Lee stable to call 'Beef Capital' home

By Jordan Gerrans

The Lee stable is set to make their presence felt in the Sunshine State this week ahead of a tilt at the upcoming Northern Queensland Winter Racing Carnival.

The father-and-son team of Stephen and Jordan Lee from Ballina have sent eight gallopers to Central Queensland with their first runners to be on Thursday afternoon at Callaghan Park. 

They will again have starters in the northern area of Queensland on Saturday at Mackay. 

The leading Northern Rivers team could swell their numbers to as high as 20 when the carnival rolls around through Central and North Queensland in the coming months. 

While it is a long way from their Ballina base to the ‘Beef Capital’ of Australia, the Lee stable is desperate to find suitable races for their big team of horses following the glut of washouts on the Northern Rivers this year. 

Jordan recalls his father sending a crop of horses north just over a decade ago when they were in a similar wet scenario on their home deck. 

“Between my dad and myself, we are trying to get away from the wet weather down on the Northern Rivers at the moment,” Jordan said.

“It is just too hard to race at the moment with all the washed-out meetings.

“We made a bit of a plan to pack up and come up here.

“Dad has had great success up in Rocky over the years when it was wet down home, he has brought a team up here before.

“It has been a little while since we last came up, maybe around a decade ago.

“It is a little bit harder now, but we are doing the same thing now while it is wet leading towards the Rocky carnival.”

Jordan arrived with eight horses on Saturday of last week and will go between Rockhampton and Ballina over the coming two months. 

The history books show that Stephen Lee prepared multiple winners at Rockhampton, Townsville and Mackay during that northern stint all those years ago.

Stephen has more than 800 victories on his resume including a Group 3 triumph. 

Stephen’s son Jordan is only in the infancy of his training tenure, collecting two winners so far after taking out his own ticket late last year. 

One of those victories came at Gatton in late April when Kirra's Sister landed the prize. 

“Now with a bit more racing under these horses' belt, hopefully we can kick on and go a little bit better,” he said.

The Lees have initially taken a crop of lower-rated horses north with an aim of them progressing through the grades. 

They could soon be joined by a few more experienced stablemates for the rich part of the upcoming carnival. 

“The carnival is a lot harder these days with the likes of Tony Gollan bringing up horses up this way,” Jordan said.

“It is hard racing. But, if we can get a few horses into the lower-graded races over the carnival, there is still nice prizemoney there up for grabs.

“Hopefully we can get some confidence up with our horses and they can string a couple together and might be able to race during the carnival.”

He's Poplar will start in the Maiden Handicap over 1400 metres on Thursday while Immortality heads towards the Class 1 Handicap over 1200 metres. 

Young apprentice Corey Sutherland takes the ride on both the Lee runners. 

“He's Poplar, he looks well placed in that maiden with the big, long straight,” the trainer said.

“He might just need the cut out of the track.

“Immortality in a small field, I have a bit of an opinion of him so I would like to see him step up now that we have come up this way.

“They are both good chances on Thursday.”

The team heads further north on Saturday with four runners nominated for the Mackay program. 

“Labarna is coming off a last-start win at Grafton and is stepping up to a 0 – 55 Handicap, it looks a nice race for him,” he said.

“Yukanuma is always around the money in strong races at Ipswich and Grafton over their carnivals.

“Those two should be thereabouts on Saturday.”

The Mackay Turf Club meeting on Saturday is headlined by the $35,000 Amateurs Cup.