Generous gift produces ‘freak’ Foxbridge winner
Richard Edmunds - Raceform • August 29th, 2025 2:00 PM
Bay Of Plenty owner-breeders Joanne McKeagg and Gloria Macrae are being taken on the ride of their lives by Sterling Express, who took his exciting career to new heights in Saturday’s Gr. 2 Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate.
The son of Shamexpress was already the winner of seven of his 18 starts before the Te Rapa feature, but the Foxbridge presented a new and daunting challenge for the up-and-comer. It was his first time racing at Group level, his first time testing his talents against such a strong line-up, and his first time racing under weight-for-age conditions. A spectacular last-to-first performance proved that the Mark Brosnan-trained gelding was well and truly up to the task.
“It was an incredible performance,” McKeagg told RaceForm. “He really sprouted wings and flew in the straight. Someone said to me that he must have had a couple of Red Bulls, like in those TV ads – ‘Red Bull gives you wings.’
“We were absolutely thrilled to bits. I still can’t really believe it now, even a few days later. We’ve never had a win like it.”
McKeagg is married to the former Tauranga trainer Brian, who himself played a key part in the Sterling Express story when he went to the Karaka yearling sales in 2012. He paid $16,000 to buy a filly by Keeper out of Jennibegood. The latter was a five-time winner up to Listed level, and she herself finished fourth in the 2002 Foxbridge Plate behind O’Malleys Boy, La Bella Dama and Millennium.
The Keeper filly was named On Parole and would go on to win six races and more than $80,000 from the McKeagg stable before finding even greater fame in the broodmare paddock.
“On Parole won six races herself, and Brian picked her up at Karaka for her owner Dave Hancox,” Joanne McKeagg said. “When Dave passed away, his wife very kindly gave the mare to me, which was an incredibly generous gift.
“I started breeding from her along with my very good friend Gloria Macrae. We actually used to train for her mum and dad. The first good horse we trained for Gloria was Silvaraad (a seven-race winner between 2002 and 2005). So we’ve known each other for a very long time now and it’s great to share this experience with her.”
The first horse Macrae and McKeagg bred together from On Parole was Grace ‘N’ Glory, who is by Shamexpress and has won four times in a 32-race career from the Brosnan stable. But her year-younger brother Sterling Express has far surpassed those achievements.
“Grace ‘N’ Glory has won four races, and she’ll be racing again at Cambridge on Friday,” McKeagg said. “She may have found her level now, but she’s done a good job.
“But Brian has always reckoned that Sterling Express is a freak. He’s thought that from the very start. He’s just shown us so much all the way through.”
The Foxbridge winner has given the couple a timely boost after some challenging times in recent years.
“Brian and Mark Brosnan go a long way back, which is one of the reasons why these horses are in his stable at Matamata,” McKeagg said. “Three years ago, Brian had a stroke. We would have had about half a dozen horses in work ourselves at that time. And not long before that, I’d had a fall off a horse, so Brian had to send some of our horses over to Mark to keep them ticking over after that.
“Then Brian had his stroke and we had to make a few life choices. Brian couldn’t continue to train. The racing team all went to Mark, and at that stage I also signed On Parole exclusively over to Gloria, knowing she would continue breeding from her. She can keep going with what is now a Group Two-producing mare, and money has never changed hands – it’s all thanks to the generosity of Dave Hancox’s wife.”
The McKeaggs are fully embracing their ownership journey with Sterling Express, and they are now counting down the days to the Gr. 1 Proisir Plate at Ellerslie on September 6.
“We’re hugely excited about heading into a Group One race with a real chance,” Joanne McKeagg said. “I’ll be there on course again, absolutely. And even Brian is going to be there. That’s a big thing for him, he doesn’t venture out all that often after his stroke, so we’re really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a special day.”
