Stephen McKee has been training horses for 25 years, but he met his match yesterday when he was roped into giving Whangarei women some betting tips.
The Ardmore trainer was asked to offer some advice to the More Gorgeous Whangarei Women in Business Ladies Day Out - which attracted more than
90 businesswomen from around the area to spend a days at the races at Ruakaka.
Surrounded by "fascinators" or lacy hats, McKee must have wondered why he had been bestowed the honour by Whangarei Racing Club President John Fairly, but he soldiered on.
McKee joined the family business started by his father Trevor in 1958 and the pair hit it big with Sunline in the late 1990's which went on to become Australasia's all time leading earner racking up $13.7 million in winnings.
The business currently has more than 45 horses in work and they brought up 10 horses to race at Ruakaka yesterday and McKee didn't have to wait long for a win.
Society Lady turned out to be a good tip, cruising home to win the second race, the Fell Engineering 1200m by 1.5 lengths over Sweet Sin and Fieldofdreams.
McKee said he rarely misses a meeting at Ruakaka believing the track to be a better challenge to his horses at this time of the year particularly.
"It's a good track for young horses as it offers good footing on the sand-based track," he said.
He also trains Cool Storm for a Whangarei syndicate, which ran third behind Miko and another McKee trained horse Bonus Bond in Race 6, the Trigg Construction 1200m.
