NATALIE MCCALL CALLS TIME ON HER TRAINING CAREER

By Graham Potter | Thursday, October 1, 2026

Natalie McCall, who stamped her name indelibly in the Queensland racing record books when she became the first woman to win the Stradbroke Handicap when River Lad saluted in the 2014 edition of the Sunshine State’s signature race, has called time on her training career.

River Lad’s historic return to scale was actually the second time McCall had been in the winners’ enclosure for a Stradbroke … the first being when she strapped the John Hawkes trained Crawl all of thirteen years earlier in 2001, but it was the Stradbroke win of River Lad that turned McCall’s childhood dream into reality.

As McCall stated at the time, “As a Queenslander this is the pinnacle of racing. I’d rather win this than a Melbourne Cup.”

Those are great and well deserved memories for McCall to take away with River Lad recording one of the closest wins in the big race, coming home a nostril ahead of Temple Of Boom under a masterful ride from Damien Oliver, who landed his first win in the race after many years of trying.

As the two leaders chased to the line, it was always going to be an historic win on the day because, had the result gone the other way, Temple Of Boom’s rider Tegan Harrison would have become the first female jockey to win the race. So, it was quite a significant edition of the Stradbroke.

While River Lad’s win, at a starting price of $31 after jumping from a number fifteen barrier draw, did put McCall’s name up in lights, it never changed her down to earth and realistic attitude one bit and that, and her other admirable attributes have seen her hold a loyal ownership base and staff contingent right until the end of her training career.

It is that realistic attitude which has brought her to this point after so many years in the industry.

Training is as much a pursuit of survival as it is of success these days and the relentless day to day, never ending pressure can take its toll with burnout being an all too common result … and McCall is openly honest about how that has affected her.

Her words, “I’d rather go and be happy,’ sums up, simply and definitively, the major reason behind her decision to close her stable.

They say that once you are established in racing it is hard to get out of the game. Well, McCall has not said she will be out of racing forever, just that she is taken a step back and having some time out before evaluating what she will do next.

She leaves the scene at this time with the respect of the industry and a secure place in racing’s history.