Captain Fenkel carves his own path

By Glenn Davis

Marcus Wilson was a young boy of 14 when he first thought about following his father’s footsteps to become a horse trainer.

As a schoolboy, Marcus helped his father, John, a well-known Inverell trainer at the time doing stable chores before the family moved to Rosehill and later to the Hunter Valley.

Wilson served his “apprenticeship” to become a trainer by cleaning out the stable boxes before and after school each day.

Fast forward to the present and Wilson has well and truly fulfilled his childhood ambition and is now in his 18th year training.

“I got my trainers’ licence when I was 20 and started off at Muswellbrook in NSW before doing a bit of training back in Inverell,” Wilson said.

Wilson has been up and down a few dry gullies during his career but his dedication and family fuels his drive.

“Dad was a trainer for about 25 years but no longer trains but he still helps out around the stables driving the truck to the races and his help with horses in invaluable,” Wilson said.

“He used to be a horse chiropractor while he was a trainer and I call on him whenever I have a horse with a back problem.

“He used to do Bart Cummings’ horses for about 13 years.

“Mum also works for me running the office.”

Wilson has a team of 14 horses in work at the Gold Coast and is counting down the days to the Queensland Racing Carnival which kicks off in May.

He has two strong winter hopes with Captain Fenkel who is being aimed at the Group 1 Queensland Derby and Heavenly Impact who is targeting the Group 1 J J Atkins, both at Eagle Farm, in June.

Wilson is hoping its third time lucky as he plots a Queensland Derby path with Captain Fenkel.

He’s had two previous attempts to claim the coveted Group 1 feature but failed on both occasions with Meteorologist in 2014 and Amalgamation who finished down the track last year.

The Queensland Derby is the race Wilson would dearly love to win with Captain Fenkel, who was a cheap $14,000 at the Gold Coast Magic Millions March sales.

A son of Kermadec, Captain Fenkel has the necessary bloodlines to be a Queensland Derby contender.

“He’s got a stout pedigree and is out of a Savabeel mare so he should stay,” Wilson said.

“We marked him as a stayer when we bought him and, looking at his pedigree, I can’t see why he won’t run a trip.

“He was a good style of a horse with plenty of scope at the sales and he’s got a good turn of foot.

“Stayers need to have a good turn of foot these days to be any good.”

Wilson has pencilled in a winter campaign for Captain Fenkel but will have no hesitation changing direction if he shows he can’t run a trip.

“He’ll start off in the Daybreak Lover over 1400m and then run in the Queensland Guineas over 1600m,” Wilson said.

“I’ll see how he’s going at the time and we’ll see if he goes to the Rough Habit and Derby after that.”

Captain Fenkel has only started four times for two wins and a second and has easily returned the outlay from his owners with $101,600 in prize money.

Captain Fenkel was given plenty of groundwork to prepare for his debut at Ipswich in December.

He barrier trialled three times last autumn, winning twice at the Gold Coast and Beaudesert before being sent to the paddock after his initial education.

When he returned he had one more trial, finishing second at Beaudesert last December before stepping onto the racetrack for his first start in a 1200m maiden at Ipswich.

Captain Fenkel opened at a short price and produced a strong performance to finish second to Inspired Dream who was a five-year-old mare and vastly more experienced with 16 runs under her belt.

“I thought he’d run well at his first start but the 1200m was shade short for him,” Wilson said.

“The rail was out a very long way that day and he would have won had it not been out so far.

“He hit the line strongly, which was a good sign.”

Wilson didn’t have to wait long before Captain Fenkel delivered on his early promise, stepping up from his 1200m debut to a 1350m maiden at Doomben in mid-January.

Ridden for the first time by jockey Jim Orman, Captain Fenkel travelled just behind the leading bunch before showing slick acceleration in the straight to win by almost four lengths on a soft track.

“I was very confident he’d win that midweek race at Doomben as he was stepping up in distance and drew a good gate,” Wilson said.

The win gave Wilson the confidence to test Captain Fenkel for the first time against Saturday-class opposition.

Captain Fenkel was well backed again and led all the way for a dominant two length victory against his own age group over 1400m at Eagle Farm in February.

“It’s always hard coming off a maiden win and there were some question marks about going to 1400m early in his campaign,” Wilson said.

“He ticked a couple of boxes that day which we didn’t know about.

“It was the first time he’d run on a firm track and he was left in front by default.

“He showed he is quite versatile.”

Wilson then gave Captain Fenkel his first test over 1600m in a three-year-old race at Eagle Farm in mid-February.

“I was toying with giving him another run over 1800m or whether to head straight to the paddock after his first run over a mile,” Wilson said.

However, Wilson’s dilemma resolved itself when Captain Fenkel led and weakened to tail a field of nine behind the Tony and Maddy Sears-trained Sharp Dazzler.

It was later discovered by the raceday vet that Captain Fenkel pulled up with heat stress, so Wilson had no hesitation pulling up stumps to prepare for the Queensland Racing Carnival.

“It was a humid day and he pulled up with severe heat stress,” Wilson said.

“He had a bit of anxiety about him and got very wobbly after the race.

“We had to call another vet when he nearly collapsed after the race as his heart rate was through the roof and it took him an hour to cool down.

“He was taken to another area where there was air-conditioning and he had to be sedated to lower his heart rate.

“Luckily there’s no long-time problems.”

Wilson believes the set back won’t harm his winter campaign and is pressing ahead.

“There’s an old saying, if the road gets bumpy don’t change course,” he said.