters Derby while Aldebaran Zeus won the Group One Breeders Crown, Three Year Old Trotting Final and Group One Premier Trotting Sale Three Year Old Colt and Geldings Final.
You can tell when you chat to Lilley that he holds genuine excitement for the future of Queen Elida.
“Every time she’s come back from a spell she’s just gone to another level. She’s built like a tank now. You’d have to look between her legs to check that she’s not a colt. If you wrote down on a piece of paper what you needed to have in a top horse she’d pretty much tick all the boxes.”
He has no doubts she’s capable of running against the FFA horses.
“She’s got it all ahead of her. She’s got that brilliant turn of speed, which you can’t put into them. I’ve got no doubt she’s going to measure up.”
Lilley said there’s a four and five year old races for Queen Elida on the 25th of June.
“We’ll then back off her and get her back and aim at the Breeders Crown in November. Then the Interdominions are here in December which is on our back door, and I think it would be a great series for her.”
Can she handle the tightly formatted Interdominion?
“I don’t think I’ve had a better doer. After every race she licks the bowl clean. She’s pawing at the door the next morning to get her breakfast. If anything, you have trouble getting the weight off her not the other way round. I’m sure a series like the Interdominions will be right up her alley.”
And when asked about maybe heading home for races like the Dominion Handicap and The Rowe Cup he was relatively keen, but with one proviso.
“I’ll talk to Tony and Boof, but I just have to make sure thy book the mare a return ticket. We’d love to go over there next year for those good races.”
