New Zealand horse racing legend Trevor McKee passes away

Trevor McKee with his horse Sunline. Photo / Sav Schulman

Trevor McKee deserved to train a horse like Sunline.

Even without her McKee, who passed away today at the age of 81, would have been a New Zealand horse racing legend.

You can't train as successfully for as long as McKee did and touch the lives of so many people without earning a special place in the industry.

A former jockey and even one-time cook in the New Zealand army, it is as a horse trainer McKee found his calling in life.

Horse training suited him, with its relentless workload and attention to detail as well as the love of the animal.

All those attributes helped McKee become one of the greats of his industry, training over 1200 winners in his career, many with his son Stephen.

"Dad was good at it because horse training is hard work and he never minded hard work," says Stephen.

"He would go anywhere to win a race, especially in the early days, often driving those long hours in the float himself.

"He was old school and liked to do things his way because he never shirked that work."

After training briefly in Pukekohe, McKee moved to Takanini and was one of the reasons the training centre became the most feared in New Zealand racing.

"He had a lot of good horses but often he would get them racing them sell them. He was a businessman as well as a trainer. And good at both." The McKee colours were already famous in New Zealand racing when the horse who could carry them into the world stage came along.

Sunline was the horse that trainers dare not dream of getting. After all, not many get to train "the mare of the world", let alone part-own her.

Almost too good to race at home in New Zealand, Sunline regularly smashed Australia's best. It is 20 years and three days since she won the Doncaster as a three-year-old, a high seemingly impossible to top.

Sunline topped it several times, with her second Cox Plate win in 2000 one of Australasian racing's iconic moments.

Two starts later that Mare of the World tag was earned in the Hong Kong Mile, maybe the fondest racing memory for father and son.

"We had a lot of special wins with together but Hong Kong was different, because we had been beaten there the year before and it is so hard to win those races," remembers Stephen.

"So we enjoyed that one.

"But Dad was far more than just Sunline. And I was lucky because I got spend so much time with him because we worked together."

Trevor, who was awarded the ONZM, is survived by his wife Noeline, Stephen and his sisters Donna and Suzanne, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

A service to celebrate his life will be held at Ellerslie Racecourse, where Sunline is buried, on either Wednesday or Thursday, the family yet to confirm the day.

And Stephen is right of course. His father was much more than just a horse trainer or even the trainer of Sunline.

But the champion mare meant more people got to meet Trevor, enjoy the always-offered handshake and listen to his measured words. So for that we owe her.