Racing: McKenzie for starring role

Horowhenua horseman Peter McKenzie hopes to "monster" his training rivals at Trentham today.

The versatile McKenzie, who also dabbles as an actor and has a small part in the film King Kong being made by Peter Jackson, has already won two races at the cup meeting and is boxing above his racing weight again today.

McKenzie has only 10 horses in work at Levin but has runners in each of the three feature races on Wellington Cup day.

Empyreal and Bejayjay tackle the $250,00 Wellington Cup, Elendil is a form runner for the $130,000 Thorndon Mile and Buran steps up to group race company in the $45,000 Wellington Stakes.

It is a notable achievement by McKenzie, who also owns or part-owns the four and bred three of them.

In the case of Wellington Cup topweight Bejayjay, McKenzie can claim all the credit. He owns, trains and bred Bejayjay and also owned his dam, sire and damsire.

Bejayjay has won more races than any other Wellington Cup runner but would need rain to rate highly.

However, New Zealand Cup placegetter Empyreal shapes as a genuine winning prospect.

The five-year-old did not start racing until last May and is still in his first racing preparation but has been a quick learner.

He won at Trentham first-up and has been unplaced only three times. He was making his open-class debut when he ran third, beaten just a length, in the New Zealand Cup last November.

Empyreal finished a creditable sixth in the Queen Elizabeth Handicap at Ellerslie on December 26 and was having his first run for a month when he came from last to finish third in the Wellington Cup Trial (2200m) at Trentham last Monday.

"He's been very relaxed in his work and is supremely fit," McKenzie said. "He didn't even blow after Monday's race.

"I think he's a real chance but he will get back early and wants a true pace.

"The key is going to be what sort of run he gets in the last 400m."

Empyreal has raced in eight of the past nine months but was coping well, McKenzie said.

"He hasn't had a long spell but he's had a week off here, there and everywhere.

"He's such a light little fellow - like an Ethiopian marathon runner - and doesn't need much work once you get him fit. He weighs around 416kg, which is very light for a five-year-old racehorse."

McKenzie, who has been involved with racing since he began riding trackwork at Wanganui as a schoolboy, is a lawyer by training but a horseman and actor by inclination.

He spent about 15 years practising law, mostly in Taranaki, but racing proved a greater attraction.

"Law is not a profession you can be half-hearted about. You can't be making life-changing decisions on someone's behalf when you are floating off to Australia with a racehorse."

McKenzie has worked as a professional actor and singer in London and New York but returned to New Zealand for lifestyle reasons, with the knowledge that acting could never be a fulltime occupation in New Zealand.

He has continued to work as an actor - "when offered work and when the timing suits" - and Elendil is named after his role in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

"There are parallels between racing and acting," McKenzie said.

"You are working and preparing for a performance on a certain day. You have to be able to perform on that specific day and if everything is not right on that day, you can make a proper fool of yourself."

- NZPA