Racing: Magic Man enters elite club at a trot

Maurice McKendry driving Sir Lincoln beats Terror To Love in the 2012 Auckland Cup. Photo / Getty Images

Victory behind battler on grass track at Parawai encapsulates reinsman's career.

Winning with a battling old trotter at a grass track Thames meeting hardly seems the most glamorous way to reach one of the great milestones in New Zealand racing history.

However, for Maurice McKendry it could hardly have been more appropriate.

The Magic Man, as he is universally known, became only the second New Zealand horseman with 3000 domestic career wins when Letz Hope won at Parawai on Sunday.

It was the second of four wins on the day for McKendry, who joined good mate Tony Herlihy in New Zealand racing's most elite club.

Prepared by a small-time trainer in Ken Sefonte and the winner now of five of her 23 starts, Letz Hope sums up much of McKendry's career.

He has so often been the champion of the battling trainer, the magician who put the winning polish on their hard work.

While he has had roles as regular stable driver for leading trainers Gary Smith, Peter Blanchard, Geoff Small and Ray Green over the years, most of McKendry's 3002 winners have been cobbled together as a pure freelancer.

"I'm happy to get to the 3000 driving a winner for Ken because he is a good guy," says McKendry in a sentence that encapsulates his attitude.

"I have driven for guys like him my whole career and these days it is harder to get the drives from the big stables because most of them have a regular driver.

"So the smaller stables have provided me with a lot of winners over the years and it's nice this old trotting mare got it because trotters have been good to me, too. They seem to be easier to get on, the nice trotters, whereas often the best pacers end up in those bigger stables or have the same drivers their whole careers."

McKendry is not one to get carried away with his own achievements, especially joining the 3000 club because he and everybody else knew it was coming.

"It is still business as usual because there are more horses to drive and my own ones at home to work.

"But it is very satisfying to get there, and probably something when I get a break or even when I retire I will look back on and smile."

If you had told the boy who moved from Methven to Pukekohe as a 19-year-old he would one day so overshadow the records of hisidols Maurice Holmes and Peter Wolfenden, McKendry would have laughed.

Maurice McKendry. Photo / NZPA

"I moved up here to work for Irvin Behrns, who gave me my first winner behind Pleasant Command at Cambridge in 1975.

"He really set me up as a driver and I wouldn't be where I am now without him. But I have been lucky, as was Tony, in that you get these opportunities.

"I guess somebody like Dexter [Dunn] will eventually drive 4000 or 5000 winners, though."

At 58, McKendry has no plans to retire from driving although he admits the days of travelling to Manawatu and smaller meetings are no longer viable for him.

"And I enjoy training my four horses, which is a number that enables me to train them the way I want.

"But I am still waiting for that really good one."

Magical career

Who: Maurice McKendry.
What: Only second NZ reinsman to drive 3000 domestic winners.
When: Thames, Sunday with Letz Hope.
Career drives: 19,800 (estimated, HRNZ records go back only to 1977).
Trotting winners: 3832.
Career stakes: Over $25 million.

Maurice McKendry's fabulous five
1: Chokin: "I only drove him as a 2-year-old but he was incredible and just kept getting better."
2: Bonnies Chance: "I was lucky enough to get on her once when Richard Brosnan was injured and felt amazing, a real wow horse."
3: David Moss: "When he was trotting right he would win races like the Rowe Cup with plenty left in the tank."
4: Sir Lincoln: "Very fast and one night we were attacked at Auckland and he just cruised away from top horses. He beat Terror To Love easily in an Auckland Cup."
5: Race Ruler: "A very dominant young horse, he won the Triple Crown, which wasn't easy to do."