The 2022 Penrith racing year concluded on December 29th with what looked to be a run of the mill programme on paper. It took a rare training double by father and daughter duo David and Katie McGill, to inject a little “buzz” into the night. Trainer Steve Turnbull and his daughter Amanda often share success on the same card at western districts tracks, but they have access to a much larger pool of horses. The McGill winners Bee Okay and Don't Need Bling happen to be the only horses currently domiciled in their Riverstone stables.
Katie has a vested interest in both pacers. She owns Bee Okay outright but prefers her father to train the mare. She and fiance Nathan Xuereb are joint owners of Don’t Need Bling, but Katie does the training in her own right. Bee Okay with Sean Grayling in the sulky, popped out from behind the leader to win an early race at $1.70. Don't Need Bling driven by Joshua Gallagher parked outside the leader before dashing clear on the turn to comfortably win the final race at a quote of $12.00. The outgoing year couldn’t have finished on a higher note for a father and daughter who combine horse training with regular day jobs.
Katie is always proud to don her father's well known red and yellow silks.
To this day David McGill can’t tell you how his love affair with harness racing evolved. “There wasn’t a trace of interest in the sport in my family, but as a youth I found myself getting to the trots regularly with a group of mates,” said David. “We got keener and keener and rarely missed a meeting at Harold Park, Fairfield, Penrith or Bankstown. It wasn’t long before I was completely hooked on the trots.”
Despite his burgeoning passion for harness horses, David could see the wisdom in learning a trade. To the delight of his parents young McGill commenced a carpentry course but continued to attend harness meetings at an obsessive rate. He was midway through that course when an opportunity came up to do some work experience with John Ponsonby, who in the late 1970’s was training privately for prominent owner Fred File on a property at Luddenham. From the moment young McGill first experienced the unique rhythm of the pacing gait, his future was set in stone.
He didn’t hesitate to put carpentry aside when a full time job came up at the Ponsonby stable in the early 1980’s. Three years later he returned to the carpentry trade for a short time when John accepted an offer to become private trainer for Queensland owner Kevin Seymour. He would later spend around eight months in Brisbane at the request of Ponsonby who was in need of assistance. During this Queensland stint David debuted as a race driver. He made two unsuccessful appearances at the tiny Rocklea track, and by his own admission wasn’t overly excited by the experience. That indifference to race driving has persisted throughout his career. He’s donned the silks many times and has driven dozens of winners, but in the main has opted to use the services of leading drivers.
Here's one David elected to drive himself. Seahawk Dee Jay scores his iinitial win at Fairfield 25/06/2001 - courtesy Club Menangle.
It was back to Sydney and an eighteen month stint with motor racing icon Garry Rush who was dabbling successfully in the training of harness horses at the time. Fortuitously Garry leased McGill an unraced Richmond mare called Young Romance who was destined to get the young horseman’s solo career up and running. David won five races and notched eleven placings with Young Romance. He drove the mare himself in four of those wins on Hunter Valley tracks, while his good friend Bruce Wood did the honours on another occasion at the old Menangle half mile circuit.
Young Romance’s racing career had barely terminated when McGill came up with an L.T. Byrd colt destined to give him an exciting ride. Adams Luck raced 45 times in the McGill colours for eight wins and a whopping 18 placings. “I drove him in all of his wins which included a Friday night success at Harold Park,” said David. “I got a huge thrill in 1992 to drive him in the NSW Pacer’s Derby Final won by Fella’s Pride. He started at 100/1 and beat only one home but it was quite an experience to drive in a Gr 1 at headquarters.”
In the mid 1990’s he trained Blue Speed to win seven races, and drove him in three of those wins. In the middle of 2001 he produced one of his all time favourites, the ever consistent Seahawk Deejay, whose 75 start career yielded 17 wins and 23 placings. David got to drive him in 6 of those wins, but ace reinsman Greg Bennett was the gelding’s regular pilot. I recall a Friday night win when Bennett was unavailable and David elected to drive the “stable star” himself. Seahawk Dee Jay prevailed in a blanket finish giving his trainer and driver an unexpected thrill.
Seahawk Dee Jay (red neck strap) holds on gamely to win at Harold Park 28/02/2003 - courtesy Club Menangle.
Seahawk Dee Jay was still racing when David came up with an exciting stablemate called Die Wondering - a well mannered, precocious Die Laughing filly who would go on to win 14 races and over $161,000. She posted wins in the Bulli Linden Huntley Final and a 2YO Sires Stakes Final at Harold Park for David and owner Ray Zerafa. Greg Bennett drove her exclusively throughout a career which came to an unimaginable end when she collapsed and died while quietly jogging on the now defunct Hawkesbury track in 2006 - easily the lowest point in David’s harness racing career.
Die Wondering (Greg Bennett) scores brilliantly in the 2yo Fillies Sires Stakes Final at Harold Park (18/06/2004) - courtesy Club Menangle.
His achievements as a trainer of racehorses was exceeded only by his results as a yearling breaker. At one stage he was breaking and educating 30 yearlings annually, many of them for leviathan owner Emilio Rosati who sings his praises to this day. Perhaps Dave’s most notable Rosati graduate was Excel Stride who boasted a record of 28 wins and 14 placings from 49 starts, and prize money of almost $800,000. Other top performers to pass through the McGill academy were White Thunder and Captain Joy who won 48 races between them.
When asked to identify the most dominant feature of her father’s talents with horses, Katie McGill emphatically singles out his well documented patience - an attribute his twenty five year old daughter has inherited in spades. Allowed to find her own level by David and her mother Jill, Katie started out in a mini cart behind a trusted pony at a tender age. Curiously she harboured no desire to compete at the popular mini trots, but couldn’t wait to progress to the jogging of full sized horses on the Riverstone training circuit.
Inevitably the moment arrived for Katie to inform her father that she wished to drive in races. David went along with the idea even though he was inwardly dreading the prospect. At the time he was using a kindly veteran called Cantiscape as a track companion to the many yearlings he was educating. Cantiscape had won eight races from eighty starts on out of town tracks before joining the McGill team as a yearling chaperone. “He was past his best but very sound, and the ideal horse for Katie to drive in her twenty qualifying trials and early race appearances,” said David.
Cantiscape was a rising ten year old when he stepped out at Penrith on March 27th 2014 with a slightly nervous but very excited sixteen year old in the sulky. He finished only eighth of ten runners but gave his petite driver a safe and confidence building trip. Katie and Cantiscape would keep one another company eighteen times in all, picking up three place prize money cheques. “A win would have been the ideal, but he was past his best and I was still a long way from mine,” said Katie. “He could see trouble before I did. He taught me so much about the fundamentals of race driving. I’ll never forget Cantiscape.”
The McGills are regulars at the Thursday night Penrith meetings.
A little over a year passed before the teenager experienced the thrill of her first race win - a maiden pace at Penrith in February 2015 on The Sleepy Lion from her father’s stable. A quick look at the replay will confirm that it was one of Katie’s best ever drives. She landed in the 1x1 from the 1720m start but lost the spot fleetingly when one of the joint leaders galloped. She cleverly averted trouble and then regained the 1x1 when Cheeky Jerula dashed around to the death seat. She tracked two leaders out of the back straight and didn’t pull out until halfway around the turn. Katie coaxed The Sleepy Lion to a narrow win over Cheeky Jerula. She and The Sleepy Lion would combine for two more Penrith wins over the next couple of months.
Young Katie McGill was destined to stay in the racing sulky for only nine years. She made the decision to quit race driving last year, but intends to continue training a handful of her own horses. She’s been full time with the Hawkesbury Equine Veterinary Centre for five years, recently graduating to head veterinary nurse. “Work commitments sometimes prevented my being at the trots in time to fulfill driving commitments, and I felt it made good sense to call time on that aspect of my harness racing involvement,” she said. “My fiancee Nathan Xuereb is a very capable race driver and there’s no shortage of other talented young people out there.”
From very limited opportunities she drove thirteen winners, the majority from the home stable and a handful for Kerry and Dean McDowell. “I actually worked for the McDowells briefly and during that stint they very kindly put a few race drives my way,” she said.
“I was lucky enough to win two races on Chevals Charlie, two on Dance On Ice and one on The American Dream in the Allied Express colours.”
It will take a special horse to displace Warana Court as her all time favourite. The quirky gelding made an unusual entry into the racing world when he was won in a charity raffle by Victorian owners. “He was an absolute rogue early in his career and didn’t race until he was a four year old,” says Katie. “He won a couple at Shepparton and Cobram before being leased to a Sydney owner. My mother Jill Cubitt took over his training at Riverstone and I actually drove him at Newcastle at his first NSW outing, but that was my last steer for a long time. He was a real handful and my parents insisted the experienced Glenn McElhinney take over until he got his act together. Glenn drove him a number of times with no wins before Dad got him home at Penrith one night. Finally, I became his regular driver and we had so much fun together. I won five races on Warana Court and ran nineteen placings up to his retirement in 2020. He was a strange old boy, but I understood him.”
Katie warms up her all time favourite Warana Court before a Penrith win.
Quietly and calmly keeping the ship steady as she always has, is the stoic wife and mother Jill Cubitt. A native of Riverstone Jill inherited her fondness for harness racing from her late father Col Cubitt who had a connection with the sport for most of his life. Jill has held a trainer’s licence for many years, and actually had a handful of race drives some years ago. She’s one of those “invisible” people you’ll find in trotting stables who get a million jobs done with a minimum of fuss.
Jill’s principal task is to help coordinate David and Katie’s day jobs with the training of their team of two race horses and one yearling - easy in the summer months but quite a rush through the shorter days of winter. Hard working David McGill hasn’t been one to let the grass grow under his feet whenever his horse numbers have dwindled over the years. His early training as a carpenter has served him well, and not surprisingly he’s developed other skills in the building trade along the way. Up until six years ago he’d never laid a brick. He’s currently laying hundreds of them on local building sites and holding his own with tradesmen who’ve been doing it for most of their lives.
David with Jill at the presentation after the Sires Stakes Final win. Also in the picture are owner Ray Zerafa and driver Greg Bennett - courtesy Club Menangle.
The Riverstone training precinct is nothing like it was in the heady days when up to 140 horses used the track daily. Today that number has dwindled to twenty but the track remains a highly valued commodity for trainers like Dwayne Sarina, Laurence Dawson, John Wheeler, Greg Tanti, Geoff Day, Dwayne Sarina, Mark Forrest, Mick Xuereb and the McGills. “We greatly appreciate the facility and do our best to keep it in good shape,” says David.
That thrilling family double achieved by David and Katie McGill at Penrith’s end of year meeting, was just what the doctor ordered to keep father and daughter focused on continued involvement in the sport. Another talented horseman will join the family in November when Katie marries Nathan Xuereb, a third generation harness racing devotee.
David’s family and friends take little notice on those odd occasions when he threatens to hand in his licence. He’s made several half hearted attempts to kick the habit over the years, only to “fire up” again when one of the horses suddenly finds some form. He sometimes complains of a sore back after tacking a loose shoe back on, but come to think of it he gets a similar back ache when he’s laying bricks. Everybody knows which backache he prefers.
David returns to the winners circle with Seahawk Dee Jay after a Harold Park win 28/02/2003 - courtesy Club Menangle.
(Banner image - Dont Need Bling (Josh Gallagher) makes it two for the McGill stable at Penrith 29/12/2022 - courtesy Lett Photography.)