Racing: After 40 years, time for the odd lie-in

Early-morning starts will continue for Auckland trainer Trevor McKee even though he will be officially retired from next month.

McKee, 68, announced at the weekend that he would not be renewing his trainer's licence for the new season which begins on August 1.

The trainer of champion mare Sunline said it was time for his son Stephen to take the helm of their south Auckland stable at Ardmore.

"He's been training with me for just on 20 years," McKee said. "I think that's a pretty good apprenticeship."

But McKee said the trainer's life of early-morning rises would be a hard habit to break and he would continue to be on hand.

"After you have done it for 40-odd years it's hard to get out of the routine," he said.

But he added he might just give himself the occasional lie-in from time to time.

"If I want to have a sleep in, then I just might."

Sunline made McKee a household name.

She is New Zealand's greatest racemare of the modern era and was retired from racing in 2002 with a record of 48 starts for 32 wins, nine seconds, three thirds, two fourths, a fifth and a seventh. She won two Cox Plates.

Her stake earnings of A$11,351,607 ($13.86 million) was at the time a record for a horse trained in Australia or New Zealand.

McKee reiterated that if Sunline had come along much earlier in his career he no doubt would have sold her.

Selling horses was how McKee survived financially.

"If it had happened 10 or 20 years earlier, she probably would have been sold off too," McKee said.

It was probably McKee's sell, sell, sell policy that disguised his training skills as he had few horses come through the ranks to become open class handicappers.

"Selling horses was just the way it had to be at that stage," McKee said.

"To make a living you had to end up selling them off. Most of them were sold as two-year-olds and therefore you often had very few decent ones coming through.

"It was a case of how I survived. There wasn't enough in training fees when you had a wife and three kids."

But as he became more financially secure in latter years he was able to hold on to more horses and the top horses starting appearing.

In the past couple of decades he trained the likes of top performer Solveig, Auckland Cup winner Royal Tiara, and Wellington Cup winner Flying Luskin. He also trained top two-year-olds Moonshine and Super Fiesta.

McKee was a 50 per cent shareholder in Sunline when she was racing but he and Stephen now own her outright.

Sunline's oldest progeny is a Rock Of Gibraltar filly who will turn two next month.

She has been entered for next year's Golden Slipper Stakes in Sydney.

McKee said he was unsure of what he would do with his time in retirement.

"I'll probably do a lot of the things I haven't had the time for before - but what they are, I don't know.

"My hobby has always been racing and owning horses. I guess it will be the same."

* Going into the final week of the season, Trevor and Stephen McKee lie sixth on the trainers' premiership table with 40 wins, 43 seconds, 33 thirds and $669,825 in stakes.

- NZPA