Return of the veteran Mac

By Jordan Gerrans

A horse going from a Taroom maiden to winning in the city is a massive step up but returning trainer Ron Macrae believes he has a galloper that is up to the task. 

Macrae was a top conditioner on the Darling Downs for many decades before stepping away from training back in 2015.

Now 85 years of age, Macrae was convinced by a few close mates to get back into the caper and tasted victory for the first time in a decade on Saturday afternoon at Taroom on the non-TAB bush circuit. 

The veteran horseman prepared many town class gallopers in his heyday including claiming a Group 3 event with Show Biz Kid back in 2004. 

He is pottering along with Krumac these days as he just has the one galloper in his small team.

At his fifth career start, Krumac blitzed the modest field from Taroom on Saturday by almost eight lengths to break his maiden status.

“He has always had a lot of ability,” the veteran Toowoomba trainer said.

“He has always had the ability, but he has never known what to do with it.

“You cannot beat travelling young horses, it toughens them up and makes them focus.

“He was not focusing as he should have won his first start at Gatton, he came out of the barriers slow that day. He is a marvellous traveller."

Macrae was full of praise for the job apprentice hoop Chloe Lowe completed on his three-year-old gelding.

Lowe rode Seams Logical in a trial at Clifford Park for her master Pat Webster earlier this month.

Krumac ran an encouraging second behind Seams Logical on that occasion.

Once nominations were released for the Taroom meeting last week, the emerging jockey was quickly on the phone to Macrae chasing up the ride and he was more than happy to hand her the assignment.

“She rode him an absolute treat,” Macrae said of Lowe’s steer on Saturday at Taroom.

“He was last out of the barriers and Chloe did not push him early, as I said to her before the race.

“It was a great performance because he stood the leaders up about 10 lengths at the half mile.

“And, he beat them by eight lengths. Chloe went via the cape to keep out of the dust.”

Before Saturday’s result, Quick Ketch was Macrae’s last winner at Gatton in September of 2015.

The veteran horseman races Krumac alongside Lyndhurst Stud.

Jeff and Griff Kruger from Lyndhurst Stud on the Darling Downs played a big role in the trainer’s permanent return to the industry.

He had owned shares in horses with his son-in-law Stephen Kirkwood’s stable in his decade away from training to keep an interest in the game.

But, it was the Krugers who twisted his arm recently. 

“They told me that I had been out of the game for a while and they wanted me to get back in it,” Macrae recalls. 

“They suggested racing one between us so here we are. That is why his name is Krumac, being a mixture of Kruger and Macrae.

“They are great fellas.

“I love being back training, I have been a horseman all my life.”

Krumac is a son of Lyndhurst Stud’s stallion Better Than Ready and is from Hidden Sequel, who Macrae raced with Kirkwood doing the training.

In his previous stint training, Macrae enjoyed enormous success with the family of champion former Queensland sire Sequalo.

Show Biz Kid and Regal Castanea – arguably the two greatest horses Macrae prepared earlier in his career – were both progeny of Sequalo, as is Hidden Sequel. 

“Hidden Sequel was very fast, but Krumac has no early speed at all,” he says.

“And, if you try and push him, he never finds his rhythm.

“I am sure he is a town horse - I have always said that.”

Hidden Sequel won five races while Show Biz Kid and Regal Castanea combined to claim 17 races and around $1 million in career stakes. 

Racing And Sports’ statistics have Macrae preparing 362 career winners as well as multiple Group 1 runners.