Racehorse TALK

Obituary:

Bruce McLachlan always lived by a simple adage: have the best for your horses - gear, feed, stables, staff, trackwork riders and jockeys.

Bruce was the first to admit he learned much of his trade from the great Brisbane trainer Fred Best, who also lived by that adage.

It was a formula that saw Bruce develop from a battling trainer at Cribb Island, in Brisbane's bayside, to one of the world's top horsemen.

Bruce's beginnings were humble as he started as a policeman based at Mt Isa. He  claimed he could have made commissioner.

There he met his wife, Lorraine, and they returned to Brisbane where he decided to support his young family as a racehorse trainer.

From a hand-built stable at Cribb Island, he produced his first winner, Risdon Gem, at Albion Park  on October 12, 1968.

Risdon Gem and another good creeker, Beersheba, kept the wolf from the door and in the early 1970s Bruce moved to train at Bundamba (Ipswich).

There he got his first really good horse in Latin Romance, who ran second to the champion sprinter Tontonan in the 1973 AJC Sires.

Bruce had a taste for the big time and decided to move to Eagle Farm as a trainer.

He received a good offer for his Bundamba stables and made the move.

It was a bit of good fortune because only months later the stables were inundated with water during the biggest flood ever seen in south-east Queensland.

Had Bruce stayed he would have been wiped out.

Things started to go well for the young trainer and he appeared in Brisbane's top-10 trainers for the first time when 10th with 12 winners in 1974-75.

As the decade moved on, Bruce remained in the top 10, gradually building up his team until he won his first premiership in 1978-79.

By this time, Bruce had a steady stream of top horses, including Princess Reichen, Fix Flush, Cloud Pink and Tactics.

But his real star had two legs when Sydney apprentice Gavan Duffy transferred to the stable in the early 1980s.

For several years, Bruce and "The Duff" terrorised Brisbane bookmakers combining with about 200 winners at all tracks.

In the mid-1980s, Bruce again saw the writing on the wall and decided to relocate to a specially built private racing centre at Thornhill Park, near Caboolture.

Jim Atkins took the trainers title while Bruce was relocating, but in the next 10 years it was all B J McLachlan as the leader of the premierships.

Again Bruce had a two-legged stable star in jockey Brian York, who remained a close friend.

It was also a time when Bruce produced a virtual Who's Who of top Queensland racehorses.

He also became a major player on the national scene thanks to horses such as St Jude, Planet Ruler, Chortle, With Me, Al Mansour and Sublimate.

The trend continued into the new century with top gallopers such as Virage de Fortune, Crimson Reign and Acorns.

About five years ago, Bruce made the tough decision to sell Thornhill Park and move to Caloundra racetrack.

Again he built a state-of-the-art stable complex from which his reduced team continued to thrive.

McLachlan Place has been home to smart horses such as Acorns, Diamondondinside and KeyBar Nights.

But the genuine star was the Magic Millions-Golden Slipper winner Phelan Ready.

Late last year Bruce decided to go into a training partnership with his son Jason, who is also a well-respected horseman.

The pair have currently had 44 winners in just five months, including a Magic Millions and Golden Slipper.

The name McLachlan will remain folklore in Queensland racing for many years to come.