The late trainer Des McGee was a superb judge of a jockey’s ability and he always rated Glen Killen among the best he’d seen.
Killen was apprenticed to McGee when he won the 1977 Stradbroke Handicap on Sir Wisp with a rails-hugging, last-to-first ride.
A veteran at 54, Killen showed he had lost little of his skill when he rode Girls World ($5) to victory in the Ray White Handicap (1000m) at Ipswich on Wednesday.
Killen helped deliver the eulogy for McGee at a memorial service last week and to this day says he is indebted to the trainer.
“I remember coming down from the bush to begin my apprenticeship. Des met me off the bus and the first thing he said was we were going to get me a hair cut,” he said.
“I didn’t have the heart to tell him I had one the day before. But I was with him for six years and he taught me a great deal about racing and life in general.”
Girls World is part-owned by Linda Huddy who raced the ATC Australian Derby winner Shoot Out and is connected with a more recent staying star, the Victoria Derby winner Preferment.
Young Toowoomba trainer Jason Gregory got his first metropolitan-class winner when the favourite Stella Blonde ($1.90) won the Queensland Times Plate (1666m).
Gregory has been gradually building up his team to have a dozen horses in work.
