4 April 2016
BELINDA and Luke McCarthy are closing in on 1000 training winners as the couple continue to be a major force across New South Wales. Belinda McCarthy trained a treble at Tabcorp Park Menangle on Saturday night continuing the stable’s strong form and combined they have trained 987 winners.
While the NSW training premiership has been dominated by Steve Turnbull and Shane Tritton for the past two years, the McCarthy stable has reappeared as a serious title contender. With seven months of the season completed, Belinda McCarthy has trained 90 winners with leader Steve Turnbull on 91.
Luke McCarthy had his first runner as a trainer on 31 January 2003 and surprisingly in the next seven years trained just seven individual horses. Those seven horses were Slipnslide, Montana Moonlite, Fleur De Lil, Treasure Hunter, Barjea, Washakie and For a Reason. Combined they won 90 races in the first seven years of Luke’s training career.
Since then Belinda and Luke have combined to win 897 races and therefore have averaged more than twelve winners per month after 31 January 2010.
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LUKE
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BELINDA
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TOTAL
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Starters
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1216
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2206
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3422
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Winners
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440
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547
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987
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Placings
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324
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593
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917
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Prizemoney
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$6,991,114
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$9,703,918
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$16,695,032
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Gr. 1 winners
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17
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25
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42
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Belinda and Luke are full of praise for the owners that have supported them over the years and hope that the winners will continue to flow.
“We are proud of what we have achieved. In the early days in Brisbane I didn’t train many and just had a couple at any one time,” Luke said.
“The last four or so years since we’ve come to Sydney we’ve been really busy and it has been an unbelievable run. We have been lucky enough to train some nice horses like Slipnslide, Mr Feelgood, Fleur De Lil and in more recent years Bling It On.
“We’ll just keep working and hopefully we’ll keep coming up with the winners but a large part of the success comes from great owners and great staff.”
Harness Racing NSW (HRNSW) is the controlling body for harness racing in New South Wales with responsibility for commercial and regulatory management of the industry including 31 racing clubs across the State. HRNSW is headed by an industry-appointed Board of Directors and is independent of Government.
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To arrange an interview or for further information please contact:
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Name:
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Greg Hayes
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Position:
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Media Manager
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Phone:
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(02) 9722 6600
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Email:
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ghayes@hrnsw.com.au
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