Passion for horses comes at a price
He doesn’t rack up the wins like Mark Purdon, but Rimu hobby trainer Steve Lock does have plenty of passion for harness racing. finds out what drives Lock to put horses ahead of other things in life.
Steve Lock claims horse racing has cost him two marriages and a relationship. Known to many as Lockie, he spends long hours caring for his horses, training and racing them. It’s his passion.
He enjoys their company and plans his life around them.
‘‘They are my mates, my reason for living,’’ he says.
‘‘I’d be f..... without my horse truck and horses.
The 63-year-old battler shares in the ownership of most of the 17 trotters/pacers on his 8.09 hectares of leased land at Rimu, near Invercargill. Most of the horses are cast-offs from other trainers, given to him as freebies, bought for $200 or on deals. They are kept in paddocks.
Lock lives in a caravan on his Rimu property.
The caravan is an early model and lacks a woman’s touch. It has the fragrance of a barn and grain sacks on the floor, but that’s OK, Lock’s not out to impress anyone . . . he’s a racing man, not a householder.
He moved to Rimu after he and partner of more than 20 years, Sue Campbell, sold their Clifton home and horse training facility three years ago.
Sue accepts Lock’s passion for horse racing, but prefers to live in Invercargill.
Lock showers and does his washing at Sue’s house and often returns to Rimu with meals made by her.
Lock’s caravan was parked under a hedge before he took it over.
‘‘I’m really happy with it, apart from the lack of space.’’
Most people would frown on Lock’s living arrangements but he is happy with the set-up and it enables him easy access to his horses.
Also on the property are 100 free range hens or roosters.
‘‘I brought 15 hens and a rooster here from Clifton . . . they’ve got out of control.’’
If Lock has suitable horses for grass track racing, he usually takes a team to meetings on the West Coast between Christmas and New Year.
The main reason behind the trip is to take his mind off Christmas. ‘‘That’s when I walked out on my first wife,’’ he said.
Lock usually sleeps in his horse truck and eats breakfast in the cab on trips.
For the past 15 months his regular income came from filling shelves at Pak’N Save, Invercargill, five mornings a week (3.30 to 8.30).
He occasionally drives a forklift there to unload pallets of grocery items from truck and trailers.
‘‘I love it. There’s no stress and you know what you’ve got to do and you do it,’’ Lock said of his shelf-filling role.
After a morning shift, he heads back to Rimu to feed his horses and then starts training them on his 400m track.
He sometimes works a few at Oreti Beach or the Invercargill racecourse.
He gained his forklift licence when employed at a grain and seed store for two years prior to joining Pak’N Save.
Earlier he did 34 years of computer work, starting off at the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.
He was also a computer operator at Southcom, formerly owned by Invercargill-based H & J Smith which owns a chain of department stores.
Daily data and transactions from the stores was processed at Southcom.
Lock worked the night shift at Southcom which gave him the day to train his horses. Southcom was staffed 24 hours a day until technology slowly turned it into an automated operation nearly five years ago.
During his career with computers, Lock had a year with Telecom before being made redundant.
One of Lock’s colleagues at the aluminium smelter, Warren Attfield, later hit the headlines when jailed in 1996 for embezzling $2.8m from Invercargill woodchip company South Wood Exports.
Attfield used the money for betting.
It was through Attfield’s father, Ted, that Lock got hooked on training racehorses in 1977.
Ted trained at Wyndham and Lock jumped at the opportunity to drive of one of his horses.
‘‘As soon as the horse started walking, I knew this was for me.
‘‘The cart with the manuka shafts, it was great feeling,’’ Lock said.
He started helping in Attfield’s stable in his spare time,
When the trainer retired, Lock took over Attfield’s racing colours.
Another twist in Lock’s life came in 1984.
While working at Ocean Beach meat plant he got a phone call telling him his house in Gorge Road had burned to the ground. It was heartbreaking news. ‘‘I lost the lot and it was under insured,’’ he said.
Turning the clock back further, Lock had a serious drinking problem for 13 years.
As a 9 or 10-year-old he had the odd alcoholic drink at parties hosted by his parents.
He started drinking more and had his first alcohol blackout as a 12-year-old.
‘‘I’d get into the sherry bottle and then topped it up with water so the levels didn’t alter.’’
In his late teens and early 20s, he copped fines or lost his licence for drink-driving offences.
At one time he faced jail after causing a crash while over the limit. His lawyer, Cleland Murdoch, asked Judge Ian Hay to remand Lockie to allow for a probation report to be done.
Lock said: ‘‘I can still remember what Judge Hay said to Cleland.
‘‘Do you think it will help as I could deal with this now . . . and you know how. ‘‘Those words are etched in my memory.’’
The upshot of the court case was a fine, loss of licence, reparation and three months at Queen Mary Hospital, Hammer Springs, which at the time was the South Island’s leading rehabilitation centre for sufferers of alcohol and drug addiction.
Queen Mary Hospital closed in the 2003.
‘‘I had my first day there on my 25th birthday,’’ Lock said.
Since then he has not had a drink of alcohol.
He said he overcame the addiction with help from Judge Hay, Cleland Murdoch, probation officer Dave Ally, National Society of Alcohol and Drug Dependency officer Tom Joll and Tiwai Point aluminium smelter personnel officer Nic Silvestor.
The aluminium smelter kept Lock’s job while he recovered.
‘‘I still get emotional about that part of my life,’’ he said.
He says the best thing he’s done in the past 18 months was to reconnect with his children, Regan, 36, of Christchurch, and Amanda, 38, of Invercargill.
‘‘I had very little to do with my kids for 30 years,’’ Lock said.
‘‘I didn’t want to interfere with their lives.’’
His partner encouraged him to make the effort and contact them.
He now makes time every fortnight to visit Amanda and his 4-year-old granddaughter Indy.
‘‘My only regret is that I didn’t do it earlier.’’