Mick Mair's legacy living on through wife and trainer Belinda

By Jordan Gerrans

It is the mornings at Corbould Park that are the hardest to deal with for Belinda Mair.

Even until the days just before her late husband Mick passed away from a long battle with cancer, the Group 1-winning trainer was still an enthusiastic member of their racing stable.

While he was profoundly sick and fighting the illness, he still loved his gallopers and leading his team.

As he deteriorated in the weeks before his death last month, Belinda actively ran the stable.

And, in the mornings during track work, Mick would sit in a car and overlook all his horses and track work riders spinning around the Caloundra track.

Since Mick’s passing last month, Belinda has taken out her own licence and transferred the horses into her name.

She estimates her phone used to buzz more than 10 times a morning from her beloved late husband before the sun would rise. 

“He would ring me and say, 'tell that rider they have gone too fast' or ask which horse was which,” Belinda recalls.

“I am not getting those phone calls now and that hurts.

“He was always there and involved in the horses even until he did pass away, he went to the races on the Sunday before he died.

“He continued to defy what the doctors told him about how long he had to live and I suppose I thought that would keep going forever, unfortunately.

“I would give anything to do it all over again with him.”

There was an outpouring of sentiments about Mick’s life and contribution to the racing industry when he passed away last month following his battle with bowel cancer.

He was remembered for his quick wit and wicked sense of humour as well as his fantastic feats as a trainer in the Sunshine State.

There will be more Mick memories this week with the Sunshine Coast Turf Club to host the annual Swiss Ace Plate on Mooloolaba Cup day.

The popular trainer won the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate in 2009 with Swiss Ace before the stallion retired and has enjoyed an extensive breeding career.

Belinda and Mick have raced Swiss Ace’s progeny over the years and have runners in the barn today he produced, including maiden galloper Roger Express.

While Mick was a Group 1-winning trainer in his prime, as well as claiming Sunshine Coast premierships, he was not one to pump himself up.

He did not travel to Melbourne to watch his star galloper win at the elite level; he was back home at Caloundra looking after the rest of the team.

A close mate of Mick’s - Murray Weeding – says while he helped put the Sunshine Coast on the map as a training complex, he was not about the limelight.

Weeding has been the Sunshine Coast Turf Club’s racecourse and facilities manager for 22 years, working directly with Mick for the entirety of his tenure before his death.

“His knowledge of racing and his memory recall of information was terrific,” Weeding said.

“There was not much he missed out on, he had a wealth of experience and knowledge.

“He was terrific to get to know.”

While it is Swiss Ace who will be up in lights this Saturday, Belinda says it was retired galloper Burglar Of Bamff who was the apple of Mick’s eye.

Burglar Of Bamff collected 36 wins and 33 placings from 102 starts, with his career permanently on show with a bar named after him at Corbould Park.

Mick and Belinda first met when she was working at a neighbouring racing stable.

Belinda has worked full-time in the Mair barn for the last two decades, with the last five years being a full-time carer for her husband, as well as juggling the horse responsibilities.

In Mick’s time of need, Belinda stepped up, just as he did for her many years ago.

“Mick got me out of a really bad domestic violence marriage and from then on, he was always a big advocate for domestic violence and homelessness,” Belinda revealed.

“Anyone that wants to help someone out, Mick was always a part of that.

“He was huge for me and my children at the end of that marriage.

“Mick helped me get out of that marriage and our relationship just grew from there.”

Mick’s long battle with bowel cancer took its toll on the Mair family but the larrikin never gave in and lived longer than what doctors first expected he would.

Belinda describes her late husband as a person who loved life, his horses, the racing industry and just seeing others happy and enjoying themselves.

“He used to say to me 'how can you fight something that you cannot see’,” Belinda recalls.

“I cannot say that he fought cancer, but I can say he battled cancer and he battled hard for us.

“He continued to try all the time, every drug that was offered to him, he took it.

“That came to the point where he was so sick and he couldn’t take it any more, some of the medications were not working.

“He battled so hard; he really did.

“The doctors gave him three years to live and he promised me five years and he lasted four years, 11 months and three weeks.

“I do not begrudge him that last week because he battled so hard and was such a precious man.”

Known for his humour and jokes, Mick had the last laugh at his funeral.

The song Another One Bites the Dust by Queen was played during the service, which Belinda says was in his will that the tune must be played at his funeral.

Racing Queensland CEO Brendan Parnell also recalled his interactions with the popular trainer.

“He will be remembered for the legacy he left, not just with the equine athletes, but also with humans as well,” Parnell said.

“He was a terrific bloke with a wicked sense of humour, he would have you laughing in almost every conversation you had with him.”

Despite working in the industry his entire life, the former jockey was allergic to horses and would at times get welts from dealing with them.

He was a constant user of antihistamines to get through a day at the races or around his stables.

Belinda has 10 gallopers in work and 17 on the books across the road from Corbould Park after taking over the official training duties from her late husband.

“It was always the plan for me to take over the horses, we had spoken about getting a dual licence as co-trainers,” Belinda said.

“But, I always felt that Mick was his own identity in racing and I wanted it to stay that way.

“He loved racing."