Dona McQueen won a maiden at Albury last Friday. Who?
Yes yes, I know Jamie Kah won another Group I Saturday back home in Adelaide, I was there, the Brisbane carnival got a move around and a little move along to the Sunshine Coast, but not sure the heavy 10 (and Numerian) got anyone rumbling.
So why Dona here? Hardly news, is it?
Well, this is one of those stories, loaded with rich chapters and characters, worth telling, and a reminder about the very real people of racing.
I know, Dona hasn’t even led in a winner prior, that was picnics too at Merton in 2017. That’s Merton, where they race once a year, to start a new year, near Bonnie Doon, you know, where parts of The Castle were shot.
As Daryl Kerrigan would say – “tell ‘em they’re dreaming.”
Racing is full of dreamers and passionate soldiers, just like Dona, and this yarn is loosely around her winning with Out Of The Shadows last Friday with Danny Beasley in the saddle.
Here’s just a little bit.
It was Dona that shared her first winner together with - “a nob of a horse” - Power Street at Corowa, that was January 2, 1993, with Beasley.
He doesn’t reckon he’s ever ridden for her since, until Friday, but it inspired him to say: “These are the special moments that will stay with me for the rest of my life.” (Dona had to ring Sky presenter Graeme White to track Beasley’s number for the booking).
Beasley’s 48 now, no Benjamin Button, but still looks ready to help the elderly across the road, lead the local neighbourhood watch group, as polite and softly sweet spoken as ever, but with a CV that boasts horses like Polar Success in a Golden Slipper, Grand Armee, Miss Pennymoney, 14 Group 1’s plus anything called Lim’s something in Singapore for starters.
And Dona, well if you search YouTube, you will also find Women’s Open Winner, Gold Classic, 1988, Body Building Champion, South Africa. It’s not included here under physical threat, and you don’t tangle with a former Miss Universe hero. (So, I’ll leave you to google Dona McQueen 1988 if you wish and I’ll take no further responsibility (but you'll need two N's for Donna).
She only took up body building for strength to hold those horses she was riding.
Angus cattle breeder (she’s got about 50 at Wangaratta), bush poet, singer songwriter (there’s a couple about Winx and Black Caviar, even The Man From Snowy River), host of a radio show (none of that podcast nonsense), “Dona’s Country” on Oak 101.3 FM Wangaratta, normally 12-2pm on a Friday afternoon, but not last Friday. That’s just a bit of Dona McQueen.
Ok to add detail here: Dona was the 2016 Overall Champion Victorian Bush Poet; 2018 she also won the best original and non-original song; was 2016 Ross Noble Memorial Novice Award that followed up her Jan Lewis Encouragement Award.
(see her poem Gettin Beat below)
I couldn't find the Black Caviar or Winx tunes, but here is "All Roads Lead To Birdsville" with Peter Moody in the target lyrics.
"I'll bet you 50 bucks Peter Moody will be there/I wonder in his newfound life has he grown any hair?"
But as Tim Shaw, the Demtel man, so often reminded us, “but wait, there’s more”, a lot more to this tale.
Dona is one of those indestructible and indefatigable characters of the turf (worked the horse gates at Benalla last week is if she didn’t have enough to do), but has actually trained hundreds of winners, more human than equine in this racing game, rusted onto it, licensed trainer since 1989, but more so running the Wangaratta TAFE courses, where she first met Beasley.
“They were different times, no mechanical horses back then, just chaff bags I reckon,” said Beasley.
“I was apprenticed to Peter Maher at Wodonga and the so-called apprentice school was at the Benalla track, Gary Willetts, Kevin Mitchell, Alan Trevena would come along, and Dona ran it,” Beasley said.
Dona remembers also a young Claire Lindop and Brett Prebble – ‘he stole the bus there one day and started driving it around the sand track with a few of the kids in the back, they were so small you couldn’t see anyone in it,’” she said.
Enter Power Street, Dona’s first horse. She leased it off Gaye Gauci (once married to Darren’s brother Mick and also a former jockey,) now Gaye Gauci-Marchant, the latter from former jockey Ernie.
“Gaye was going a bit dusty, she couldn’t afford to keep him going so we did a deal to share the prizemoney,” Dona said.
“He had 22 starts for me, and they only paid prizemoney to run top three and he picked up 18 cheques I reckon, won about six or seven.
“Whenever I won money, I’d drop it around to Gaye’s and leave her a note like ‘the cash is behind the painting’, because I couldn’t trust Mick with it,” she laughed.
“But he was a nob a horse, anyone could ride him, Wayne Kerferd, Alicia Brew and then Danny had their first wins on him. The instructions were always the same – ‘just sit on him, don’t move, he’ll do the rest for you, and invariably he did. He was just push-button, a horse that taught the kids.”
As Beasley vividly recalled. “I’d had my first ride on Boxing Day, and it was a whirlwind week, been to Towong, Deniliquin and then Corowa. He (Power Street) was one of those old bush handicappers, had won a Tumbarumba Cup, and there no videos in those days but that was a unique track, if you could get around there, you get around anywhere and Dona was right, he got me around Corowa, I was just a passenger.”
Fast forward to Out Of The Shadows.
“Amazing to think I had a hand in the education of the breeder (Kim Alderton), the breaker (Linc Sullivan) and of course the jockey (Beasley),” said McQueen.
“Kim had done the breeder’s course at TAFE, she was brilliant she won a scholarship course to the Irish National Stud, and despite having a baby, she was so dedicated, she went off and left the youngster behind.”
“This filly was just unspoilt though, beautifully educated by Kim and then beautifully broken in by Linc, who also had done the TAFE course with us,” she said talking of links.
“I’ve never even taken her to the track, she just works up the hills on our property, that’s the way I like it, makes it even more special.”
Out Of The Shadows was an unraced three-year-old by Kuroshio, broken in when McQueen was looking for a horse to lease and got a message from Alderton that she had one. It took eight starts to win the maiden but of course there is more.
“My husband (Monty or Shane) hasn’t been to the races for 20 years, he came along, ‘see I do have one’ I told everyone.
“I’m the one-horse trainer, I’m 62, at least it will pay for the feed, but this is not about money.”
Having Beasley’s father Bob there also, McQueen’s son Tom in the ownership, just further extensions on the yarn.
But it all gets back to where it started. With Dona McQueen.
“Racing education has been my whole life, I’ve helped a lot of people, jockeys, stablehands, trainers getting their licences. They must do the courses these days, do assignments, some might struggle with the paperwork, or simple reading or writing, I might go above and beyond at times, but I love it.”
She's still at it, working with Skilled Invest to assist participants into the industry. More winners coming via Dona.
And just to add one thing more that makes McQueen proud of Friday’s win.
A text message from struggling trainer Kerstin Murphy. She hasn’t had a runner this year, punching a few around the picnics as her most recent, but no winners since perhaps the appropriately named I Mattah at Wangaratta, McQueen’s hometown, over a decade ago 2013, September.
“She said she’d been feeling down and was thinking of giving it away, she said ‘your win inspired me to keep going’.”
See, told you it was some story.
POST SCRIPT: The day after this story was posted, both Dona and Danny made some significant announcements.
Dona revealed she had lost her job of a decade with Skillinvest ('a cost cutting exercise' she said that 'gutted her'.)
And Danny announced this would be his last season in the saddle, retiring to take up training at Wagga from August 1.
a cost cutting exercise@ she said
D
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