Trainer Greg Kennedy (grey tie) is joined by well-known Sydney owner John Baxter to celebrate the win of their 3YO filly Giacometti at Eagle Farm on Boxing Day.

At the Sunshine Coast’s pristine racing precinct of Caloundra, a 43-year-old, quiet and unassuming man goes about his daily routine as a racehorse trainer. However, that man Greg Kennedy’s winning strike rate as a trainer is one of the best in Australia, thus inferring he is amongst Australia’s best trainers. His figures are extraordinary given the unfashionably bred and modest priced progeny that constitute the bulk of the 10 horses he has in work at any one time.

Greg was born the third of four children and grew up in Brisbane – moving to the outer suburb of Bracken Ridge at an early age. Greg’s father, Brian “Kanga” Kennedy, is a highly respected thoroughbred farrier. Now aged 64 he has been forced into early retirement through recent health problems. Brian was so revered at his chosen occupation that Tommy Smith sought his services to shoe champion Tulloch. Greg – a butcher by trade – followed in his father’s footsteps and by his early 20’s was a registered farrier shoeing horses the calibre of champion Strawberry Road for high profile Brisbane trainers like Doug Bougoure and Roy Dawson. “I watched my father shoe crocks that he could improve dramatically and he kept them sound,” says Greg, who obviously learnt well, as he attributes correct shoeing as the primary reason that “crocks” like the top juvenile galloper he trained in the late 90’s for quite a few wins, Changing Gear, was able to eventually earn $197,955 before retirement.

Apart from what he learnt being around his father, Greg attributes much of his success to the late Reg Malt – a wharfie-come-racehorse trainer – and his wife Phyllis. “Reg Malt was the best horse person I ever met. He taught me to ride a horse and I was considered part of their family,” Greg says. “When I was a kid of 10 I remember wagging school to go and watch their horse Shilo Sky race on the Albion Park sand track. Apart from Shilo Sky they had quality horses like Barrett Boy (named after their Deagon address of Barrett Road), Phyl’s Pick (named after Phyllis) and Coochin (named after Coochin Creek where they owned land). We used to go to Coochin Creek and chase brumbies and that soon taught you to ride a horse,” Greg says with a wry smile.

“I’ll tell you a story about the Malts’ horse Coochin,” confesses Greg. “I was only 15 or 16 years old and Reg fancied the horse’s chances one day at Eagle Farm. I had $5 each way on him at 300-1. You wouldn’t believe it, but they called for a second print (photo) and (champion filly) Scomeld beat him a nose.

“The Malts leased the land where the Brisbane Entertainment Centre now sits and we’d break in and geld horses there. Reg would geld them and we’d have to rope them and throw them for him first. He’d have them gelded and standing back up again by the time they get them down today,” Greg declared.

“Reg’s wife Phyllis was a top person around a horse also. She’s still alive and in her 80’s, but Reg passed away a few years ago. The family agreed to his wishes that he be buried in a forest amongst about another 20 graves up near Coochin Creek – and Shilo Sky’s race plates and bridle were placed on top of the coffin before it was lowered into the grave.”

Training and breaking in horses from his Kandanga base near Gympie, Greg’s first good horse was one of his initial “crocks” he had got to train – Creo-Ruler. “Said to be a cripple when I got him, Dad shod him up and he won 10 of his first 11 starts, including nine in a row at Gympie’s sand track.”

The horse that would change Greg’s life was a horse he’d got to break in by a stallion that eventually stood for $2000 in Central Queensland – Raise A Stanza. Born on 31 August 1995 to the union of Raise A Stanza and the Semipalitinsk mare Just For Luck, Greg’s yearling would be the only progeny from the 253 live foals that Raise A Stanza fathered that would earn black type. “There was nothing special about him,” recalled Greg. “I just used to take him up into the Kandanga forestry for a one-hour ride each day. Named Stanzaic, he was to be broken in and get his barrier certificate and then get turned out to spell. I took him to the trials and the steward didn’t turn up, so he couldn’t get his barrier certificate. I took him back to the next set of trials and an apprentice called Tony Haydon rode him. He missed the start by six lengths but won easily. Tony had educated General Nediym and he got off him and said ‘this is the best 2YO I’ve ridden apart from General Nediym’. So I immediately nominated him and he got balloted twice, but then got drawn to race at both Ipswich and Gympie. We went to Ipswich, put my apprentice Terry Treichel on and he paid $17. He went on to become one of Queensland’s top juveniles. He won two 2YO races, one at Eagle Farm and one at Doomben, then he won the listed Doomben Slipper before running fourth in the (1998) Group 1 T.J.Smith to Mossman, when Greg Hall couldn’t get a run on him – and he got beaten less than two lengths. He was named ‘QRIS (Queensland Racing Incentive Scheme) 2YO Horse of the Year’ for his efforts. At age 3 we took him to Tamworth for the Prime Television. It was worth $100,000 and the race had a $100,000 bonus on it and Michael Cahill rode him from a wide alley (11 of 11). He got run down near the line and ran 2nd to Spend, but he did a great job in his first 12 months of racing for me, as he earned $310,000.” As a late 3YO Stanzaic was transferred by his owner, to the then Sydney stables of now Hong Kong based trainer John Size, to chase the richer prizemoney interstate.

A horse close to Greg’s heart was the talented Irish Bunny. By the imported Irish stallion Tarsho, who stood for a service fee of $1500 outside of Toowoomba, Irish Bunny won 18 races and $149,080 in his career. A perfectly sound horse throughout his racing days, as evidenced by the fact that he raced consistently over almost a six-year time frame, Irish Bunny tragically broke down during a race at Caloundra in November 2003, in what was a sad ending to a wonderful career. He had proven to be an outstanding horse on his home track at Caloundra, where he had recorded 17 of his 18 wins. His other win was in the 2001 Kilcoy Cup when ridden by a Sunshine Coast apprentice named Michael McDonald. Tarsho served over 200 mares in his stud career and could not produce a black type winner; however, there is no denying that Irish Bunny was his most prolific winner.

On the subject of apprentices, Greg Kennedy has been the mentor of a couple of Queensland’s top apprentices. His first apprentice was Terry Treichel, now a respected fully fledged senior. In 2005 Greg took on the indentures of current apprentice Ty Huxham. Greg says: “I took on Terry’s indentures when I was breaking in horses at Kandanga. He had never ridden a horse, so he started off on an old horse of mine in the sand roll. I don’t agree with teaching kids to ride on those mechanical horses like they do these days – they should learn to ride a real horse. Look at Terry, he wasn’t even 15 years old when he rode his first winner – a horse called Major Mentor at Bundaberg. Another Gympie jockey called Ron Ford was a top jockey in the area and helped teach Terry as well. I’ll tell you how good Ron was, he even rode a treble for me one day at Gympie at 64 years of age. I supplied Terry Treichel with two of his first three city winners – via Stanzaic.”

Of his current apprentice Ty Huxham Greg said, “He should be very happy with his efforts to date. He started with me as a stablehand and after about six months said he’d like to have a go at being a rider. He’s ridden multiple doubles in the bush – and even one treble. He went to Rockhampton last Thursday and had four rides for (fellow Caloundra trainer) Ray McCall and he rode a winner and three seconds.”

Last season Greg Kennedy had six individual 2YO’s race. Five were winners and the other one was placed. Three of the five won at their first race start and the other two at their second start. The six horses had cumulatively 26 starts in their 2YO year for 8 wins. Greg Kennedy takes pride in the knowledge that he successfully targeted a son of Dantibes named Fear Of Flying, which he had purchased for $7,000 from the 2004 Brisbane Bloodstock yearling sale, for a Caloundra 2YO Maiden win in January 2005 which netted the owners a pay day of $17,000. “The race carried a QTIS bonus as well as a Brisbane Bloodstock bonus and that’s not bad dough for winning a provincial Maiden,” Greg stated.

The season before he had five individual 2YO’s and he produced 4 individual winners and a city placegetter (which has now won six races). When you consider with one exception (Taisho cost $31,000 and has won $66,000 to 31/12/2005) that these are $4,000 to $9,000 horses, the feat is quite exemplary. In the recently completed 2004–2005 racing season he won the inaugural Sunshine Coast Trainers Strike Rate competition finishing up with a strike rate of better than one winner every four starters – and finishing in front of opposition consisting of trainers the calibre of Bruce McLachlan, Bryan Guy, John Wallace, John Hawkes, Gerald Ryan and crew – all of whom have much bigger stables and far greater fire power.

Greg’s achievements have not gone unnoticed by the public as he now has clients in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Japan, Hong Kong and America – and he is currently negotiating with the Sunshine Coast Turf Club to move to new stables on course at Corbould Park, which will increase his current number of boxes to 17 from 10, as he now gets a better quality of youngster to train. “I have some very good owners, but I just need to get a new owner or two now that I have made the decision to marginally expand,” Greg told me. He has been entrusted with the most expensive Honours List yearling sold at auction in Australia last year to train. The colt sold for $110,000 at the 2005 Magic Millions Yearling Sale. He has also started preparing horses for the Ready To Run sales. A Magic Albert colt bought for $10,000 at the 2005 June Magic Millions sale “breezed up” just four months later in October and fetched $42,500 – a good result for his owners in any fair person’s assessment.

On Boxing Day 2005 Greg achieved another memorable career milestone. He had his promising 3YO Giacometti engaged first up from a spell at Eagle Farm in a 1000 metres $50,000 Class 6 race. She duly saluted after 20-1 had been bet and then Greg jumped in his car and went back to the TAB meeting at his home track of Caloundra to saddle up his other runner for the day, Polar Wolf – and it got the money as well.