Chris McNab shifting to Palmerston North

Press, 17 June 1986, Page 32

Chris McNab shifting to Palmerston North

Special correspondent Auckland Chris McNab, one of New Zealand’s top jockeys and more recently a promising young trainer, will shift from Cambridge to take up a new appointment at Palmerston North later this month. McNab has accepted an offer to continue his career as a public trainer on the property of Australasian Breeding Stables at Newbury. “It is a great opportunity for me,” said McNab yesterday. "It actually means I am a public trainer on company property.” As well as training "outside horses,” McNab will also prepare some of the company’s well-bred gallopers. McNab will take squth

with him the open-class galloper, Avitt, along with some well-bred untried young horses by such sires as Sir Tristram, Bletchingly, Vain, Star Way, Vice Regal, Three Legs and Alydar. A most accomplished jockey, McNab gained close on 400 wins, among them two Auckland Cups, on Drum and Stylemaster, and a New Zealand Derby, on Jolly Jake. Over the last year McNab has done little race-riding, concentrating instead on training.

“I have not bothered renewing my jockey’s licence this year,” said McNab. McNab has been training for almost two seasons, though for the first year or so he had just Trioak in work. He has gained fair suc-

cess over the last season or so with Avitt, The Cowboy and Balmahal being the main contributors.

Last year he took The Cowboy to Australia where the three-year-old ran second in the Peter Pan Stakes and third in the Gloaming Stakes. The arrangement McNab has with A.B.S. is similar in many ways to the association the top Sydney trainer, Brian Mayfield-Smith, has with Australian Racing and Breeding Stables, Ltd.

Nebo Lodge, the stables from where MayfieldSmith trains, has produced the winners of over sAust3 million, with May-field-Smith becoming the first trainer in 33 years to head Tommy Smith as the leading Sydney trainer.