7-03-01

McKenzie IS Elendil!
Xoanon @ 8:42 pm EST
It seems a little late to be posting casting news, (someone please send me a complete cast list!!!) but here we go, Kiwi Peter McKenzie will play Elendil.

Elendil, the Dunedain king of Arnor and Gondor, he was, along with Gil-Galad (Mark Ferguson) responsible for the downfall of Sauron during the Last Alliance, but was eventually killed.

As for McKenzie, he is a horse trainer, lawyer, and aspiring actor. Look for a pic from us soon. Thanks to Calindy

McKenzie has Lead Role at Ipswich

by Tony Meaney

Actor, lawyer, businessman, horse trainer. Take your pick and Jaybejay's New Zealand trainer Peter McKenzie fits the category. McKenzie arrived yesterday from New Zealand with Jaybejay and reported the horse had travelled much better than he did.

"I am a bit of a mess because after flying fron Auckland we stayed for a few hours in Graeme Rogerson's Sydney stable before catching the morning mail plane to Brisbane," McKenzie said.

Jaybejay will run in Saturday's $175,000 Group Three Ipswich Cup with apprentice Anthony Merritt on board. McKenzie returns to New Zealand after the race for filming on director Peter Jackson's eagerly awaited Lord Of The Rings.

"I play King Elendil in the film but it has been a lot of fun. Horse training is a lot harder," he said. McKenzie gained the role after a lot of theatre work in New Zealand and enjoys acting.

Most of Lord Of The Rings has been shot but McKenzie said the appalling weather conditions in New ZEaland before he "died" made it necessary to delay and re-shoot some scenes.

As a lawyer McKenzie did trial work in New Zealand but these days concentrates on running a deer velvet company. He runs a 1500-strong deer herd on his Otaki property along with a 20-strong broodmare band that support stallion His Royal Highness. The business has the potential to become huge because Asian buyers regard deer velvet as an aphrodisiac.

"It is a misconception that we kill the deer for the horn. Each year we clip the horn and NZ has a 500-tonne export quota to Korea and China," McKenzie said.

His Royal Highness is well known in Queensland through the efforts of the Kay Lane trained Figurehead and Figurante. Jaybejay is a third generation product of McKenzie's personal breeding plan and the five year old gelding has been a late maturer.

"I never bothered offering him for sale as a young horse because he was always going to be a late maturer," he said.