CLICK HERE TO GO BACK YEAR: 2006Bill McDonald, the breeder and early trainer of the outstanding juvenile Starship, died recently. He was 81 and suffered from the degenerative eye disease glaucoma before cancer took its toll this year.
He was born in Christchurch. He started in the printing business, sold pet food and ran a dairy before starting work for Noel Berkett. In the mid 1960s he was breeding and training himself, with Red King, Whippet, Loyal Friend, Lord Flicka and First Girl being some of his early winners. He had a great deal of success with horses other people had given up on, including Full of Promise, the last horse he trained, who won four in succession on the West Coast circuit in 1996.
His major success came from breeding Starship, Star Heritage (dam of Star Loner, 1:54.2, Atom Star, 1:52, Star of Mine, 1:52.4) and Venetian Star (dam of Anvil's Star, 1:59.3, Soky's Special, 1:57.8 and Star Rhapsody, 1:58.1) from Star Nurse. By Good Chase, Star Nurse left 12 foals, but Starship was by far the best. He won 16 races from 81 starts, for $341,975. McDonald trained him for 12 wins before selling him for what then he called "a fortune".
For most of his career he trained at Woodend and then moved to Rangiora about 12 years ago. He was loyal to his drivers, particularly to Ian Cameron, and they would often travel to meetings together with their horses. He was a regular seller at the National Yearling Sales.
One of 15 children, McDonald grew up in the Depression and was taught to live frugally.
Credit: HRWeekly 16Nov06 |