Sunline's Team Recalls A Life-changing Horse
Illawarra Mercury
Monday October 20, 2003
TREVOR McKee is a horse trainer who is probably more emotional than he seems.
Greg Childs is a jockey who can seem as emotional as he is.
And Claire Bird is a strapper who, like all strappers, falls hopelessly in love with her horses. This week, they are all doing it tough.
A year ago next Saturday the association between the trainer, the jockey, the strapper and the horse that brought them together ended when Sunline ran her last race in the Cox Plate.
For McKee, it means more than he likes to say.
Asked yesterday what life was like without the horse he turned into one of the best in the world, he says it's ``no different". ``I'm doing the same as I've been doing for the past 40 years," McKee said. ``Training horses." But he can't hold out for long.
``Tell you the truth, it's going to be a funny week here in Melbourne without her," he says. ``I'll miss her, I'll never have another one like her. No-one will."
For Childs there's no ``life goes on" brushing away of the feelings he knows he will have on his first Cox Plate day in five years without the horse that changed his life.
Childs still struggles not to cry when he tells you what Sunline meant to him: ``It all changed for my whole family when I got on her back.
``My parents live in a small town in New Zealand and for them it was as if they became celebrities because their son was riding a New Zealand hero. For them it was a wonderful, special thing every time Sunline raced."
The best part, and just about the toughest for Childs to relate, is the way Sunline became a part of his children's lives.
``My kids used to go to school and tell their teachers and their friends that their dad rode the best horse in the world," he says. ``That's very special."
Childs rode Sunline in all of her races after she turned four and was aboard in all four of her Cox Plate runs as well as when she won in Hong Kong. For every ride he had on Sunline, Childs used the same gear and wore the same suit to the races. He also used to follow the same routine every time he took her to the starting gate.
``She had a few tricks, so I used to leave my feet hanging down out of the irons," he said. Claire Bird had a regular job and only worked casually at McKee's stable until Sunline came along.
But she threw it in so she could spend all her time with a horse who repaid her by breaking her nose and her hand, biting the tip off one of her fingers and regularly blackening her eyes and inflicting a variety of other bites and bruises.
``She had her moments," Bird said.
``But I loved her a lot. She took over my life."
© 2003 Illawarra Mercury
