The late George Coleman remembered at Cluden Park

By Jordan Gerrans

The significance of winning the last race from Cluden Park on Tuesday afternoon was not lost on up-and-coming Townsville conditioner Matthew McGuire.

McGuire’s mare Kobayastar backed up her recent good form to claim the Ratings Band 0 – 60 Handicap over 1400 metres by more than a length.

The race was named in honour of George Coleman, a respected local horse trainer who passed away the week prior in Townsville.

George was 82 years of age.

The Coleman family are long-standing members of the local racing community and raced top gallopers such as Buckskin and Dalon, among others, over the years.

While George had been in ill health and had not trained his own team since August of 2020, his sons Ian and Mark are still connected to the industry.

The McGuire clan have also been a key pillar of the North Queensland racing community for generations, so the victory was a heartfelt one for the 32-year-old conditioner.

“George’s sons were heavily involved in racing when I started becoming involved,” McGuire said.

“I think old George had basically nearly finished up by the time I took out my licence, but everyone in the community knows the family really well.

“Mark is one of the trackwork supervisors over there at the track and everyone sees him every morning and has a laugh with him.

“Ian obviously trained Dalon. They are really good people, really friendly, outgoing people that you can go and approach and the whole family is like that.

“Because they were a small team, everyone sort of got behind them and supported them and Dalon in those days.

“So, for someone like that to pass, it's a bit of a loss to the community. We were really grateful to win the race in his memory on Tuesday.”

The Coleman family have been connected to the sport in NQ since the early 1970s and George enjoyed great success in the later stages of his training tenure with Dalon.

Between March of 2018 and August of 2020 when the trainer retired, Dalon won on eight occasions as well as running in the Cleveland Bay Handicap, which is Cluden Park’s preeminent sprint race.

Speaking to Racing Queensland in August of 2022, George declared that he was a proud father watching his son Ian prepare Dalon to another Cleveland Bay start.

“It is the biggest thrill of a lifetime watching these horses go well,” George said at the time.

“Ian is doing a beautiful job with the horses. Dalon has been a very good horse to us.”

Like Dalon, former stable star Buckskin also started in North Queensland’s feature sprint race, finishing second in the 1997 edition.

Buckskin also won races in Sydney.

“He trained horses, he and mum never had a minute to spare,” George’s son Ian said this week.

“Over the years he had a lot of smart ones, but there were slow ones too, don’t worry. He loved a beer, loved a smoke and went flat out. That was how he lived life.”

The win of Kobayastar in the Vale George Coleman Ratings Band 0 – 60 Handicap over 1400 metres was the second leg of a winning double for the McGuire camp on Tuesday.

Earlier in the program, mare Whirlwind claimed her first victory in NQ after being purchased and heading north in the middle stages of last year.

The hard-working McGuire was chuffed to land a wining double as his barn had suffered through a dry spell dating back to early November of last year.

“There's been a few placings here and there and some things that haven't gone our way,” he said of the last few months for his team.

“The good horses from the carnival went out and it was just a lean couple of months. So, to get the monkey off the back, but not with one, but with two winners, it was very rewarding and a bit of a relief at the same time. 

“It does get frustrating with all the placings, but we are fortunate that we do run consistently in the money.

“You’d rather be in the placings than not, but it gets frustrating when you don't get the wins.

“Honestly, days like Tuesday we were really grateful for that.”

McGuire is hopeful of keeping the positive results rolling along when he heads to Cairns Jockey Club on Monday with Hold My Halo in the Class 1 Handicap over 1250 metres.

George Coleman’s funeral service will be held at St Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Townsville at 10am on Friday, February 6.