McGovern’s Star on the Rise with Winning Run

Terry McGovern is a horse trainer on the rise.

A relative newcomer to the training ranks, the hard working horseman’s stable is punching way above its weight with a modest team of six horses at his Black River property.

He has trained four winners at Cluden Park since mid-December – including a winning double and a second last week - from just a handful of starters.

And he’s confident Sydney cast-off Mind Over Matter can post another win at Cluden on Saturday.

“We’ve had a very good run. The only problem we’ve got at the moment is we need more runners,” McGovern said.

“We’re always chasing new owners and we’d love some new horses in the barn.”

McGovern, a farrier by trade, decided to put years of experience breaking and pre-training horses to the test as a trainer a little over five years ago.

With a limited budget, McGovern has gradually gained a reputation for getting the best out of cast-offs and cheap buys at his 100-acre property which has a 1200m work track, 10 stables, 60m swim, walker and spelling facilities with 22 paddocks.

His recent run of success has come from the ever reliable Keep On Running, a Brisbane reject, the promising filly Sheza Sweet Star and Mind Over Matter.

“We were running a pre-training business but we decided to stop and concentrate on our own horses,” McGovern said.

“Keep On Running" was a $800 horse and he’s won over $110,000 now.

“We’re better buying the cheaper horses and putting the work into them ourselves and having runners.

“I haven’t had a lot of starters over the past 12 months because we haven’t had the horse power.

“But the horses are hard to find for our budget. I’ve bid on six or seven horses in the last couple of on-line auctions and haven’t won one of them.

“We know what we need, it’s just a matter of whether we’ve got the budget to buy them.

“At the moment the market is just too strong and we’re not paying overs just to fill the barn. But they come along, you’ve just got to be patient.

“Mind Over Matter, we got him at the right price. He has his own issues. He came with synthetic filler in his feet and his feet are a lot of maintenance.

“But obviously when you get him right he can run.

“You go back to his trials at the beginning and that was the form he showed us here when he won his maiden. He’s obviously had a lot of issues.

“Being able to improve a horse that wasn’t at its best and just doing the right thing by it.

“It’s just getting them right and when you get them right they perform for you don’t they.

“Keep On Running was nearly a 20 start maiden when I got him and Mind Over Matter we’ve had him for seven months.”

McGovern has good reason to be confident Mind Over Matter is in line for another win in Saturday’s Mitavite BM 55 Hcp (1000m).

The former Gai Waterhouse trained Written By gelding, who was a $400,000 yearling, was electric in his Cluden debut winning a 1000m maiden by 4 1/2 lengths.

He will again be ridden by Brisbane-based jockey Sean Cormack and from barrier 6 is a hot early favourite.

“He’s come through his first start really good and I’m happy with how he is working. I think he’ll be very hard to beat. If he puts his best foot forward,” McGovern said.

“It’s just a day by day thing with the feet and he’s got a couple of other niggling injuries but we do our best with him.”