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Part-owner, and breeder of the Listed Ballarat Cup (2000m) winner Irish Flame, originally is still very much a Taranaki girl.
She may have lived on the Central Coast of New South Wales for 40 years but Margaret Reid, the
So much so that the green and brown colors that Irish Flame races in feature a stylized logo of Mount Taranaki and the nearby Waiwhakaiho river. She shares those colors with her husband Bill and fellow breeder and part-owner, Inglewood farmer Gary Kemp.
For good measure, there were another couple of ‘Naki’ boys associated with the Ballarat Cup win, trainer Brett Scott and jockey Michael Walker.
Now a 6YO by the versatile Zabeel stallion Zed, Irish Flame won his first race back in 2017 and he became that stallion’s first and to date only 2YO winner when he won the Gr.3 Taranaki 2YO Classic (1200m).
In the care of trainer John Wheeler, a relation of Reid’s through her mother, he won a further five races, before transferring to Mornington this year and his Ballarat Cup win completed a hat-trick that took his tally to nine wins.
That change of location took place after a trial placing at Waverley at the end of June and Irish Flame hasn’t looked back.
The six-year-old has won three of his eight starts for Scott, with a further four placings, and has added A$514,850 since crossing the Tasman.
The racing and breeding journey for the Reid and Kemp partnership started about 10 years ago when Margaret decided she wanted to pursue a life-long dream of having a horse race in Melbourne.
Fleur De L’Orient produced six foals before she was purchased by the partnership including Langridge Street, by Elvstroem, a winner of four races who was placed at Listed level in Tasmania, and Volcanic Sky, who won five races also in Tasmania.
For her new partnership, she has produced Irish Flame, and Irish Flare a lightly raced gelding by Haradasun who they have in work with John Wheeler, along with Fleur De Montagne a 2YO full-sister to Irish Flame who is also in his care.
The next season we found a new vet who picked up the problem straight away, and the mare had a wee operation and got in-foal to Dundeel on the first serve. She produced a stunning filly last year, and then unfortunately collapsed a tendon.