Shaun McKay’s name will pop-up in form guides in Victoria over the next three months, with the Kiwi rider giving Melbourne racing a three-month ‘crack’.
The 24-year-old winner of about 250 races told Racing.com on Wednesday that due to a lull in New Zealand racing over the winter, he thought it time he tried his hand in Melbourne. He makes his debut at Cranbourne on Friday night.
“I’m pretty happy to be here,” he said. “New Zealand is quiet at the moment for the winter and a lot of my horses have gone out for a spell, so I thought I would come over to Melbourne and give it a crack.
“I am looking to come over for three months and see how it goes.”
Last year, McKay, who can ride at 54 kilograms, won the Gr.1 Thorndon Mile (1600m) at Trentham on The Mitigator (Master of Design) for his father Peter McKay.
He said he had always wanted to try his luck in Australia and said he would certainly look to stay on if he can make a success of it.
“If I go well, the prizemoney here is amazing and I will see how it goes in the next three months and if it goes good, I can think about that (staying),” he said.
“I can ride light and I consider myself as dedicated and I like to give horses every chance and I guess trainers quite like that.”
As for his first Australian ride on the Shawn Mathrick-trained Rolling Moss (Moshe) at Cranbourne on Friday night, he said: “I’m quite looking forward to riding it and grateful for it as well.
“I see the horse is racing out of his grade, but it gets in at a nice light weight and it tries very hard and the mile is its ideal distance, so looking forward to seeing how it goes.”
McKay will then ride Eloped (Fiorente) for Mathrick in the second race at Flemington on Saturday.
