Racing: Quiet achiever opens up

Jockey Scott MacNab felt he had had good runs on the Hastings track "for some reason". Photo / NZME.

The answers from amateur jockey Scott MacNab post-race were somewhat cryptic but there was no ambiguity about the result.

"No, I never was a professional. I was never good enough," MacNab said yesterday at the Hawke's Bay Raceday meeting.

The 41-year-old, who has a history of saying very little to the media, put yesterday's victory down to the best of the year after riding the Kevin Myers-trained The Big Opal to victory in the 2000m Duke of Gloucester Cup Amateur Prelude at midday, finishing by a nose in front of Harley Cushing on Kohi Road.

Linda Wheeler, on Pentathlon, settled for third by half a length in the field of 13 amateur riders after Irishwise was scratched.

So is it self-evaluation or was it the industry's verdict that MacNab wasn't good enough to make the professional circuit?

"No comment," he said with a laugh in the jockeys' room foyer.

The Whanganui River beef and sheep farmer has been riding for the past six years, but said he pretty much stumbled on to thoroughbred racing.

"I ended up at [Wanganui trainer] Kevin Myers' one morning to see what they were doing with their horses and he took me straight on one and he sort of never allowed me to leave."

MacNab is "totally" riding for the love of it, so what's in it for the late bloomer? "Coming to see some fellas who are doing and enjoying the same thing I'm doing."

MacNab felt he had had good runs on the Hastings track "for some reason".

"I've had two or three wins here over the years."

The conditions were quite trying in the gusty northwesterlies, although the rain forecast stayed away. "It was pretty windy, so I had to go a bit fast and I don't like doing that," the jockey said.

Neither does he like sitting back in the bunch, but coming out of barrier 11 he hugged a corner after spying a gap and "plugged away".

MacNab won the Amateur Rider Series in 2012, the win on Myers-trained Willy Duggan standing out that season. He finished on 56 points, four ahead of Wheeler. A trackwork rider for Myers, he reportedly went shearing when he was younger. He also has represented New Zealand at polo crosse on three occasions. His father, Dave, was a multiple winner of the Duke of Gloucester Cup, as a jockey (Red Lancer) and trainer (Sporting Luca and Jack Of Hearts).

The senior MacNab also had the distinction of training a Melbourne Cup runner when Young Pirate took his place in the Flemington feature of 1993. He regrettably struck a rain-affected track and was unplaced behind Irish raider Vintage Crop.

Yesterday, another Myers-trained horse, Roodyvoo, won the the next race in Hastings, the $20,000 Comcat NZ Steeplechase over 4000m, with Mathew Gillies, of Palmerston North, in the saddle.

"It's a hard track so most of the old horses want a bit of give in the track but they all got a good run around today."

Gillies said Roodyvoo was travelling pretty well and it was just a matter of clearing the last two fences for victory.

"He's improved a lot from least year after a tendon injury ... so he's a much stronger horse this year and, hopefully, it's onwards and upwards from here."

Having done jumps races for the past six years, Gillies said it often boiled down to the conditioning of the mount.

He has won two Northern Steeplechase titles and is eyeing this year a good national season.

Gillies opts for jumps racing because it's enjoyable.

"I'm too heavy for gallops," he said, adding he helped out with the stables in summer.