Colin Jillings was a leading trainer in thoroughbred horse racing in New Zealand from the early 1950s through until his retirement in September 2005. Prior to that he was a successful apprentice jockey before increasing weight brought a premature end to a promising career. An "Ellerslie boy", Colin Jillings became an apprentice jockey at the age of 12. He would catch the train to school St Peter's College, Auckland each day after earlier riding trackwork at the Ellerslie Racecourse. His biggest success as an apprentice was the 1946 Railway Stakes ; Sharivari and Diamond Lover aboard Royal Scot. He trained the first of 4 Auckland Cup winners in 1956 Yemen, followed by Stipulate, Perhaps and Irish Chance in 1999. He also achieved the unique record of training a Derby winner in each of the last 5 decades of the 20th Century: his first Derby winner being Lawful followed by Stipulate, Uncle Remus, I'm Henry and The Phantom Chance. Jillings biggest success came when he trained The Phantom Chance to win the 1993 W.S. Cox Plate. Although operating with a smaller team, than most other trainers, Jillings managed to keep producing top horses year after year. In addition to those already mentioned, other notable horses, amongst his many GP1 winners, included: Beauzami ; Gay Filou ; Athenia ; Sugaratariat and Old Son ; Tycoon Lil et al. Less well known was the fact that, in his earlier years from limited runners, he was also a noted trainer of jumpers, winning 1959 Grand National Hurdles with Armed ; the 1971 Great Northern Hurdles/Steeples double, and 1972 Great Northern Steeplechase, with Brockton and the 1987 Great Northern Steeples with DeductAble, in partnership with Richard Yuill. When he retired he had amassed a total of 1327 NZ winners, 703 of those with long time training partner Richard Yuill. When asked to name the best horse he ever trained Jillings had no hesitation in labelling Stipulate, the champion stayer of his era in the early 1960s. The fact that he had no hesitation in labelling Stipulate speaks volumes for the regard Jillings had for the horse given that he also trained the super little horse of the early 1980's - McGinty. The son of One Pound Sterling was the winner of six Group One races and a total of 14 races, McGinty was trained by Colin Jillings for race commentator Keith Haub and co-owner Barney McCahill. He was the top-weighted horse on the NZ 1981-82 Two-Year-Old Free Handicap and was top colt on the 1982-83 NZ Three Year Old Free Handicap. His Group One wins came in the Air New Zealand Stakes, Rawson Stakes, Canterbury Guineas, Caulfield Stakes and George Adams Handicap. He began stud duties in 1984 and his leading progeny included Auckland Cup/BMW Stakes winner Miltak, New Zealand Derby/Air New Zealand Stakes winner The Gentry, Adelaide Cup winner The Hind and Australian Guineas winner Jolly Old Mac. For all of his GP 1 success as a racehorse, and then as a stallion, his standout moment was when he beat the champion Australian 2YO Marscay in the Todman Slipper Trial. Not only did he beat Marscay, who went on to win the Golden Slipper and was subsequently crowned Australia's Champion 2YO, he beat him on 3 legs, having cracked his cannon bone at the top of the straight. Jillings was also a noted mentor of apprentices the best being his long time stable jockey Bob Vance In addition to his 3 Derby winners for Jillings he also won the race on Isle of Man. Vance won the NZ Jockeys Premiership, as an apprentice and had a successful career riding internationally in Hong Kong and Macau. One of NZ's most successful female riders of the 2000s, Samantha Spratt, was also a graduate of the Jillings academy as were Mark Sweeney and Daniel Southworth. Jillings was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in 2008.
