McGuires in family bid for Townsville Cup

By Jordan Gerrans

The North Queensland McGuire clan are banking on a ‘family horse’ when it comes to the Cups through the carnival period of 2023.

Patrick McGuire trains alongside his son Matthew at Cluden Park in Townsville, with the family recently acquiring Night Of Power, who previously did his racing in Sydney for the Bjorn Baker camp.

The Irish-bred stayer has three Sydney city victories on his resume, as well as three more back on his home turf before he was exported to Australia.

The veteran eight-year-old has settled into life in North Queensland smoothly and the McGuires think he can shape up as a live Cup chance once the 2023 Northern Queensland Winter Racing Carnival rolls further up the coast.

They have decided to bypass Saturday’s Mackay Cup, instead heading to the Magnetic Island Mile at Cluden Park on Friday as their lead-in run to the Townsville Cup the middle of next month.

Night Of Power has been lugged with big weights in his first two starts in NQ – and it will be the case again on Friday – but Patrick believes his high rating is key to get into the $150,000 Cup at Townsville.

“While he is getting big weights now, you need a horse with this kind of class to get into the Cups,” Patrick said.

“We do not need to qualify him now and he should get into the Cups with his rating the way it is. He should drop back to 54kgs again in the Cup if Namazu comes up, like everyone expects him to.

“He is a nice old horse, he has a few tricks on the track but around the stables he is beautiful to have.”

Namazu is on the path to winning the Townsville Cup for a second straight year after a brilliant victory in last Friday’s H.L. Black Memorial over 1800 metres at Mackay.

Namazu was given a stunning ride from McKenzie Apel to win the Mackay feature last week.

The victory was Apel’s first of her career and she added a second the following day at Thangool.

Namazu tackles the Mackay Cup on Saturday before likely heading north to Townsville again.

Night Of Power appears well-placed in the Magnetic Island Mile at Cluden Park on Friday after drawing the inside alley for experienced hoop Carl Spry.

Spry rode the McGuires galloper at his last-start and was confident post-race that he would be more than competitive at his third NQ race appearance.

Night Of Power is owned by Patrick and his immediate family.

Before turning his hand to training gallopers, Patrick was a jockey in the North West of the state for decades, mainly riding at Mount Isa and Richmond.

He occasionally came to the coast to ride at Townsville but mainly focused in on the bush circuit.

A long-time follower of North West racing noted that Patrick was a top rider in his day before he gave away the saddle and moved to Townsville.

If Night Of Power was successful in the Townsville Cup, it would be the largest training victory of Patrick’s tenure as a conditioner.

“He has not been out to the 2000 metre trip for some time but he has got good form over that far,” the former jockey said.

“He can sit and sprint really well at the end of a race, we thought he would be a handy horse for North Queensland.”

Patrick is semi-retired – on top of training a few gallopers – and works a few hours a day at the Townsville Turf Club.

“He surprised us in his first start for us because I did not think he would show that much pace early,” Patrick said of Night Of Power.

“He sat up so close and battled on really well in the end.

“We were really, really impressed with that run and then his second start for us, obviously weight was a killer.

“I would like to see him finish this race off strongly on Friday, hopefully we can ride him quiet and he can hit the line well.”

The McGuire clan also has Mission House entered for Friday’s races.

Mission House is trained by Matthew and is third-up into a Ratings Band 0 - 55 Handicap over 1200 metres.