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A talented trotting filly has rekindled a veteran horseman’s love for the sport and become a priceless ode to his parents.
Mario Magri’s Aldebaran Park Vicbred Super Series heat winner Georgias Pride will start from gate eight in tonight’s Group 1 for two-year-old trotting fillies, flying the flag for a family almost lost to the sport.
Magri, a 58-year-old from Melton, has had his hand in the game since he was a teenager, initially helping his parents, Sam and Georgia, and then carrying on in his own right.
“I started in the game when I was 16 with my dad and just kept going,” Magri said. “I’ve been in the game for 40 years.
“Dad, myself and my mum all used to be involved in the horses, but when they passed on you get a bit depressed.”
Following his parents’ deaths in 2012 and 2016 the sport was no longer the same for Magri and, after training 27 starters in 2014-15, he wouldn’t take another to the track until March 28 of this year, when Georgias Pride won on debut.
It was a moment steeped in significance, not least of all because the horse was named after his late mum.
“She loved the horses,” Magri said. “My mum and dad were crazy about them and are well-known in harness racing. Everywhere they went they always went to the trots.”
Much of their time was spent watching their son’s horses, including Abbeys Idle, a mare part-owned by Magri’s mum and his sister Rosemary Camilleri. Abbeys Idle delivered six wins from 60 starts before being retired in 2007.
In 2009 she produced her first foal, Pacific Abbey, who continues to race for Magri’s nephew, David, and is still chasing her maiden win after 42 visits to the track.
Magri’s dad, Sam, sadly passed in 2012 and the family wouldn’t have Abbeys Idle in foal again until 2015, when the mare gave birth to a filly by Morley Park sire Bacardi Lindy. That filly would become Georgias Pride, but Magri’s mum (Georgia) would pass in 2016, long before her last filly would see the racetrack.
“Before mum passed away she said, ‘Mario, why are you stopping, why don’t you train again’,” Magri said.
“From day one when we broke (Georgias Pride) in all she wanted to do was trot. She’s just so nice. I’ve had a lot of trotters in my past, but none quite like this one. Now I feel like mum’s looking down and saying ‘keep going son, just keep going’.”
Georgias Pride’s six starts have produced four wins, two placings and Magri’s greatest stakes winnings in a season since 1995-96, which could balloon with success in tonight’s $90,000 trot.
Should Georgias Pride salute in the expert hands of reinsman John Caldow, she would deliver the Group-level win that has long evaded Magri, who trained Columbias Gindin to third in the 2002 Vicbred Super Series, Columbias Glory to third in the 1994 Victorian Trotters Derby and pacer Easy Dollars to second in the 1995 Kilmore Cup.
“As a trainer, your dream is always to win a nice race. All the time I have finished second or third and am yet to win one. It would just make my day. I think she might be the right one, we just need a bit of luck.”
And not only might Georgias Pride produce Magri’s biggest victory but she has also brought his children – Leigh, Melissa and Troy – who had “lost interest” “back into it”. His son Leigh and nephew Jacob Camilleri co-own the filly.
“It’s just nice to enjoy it,” he said. “My kids will be (at Melton), my sister’s kids will be coming down. I left the game, but now I’m back. I couldn’t be more happy. We are going to go to the yearling sales. I think we are going to get some more.”
*Picture courtesy of Claire Weston.