Central Queensland's Siberian Route back from brink of retirement

By Jordan Gerrans

A year or so of “tender loving care” on a Nebo cattle property in Central Queensland has brought the once promising Siberian Route back from the verge of an injury-forced retirement.

Back in February of 2021, the son of Hinchinbrook was developing a smart record as an emerging race horse, winning two of his first three starts for Tony and Calvin McEvoy in South Australia.

The now six-year-old gelding would not be seen at the races for around 700 days, facing the starter for just the fourth time at Mackay on Friday of last week.

The well-travelled and lightly raced galloper was successful once again, making it three victories from just four attempts.

There was plenty of water that went under the bridge between Siberian Route’s third and fourth race starts, however.

Not long after he put together a dominant performance at Gawler as the red-hot favourite in February of 2021, connections of the gelding were told a tendon injury was likely to force the end of his racing days.

Queensland cattleman Ian Michelmore – who lives on 85,000 acres at Nebo – was in the ownership group and was quick to take in the talented sprinter to his property if he was to retire.

Nebo is about an hour inland from Mackay in CQ.

The town previously held grass-fed race meetings in years gone by.

The 72-year-old Michelmore and his family have around 7,000 cattle across their property.

Ian’s wife Andrea took extraordinary care of Siberian Route, nursing him back to full health.

“The vet told me he would never race again with a bad tendon,” the grazier remembers.

“So, my wife quickly said that we should take him back home and she would look after him.

“She is horse mad. He got some tender loving care from her.”

After two trials last month, Siberian Route made his miraculous comeback to the race track on Friday and returned in style.

The tendon injury eventually improved over time as he spent more time in the paddock.

Now prepared by Mackay trainer John Manzelmann, the team behind the galloper believe there is many more wins to come.

“He never went out into the bush or anything, he was always fed at night and in the morning and had a rug during the winter time, he was well looked after,” Michelmore said.

“The year went by and he eventually went back into work and he never missed a beat from there.

“It goes to show that if you give the horse a good spell, provided there is no broken bones – anything can happen with these horses.”

The McEvoy barn always had high hopes for him in his early days.

Described as a “late maturing four-year-old” back then, co-trainer Tony was buoyed by his second career triumph at Gawler.

“It was an easy watch and now we will look for a suitable race in town," Tony said at the time.

In his return effort on Friday, Siberian Route finished over the top of the field in a Benchmark 58 Handicap after being wide for much of the 1100 metre journey.

He did so despite a huge betting drift on the resuming galloper, with $3.90 on offer at one stage, before he won at $9.

Michelmore – who has owned horses since he was a teenager – was glad to be at Mackay’s Ooralea track on Friday to watch the performance.

“He will only improve on that run,” he said.

“It was real good to see him win first-up like that after so long away.

“It was a big thrill to see him win the other day and I think there is a few winners left in him yet.”