Former coal miner after a pot of gold with Mississippi Prince

By Glenn Davis

Former coal miner Brent Gray once watched former champion Kingston Town win on a Sydney racetrack and now hopes to do the same with Mississippi Prince at Randwick on Saturday.

Mississippi Prince will be Gray’s first Sydney starter in the $1 million Five Diamonds Prelude over 1500 metres.

The 61-year-old Gray bought Mississippi Prince for a paltry $7,500 at an online auction during the Covid outbreak and the five-year-old has returned more than $330,000 in prize money.

Gray trains at Doomben and has two horses in work at stables he rents from Bruce Brown, who famously won the 2002 Golden Slipper with Calaway Gal.

Gray has been training for less than a year in Queensland after finishing working at his seventh coal mine at Moranbah in Central Queensland last December.

“I finished working under ground in the coal mines at Moranbah in December which was my seventh in Australia and a few in New Zealand,” Gray said.

“I’ve only ever been on a Sydney race track once before when I came over from New Zealand with a rugby team for an end of a season trip.

“I didn’t know much about racing in those days and we went to a Sydney racecourse which I don’t even remember its name.

“I just recall Kingstown Town won that day.”  

Gray, who hails from Reefton on New Zealand’s south island, has racing flowing through his veins as his late father owned a lot of horses across the ditch and was a past President of the Reefton Jockey Club.

“Dad died a couple of years ago and he was a past president at Reefton Jockey Club, which is where I first started training,” he said.

“I’ve spent more than 30 years working underground in the coal mines and I only train as a hobby.

“My biggest win as a trainer was with a horse called Watchyerback who won the Group 3 Standish Handicap at Caulfield in 2007.

“He was a handy horse who also won on the last day of the Melbourne Cup carnival at Flemington in 2006.”

Gray believes Mississippi Prince is in with a show in the Five Diamonds Prelude, which is restricted to five-year-olds.

A seven-time winner from 16 starts, Mississippi Prince is coming off a close second to Sydney sprinter Steely in a 1400 metre Open race at Eagle Farm on October 7.

“We didn’t draw the gate (barrier 16) that we wanted but he’s made the field,” Gray said of Saturday's assignment. 

“I was happy with his last run when he got a nice trip.

“The winner went passed him like he wasn’t there but he fought back and was in front soon past the post.”

An avid sports follower, Gray has played his share of sports including rugby league in Central Queensland, cricket, rugby union and tennis in his younger days.

He’s hoping his throw at the stumps with Mississippi Prince can hit the target ahead of a possible trip to Melbourne for the Cranbourne Cup at the end of November.