Always Sunny for Jamie McConachy

Photos: Caught in the Act Photography CQ

By Glenn Davis

Rockhampton trainer Jamie McConachy, 63, was keen to test his promising three-year-old Sunnycoast in the big smoke in Brisbane this summer after the gelding made it four wins from six starts at Mackay in late August.

However, plans for a trip away were stopped in its tracks when Sunnycoast contracted a virus soon after his Mackay victory, forcing McConachy to spell the son of Sebring Sun.

The virus wasn’t the only setback for McConachy, who suffered a heart attack around the same time.

“I had a heart attack on August 17,” McConachy said.

“I was due to see my doctor at the time, but I had a horse in the Townsville Guineas which I took up and won the race with, so I put it off until I came back.

“When I eventually saw the doctor after the Guineas, he sent me straight to Brisbane to have some stents put in.

“But there was some trouble with the bottom of my heart that wouldn’t hold and it brought on a heart attack.

“I was lucky as my main artery was 92 per cent blocked and my doctor told me I was lucky to be alive.”

McConachy was due to have more stents inserted last month and is now looking forward to his next challenge with Sunnycoast.

McConachy has spent most of his training life in Rockhampton, apart from a brief stint during the North Queensland floods three years ago.

“I took up a job offer from one of my owners to clean houses after the builders got in and fixed up all the flooded houses,” he said.

“I took seven horses up with me and won a race with all of them bar one.”

The Sunnycoast story began when Graceville Thoroughbred breeders Bryan and Lorraine Hall invited McConachy to inspect some yearlings on their property outside Rockhampton.

“I was invited to look at some of their yearlings and Sunnycoast was the one I liked,” McConachy said.

“There was also a half-sister by Sebring Sun to Ollie’s Stand that I also liked, and I saw City Mission trial at the Gold Coast and I got her when they brought her home.

“She’s had 14 starts for 12 cheques.

“Sunnycoast was a solid horse when I first spotted him and I thought he’d make a late three-year-old, but he’s thrown to his stallion, Sebring Sun.”

Sebring Sun won the Listed Rosebud at Randwick and was placed in the Group 1 Golden Rose for Sydney’s Gary Portelli in 2015. He now stands at Glenthorne Park stud on the mid north coast in NSW.

McConachy knew Sunnycoast was above average when he trialled for the first time.

“He beat Graeme Green’s good horse, Shamedy, who has since won a two-year-old race at Eagle Farm,” he said.

“I took him up to Townsville where he won his first start in the Pallarenda Stakes then he ran fourth when he came back from a spell at Mackay.

“I put Ash Butler on him for his next run at Rocky and he won well before he went into the Sales race.”

Sunnycoast was never troubled in the $150,000 Capricorn Yearling Sales Classic leading all the way to prove his critics wrong over the 1200m trip.

It was McConachy’s second win in the Capricorn Yearling Sales Classic after he claimed last year’s race with another of Sebring Sun’s progeny, Sammiballerina.

“I was confident he could run 1200m and win the sales races after I galloped him with an open company horse called Jetski,” he said.

“He beat him by more than three lengths.”

Sunnycoast had a short break after the Capricorn Yearling Sales Classic before returning in an 1100m race against his own age at Rockhampton on August 3.

“He ran second and was beaten by In Evidence but he was only half wound up as I couldn’t get another barrier trial into him,” he said.

“I then took him to Mackay and he won well there, leading all the way. That’s when I thought about taking him to Brisbane.

“I had plans in place to send him south for a Benchmark race but that all fell over when he got crook.

“He’s a very good horse and is very quick out of the gates.

“As a two-year-old, he was one of the fastest out of the barrier I’ve ever trained.”

McConachy was born in Toowoomba before moving to central Queensland where he started working in the mines.

“I was born in Toowoomba and both Dad and my grandfather were both very successful trainers there,” he said.

“I was 18 when I started working with Dad and I’ve been around horses all my life.

“I worked in the mines for about 10 years at Blackwater after I left Toowoomba and I started training five horses while still working in the mines.

“I was only a hobby trainer in those days but training has always been in the blood. I eventually took it up full time in Rockhampton.”

McConachy’s father, the late Jim McConachy and his grandfather Jim senior, were both highly successful trainers at Toowoomba on Queensland’s famous Darling Downs.

His father won the 1983 Toowoomba Cup with Sherona while his grandfather also won the Toowoomba Cup in 1951 with Daasraei who also claimed the Ipswich Cup the same year.

McConachy still has big plans in mind with Sunnycoast and hopes to qualify him for the QTIS Jewel at the Gold Coast in March.

“There’s no reason why he can’t have a crack at those type of races against three-year-olds,” he said.

McConachy is yet to win a race in Brisbane but has proven he’s up to the challenge of winning big races.

“I’ve never had one good enough to win in Brisbane but I’ve won a few country Cups,” he said.

“I won the Rockhampton Cup with a good old horse called Vandalise, a Townsville and Cairns Cups with Chivadahlii and the Townsville Guineas with City Mission this year.

“Everyone thinks I’ve trained a Brisbane winner, but I haven’t as I’ve never gone there much.”

However, that could change next year if Sunnycoast earns a trip south for the QTIS Jewel in March.

As the old saying goes opportunities don’t happen, you create them.