‘Heaven gained a true gentleman’: Champion trainer’s No.1 supporter dies during spring carnival

Colin McKenna was overwhelmed with emotion in the Caulfield mounting yard. It was the last day of August this year, less than two months before he died.

McKenna had just watched his renowned racing silks – the green and blue hoops with a green and blue cap – flash past the finishing post for another impressive win.

Colin McKenna celebrates Another Wil’s victory in the Testa Rossa Stakes.Credit: Getty Images

Jamie Kah was the jockey, McKenna’s great mate Ciaron Maher was the trainer, and the horse was home-bred gelding Another Wil.

For McKenna, the win was one thing, but the poignancy of this result was the people he got to share the excitement with – family, friends and employees. That was McKenna. He liked to share his success.

“I am a bit emotional,” he said as he wiped away the tears. “He’s a very good horse. And all the family is in him, and all that shit. Anyway, we won’t get carried away with that side of it.

“Someone said to me before the race, ‘Are you nervous?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not nervous, but I get very emotional’.”

It was one of the last times McKenna would be seen at the track. He died on Sunday morning.

It was revealed for the first time last week that the Warrnambool businessman was in hospital after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He was too unwell to make it to the Caulfield Cup to watch jockey Harry Coffey’s famous victory on a horse that he and his wife, Janice, part-owned – Duke De Sessa. Another horse they raced with Maher, Future History, won at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

That his great mate was near the end showed on Maher’s face in his post-race speech.

“Obviously, I have grown up with Col and Janice and the rest of the family,” Maher said, holding back the tears after Future History’s win. “It is always special to get a win for him.”

Colin McKenna (left) with jockey Nick Hall and trainer Ciaron Maher after winning the 2016 Caulfield Cup.Credit: Getty Images

McKenna had raced a number of star horses with Maher, including Another Wil, but their crowning moment came in 2016 when they won the Caulfield Cup with Jameka.

Some of his other top horses included Merchant Navy (Coolmore Stud Stakes, Diamond Jubilee Stakes [UK]), Regina Coeli (two Grand Annual Steeplechases), Hissing Sid (two Warrnambool Cups), Attrition (Toorak Handicap), and Wil John (Jericho Cup).

McKenna, 74, was a familiar face in racing circles and was always hard to miss – stocky build, bald head, warm country demeanour and an unforgettable raspy voice.

He was larger than life during the three-day Warrnambool carnival when he and his wife hosted a fundraising luncheon at the Woolsthorpe pub. He also served on the Warrnambool Racing Club committee.

But his great achievements came off the track. Before he became known for horses, before he backed and supported Maher’s rise from an ex-jumps jockey into one of the country’s biggest and most successful trainers, McKenna was the son of a dairy farmer who was tempted into business.

He started out as a shearer, then became a stock agent before crossing to meat processing. He bought the embattled Warrnambool abattoirs in 1988, turning it into a billion-dollar meat export empire called the Midfield Group. He was awarded an OAM in 2021.

At the time of his passing, McKenna’s business employed 1500 people.

“It is with heavy hearts the McKenna family wishes to advise our founder, fearless leader and mentor to many passed away this morning with his family by his side after a short illness,” the Midfield Group said in a statement.

Owner Colin McKenna kisses the 2016 Caulfield Cup, won by his mare Jameka.Credit: Getty Images

McKenna was proud of his humble family beginnings, revealing that his father Bernard was granted a 78-hectare soldier settlement dairy property about 20 kilometres from Warrnambool in 1955.

The family did it tough. His father share-farmed on another property, while his mother Rosemary milked their 20 cows by hand under a tree.

That heritage took on a special meaning when McKenna’s horse Wil John, named after his grandson, won the 2021 Jericho Cup – a 4600-metre endurance race in Warrnambool that honours the Australian Light Horse brigade of World War I.

“My father and my father-in-law and uncles all went to war, and it’s bloody special,” McKenna said after the race, while standing beside Maher.

“All our friends are in him, we reckon he has 200 supporters here today. We love the horse, Janice and I. It’s more than just winning the race, it’s how you win the race and who wins it with you, it’s an amazing feeling.”

Maher’s stable posted a tribute to McKenna on Sunday, saying “heaven gained a true gentleman”.

Racing Victoria chief executive Aaron Morrison said McKenna was an “icon in the state’s south-west where he was a major employer, community leader and philanthropist”.

Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association chairman Jonathon Munz said McKenna was a “huge supporter of the industry” who was “a terrific bloke and a man of great loyalty and integrity”.

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