McCall Returns To His Roots

Darren McCall made a name for himself as a conditioner in North America before relocating back to Australia. The horseman is now making headlines for making another move back 'home'.

The 51-year-old McCall has trained all around the world and has most recently been based at Menangle in New South Wales, before recently returning to Queensland, where he originally learned his trade within harness racing. He currently conditions a stable of about 16 horses, and is excited to be back where it all started for him.

“It has been a long trip around the world and back again, but I feel it is probably the right time now to move back with the way the QBRED [incentive program] is,” McCall said in a recent interview.

“The way QRIC (Queensland Racing and Integrity Commission) look to have done a really good job over the last five or six years, it looks like everything is on the way up.

“We always kept our eye on what was going on here and obviously things just seemed to get better every year," McCall continued. “It is something we kept looking at and, in the end, we bit the bullet and come back."

QBRED is an incentive program delivering more than $3.5 million in additional returns for breeders and owners of  harness horses bred and racing in Queensland. Queensland’s highly vaunted QBRED scheme will expand in 2022 with the first-win bonus swelling to $14,000.

With more than $3 million in bonuses up for grabs this year – along with a further $500,000 in feature race stakes – QBRED continues to be the country's premier breeding incentive scheme for harness racing.

McCall has won countless big races all over the world, accruing upwards of $13 million in prize money across his career. He would have liked to be in Queensland in September of last year but with border and lockdown setbacks, he has only recently made the move official.

“He is an excellent addition to our training ranks here in Queensland," said Racing Queensland’s Senior Harness Racing Manager David Brick. "On the back of champion trainer Tim Butt being in the process of moving to the Sunshine State, Darren's presence only adds to the quality we have in Queensland in 2022.

“We are excited to see the knowledge and expertise that Darren will bring to our local industry from his experience around the world.”

(with files from HRA)