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Colin Jillings

{{Short description|New Zealand racehorse trainer (1931–2022)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}

{{Infobox horseracing personality

|name = Colin Jillings

|image =

|alt =

|caption =

|full_name = Colin Maurice Jillings

|birth_place = Auckland, New Zealand

|birth_date = {{birth date|1931|03|11|df=y}}

|death_date = {{death date and age |2022|12|23|1931|03|11|df=y}}

|death_place = Auckland, New Zealand

|occupation = Horse trainer

|career wins =

|race =

|awards =

|honours = New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame

|horses = Yeman, Lawful, McGinty, Brockton, Uncle Remus, I'm Henry, The Phantom Chance, Perhaps, Stipulate, Diamond Lover, Sharivari, Athenia, Tycoon Lil, Old Son, Sugartariat

}}

Colin Maurice Jillings (11 March 1931 – 23 December 2022) was a New Zealand Thoroughbred horse racing trainer from the early 1950s until his retirement in September 2005. He is considered as one of the greatest trainers in thoroughbred horse racing in NZ. He was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in 2008.

Early life and career

Jillings was born in Auckland on 11 March 1931.{{cite news |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10371022 |first=Juliet |last=Rowan |title=Big week ahead for trainer in retirement |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=4 March 2006 |access-date=28 June 2018}} He became an apprentice jockey at Ellerslie Racecourse at the age of 12 in 1943. After riding track work at Ellerslie each morning, he would catch the train to school at St Peter's College as one of the "Ellerslie Boys" who commuted there daily.

He was a successful apprentice jockey. His biggest success as an apprentice was the 1946 Railway Stakes aboard Royal Scot, a race he would later win three times as a trainer. Increasing weight brought a premature end to a promising Jockey career.[https://www.st-peters.school.nz/history/ PW Watt, "History", St Peter's College] (Retrieved 28 June 2018)

Training career

When he retired he had amassed a total of 1327 New Zealand winners, 703 of those with long time training partner Richard Yuill.[http://www.racinghalloffame.co.nz/Inductee-Videos/People/Trainers/Colin-Jillings Colin Jillings, New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame] (Retrieved 28 June 2018)

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.{{cite web | url=https://loveracing.nz/News/38653/ColinJillingswasatrainingcolossus.aspx | title=Colin Jillings was a training colossus }}

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 some other trainers, Jillings managed to keep producing top horses year after year.Glyn Tucker, "Thoroughbreds are my Life", AH & AW Reed, Wellington, 1978, p. 211.

He trained the first of four Auckland Cup winners in 1956 Yeman, followed by Stipulate (1963), Perhaps (1976) and Irish Chance (in partnership with Richard Yuill) 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 (1958) followed by Stipulate (1960), Uncle Remus (1977), I'm Henry (1983) and The Phantom Chance (1992).

Notable horses

Notable horses he trained included:

Jumping

In his earlier years from limited runners, he was also a noted trainer of jumpers, winning:

Apprentices

Jillings was also a noted mentor of apprentices, the best being his long time stable jockey Bob Vance who was the rider of:

Vance won the NZ Jockeys Premiership, as an apprentice (1977/78) and had a successful career riding internationally in Hong Kong and Macau.

Other apprentices for Jillings were:

Retirement and death

Jillings' final race-day runner was Cheval De Troy who finished last behind Makybe Diva in the 2005 The BMW at Rosehill.

Jillings died in Auckland on 23 December 2022, at the age of 91.{{cite news |url=https://notices.nzherald.co.nz/nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/name/colin-jillings-obituary?pid=203490952 |title=Colin Jillings obituary |date=24 December 2022 |work=The New Zealand Herald |access-date=24 December 2022}}{{cite news |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/racing/300773098/master-horse-trainer-colin-jillings-dies-aged-91 |title=Master horse trainer Colin Jillings dies, aged 91 |date=23 December 2022 |work=Stuff |access-date=23 December 2022}}

See also

References

{{reflist}}

Sources

  • {{cite book | first=Jack | last=Glengarry | title=The Great Decade of NZ Racing 1970 – 1980 | publisher=Collins | location=Auckland | year=1983}}
  • {{cite book | first=Jack | last=Glengarry | title=Another Great Decade of NZ Racing 1980 – 1990 | publisher=Collins | location=Auckland | year=1990}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jillings, Colin}}

Category:1931 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:New Zealand jockeys

Category:New Zealand racehorse trainers

Category:New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame inductees

Category:People educated at St Peter's College, Auckland

Category:Sportspeople from Auckland