Colin Jillings
Colin Jillings (born 11 March 1931, in Auckland) was a leading trainer in thoroughbred horse racing in New Zealand from the early 1950s through until his retirement in September 2005. Jillings was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in 2008. Early career. An "Ellerslie boy", Colin Jillings became an apprentice jockey at the age of 12 (1943). He would catch the train to school St Peter's College, Auckland each day after earlier riding trackwork at the Ellerslie Racecourse. He was a successful apprentice jockey before increasing weight brought a premature end to a promising  career. His biggest success as an apprentice was the 1946 Railway Stakes aboard Royal Scot, (a race he would later win 3 times as a trainer). Career Highlights. 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. 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. He trained the first of 4 Auckland Cup winners in 1956 Yemen, 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 1959 Grand National Hurdles with Armed (owned by himself); the 1971 Great Northern Hurdles/Steeples double, and 1972 Great Northern Steeplechase, with Brockton (for great friend, Wellington businessman, Doug Tse) and the 1987 Great Northern Steeples with DeductAble, in partnership with Richard Yuill (with both sharing the ownership). 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: