Hall of Fame trainer Colin Jillings has many achievements to look back on, however, it is his victory in the 1993 Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m) with The Phantom Chance that stands out above the rest.
Jillings was a part of the Cox Plate tour at Karaka on Monday ahead of its 100th running in October and he recalled the win with great fondness.
“It’s a great thrill to win a Cox Plate,” Jillings said. “You are very lucky to have a runner in it, let alone win it. I’d say that would be my greatest thrill in racing.
“I have won three Auckland Cups and five Derbys, but the Cox Plate still stands out as the highlight. It’s the best weight-for-age race in Australasia, so it speaks for itself.”
Jillings recalled being cautiously optimistic heading into the 1993 running of the great race with The Phantom Chance, citing his runner had the perfect preparation.
“The Phantom Chance was a great horse,” he said. “I really thought he could win the Cox Plate when he did, he was going so well and everything was going to plan.
“His performances on the track were good and he was fit and well on the day. He won it quite well too.”
Although humble in victory Jillings said the win didn’t come about by chance.
“We prepared for it, we had planned for it. We didn’t fluke it by starting on the day. We set him up for it and he was duly successful.”
While The Phantom Chance recorded some of Jillings’ best moments in racing, he said training the gelding did bring with it some headaches, courtesy of his owner Wayne Ballin.
“The owner was a bit of a villain, he and I didn’t hit it off too well,” Jillings said.
“He used to get on the whisky, he was like Jekyll and Hyde – a good guy when he was sober, but boy was he a naughty boy when he got on that whisky.”
The Phantom Chance continued the great association New Zealand-breds have with the Cox Plate and Jillings believes it is the New Zealand environment that allows the country to produce quality stayers.
“Our stayers are far greater than Australian horses,” he said. “I think it is our green grass.
“In New Zealand we can race a horse and the next day we can put them out in a green grass paddock and they will be running around.
“We are very lucky in that aspect and it means a lot to horses when they have got freedom to do that.”
