Starmeira Lands First Cluden Win for Kinlysides

What started as a hobby has become a labour of love for the Kinlyside family who claimed their first Townsville winner at Cluden Park on Tuesday. 

Trainer Gavin Kinlyside, wife Casey and daughter Ruby were thrilled and relieved after their highly strung mare Starmeira stormed home to give them the breakthrough win in the Ladbrokes Mdn Plate (1400m).

But the win didn’t come without a scare when Starmeira was kicked behind the barriers and had to pass a vet’s inspection.

“I was a bit worried when that happened, but fortunately she wasn’t hurt. It might have woken her up,” Gavin said with a wry smile.

“It’s a great feeling to get a winner after all of the early mornings and the work that goes into them.

“It is a real team effort with Casey and Ruby. This mare has been very consistent and today she hit the line hard.

“Isabella rides a lot of work for us so it’s a nice result for everyone. I gave Issie (Isabella Teh) the choice of rides on Starmeira or our other runner Trusting Star and she immediately went for Starmeira on her work so that was a pretty good pointer.”

Kinlyside, who owns the very successful Plumber To Your Door business, has always had a passion for horses.

He and Casey have a 50 acre property with a training track, swimming pool and paddocks at Jensen where their hobby has now grown so much that they have 30 horses including foals, broodmares and a few racing propositions.

Gavin says it’s the love of horses and involvement in the racing industry rather than prizemoney that motivates him.

“I love the horses. It’s not so much about the money, it’s about the involvement and the team. That’s what I like about it,” Kinlyside said.

“I grew up around stables down south. We had horses with Gary Nickson in NSW and those sorts of people.

“Trinity Bannon in Mackay actually got me back into it up here as an owner.

“I had shares in some of her horses. Casey and I got together and we started training ourselves.

“We’ve been going for about three years and I’m into the breeding side of it as well producing our own foals.

“All of the mares that I’ve kept through racing I’ve decided to breed on with them.

“Supposedly Wicked is in foal to Worthy Cause and is due in about five days.

“We’ve also recently had a little filly by Dissident out of an unraced mare and she’s really nice.

“The oldest of them are four and a couple of weeks off trialling. They’re by Showtime and Boomtime, a couple of different stallions that you don’t see up here often.

“It keeps us busy. My daughter Ruby has just applied for her stable hand licence to get a start and be a bit more active and my wife Casey and myself are right into it.

“It’s only the three of us working with them and it’s a big job but we love them.”

Wulguru trainer Matthew McGuire continued a hot run of form when Going Nuclear scored a hard fought win in the Ladbrokes Open Hcp (1609m) with regular stable rider Olivia Kendal in the saddle.

McGuire, who landed a career best nine wins at Cluden last season, has already won four races in the first six weeks of the new season.

He said the stable will push ahead with plans to start Going Nuclear in the NQ Amateur Cup next month.

“He’s really stepped up this prep,” McGuire said.

“This time in he’s hit his straps.

“He still wants to lay in a bit in his races but he’s furnishing into a nice horse.

“The win with him in the Cape Cleveland on Cup Day was fantastic and a win he and the owners deserved.

“To put it all together on a big day like that was great and he’s gone on with it.

“He ran respectably in Cairns after being caught deep but ran into a better horse on the day and it was nice to see him come back home and back up with a strong win.

“He really relishes racing here. He’s now won five from seven at Cluden.

“Overall the last few months has been awesome for us.

“We try to target the carnival with a few of our better horses and look back on our results and see where we can go better and we obviously did very well and nailed it this year.

“I’m very proud of how the team is going -  it’s all about doing it again this season.”

McGuire said the stable had 15 horses in work with some of the better performers to spell over summer.

Apprentice Kendal went on to land the second leg of a winning double on Indefinite for trainer Steven Royes in  the BM55 Hcp (1200m).