Gollan aims to keep the ball-rolling with four-pronged assault on Group 2
Tony Gollan’s dominance over Queensland’s training ranks shows no signs of slowing down and the Brisbane-based horseman kicks off his assault at the winter carnival with an arsenal of in-form runners on Saturday.
Boasting a 20 per cent strike rate from his last 50 starters, Gollan leads both the Queensland trainer premiership (163 winners) and the Queensland metro trainer premiership (114 winners), and he looks primed to extend that dominance across the remainder of the Brisbane Winter Carnival.
“I have a great team and a good bunch of horses,” Gollan told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“We thought coming into this carnival we had pretty good depth throughout, for the horses that we have, and we were really hopeful that we could be strong week in, week out, and that’s how it’s panned out so far.
“Every week it gets a little bit harder as we get towards Stradbroke Day, we’re well aware of that, but we’ve got the five weeks of the Brisbane Carnival now upon us as our home track.
“We’ve got nice horses and a really good team of people who are doing a good job with them, and hopefully the success can keep looking after itself.”
With a clear leading margin of 71 winners, the trainer is on track to claim an incredible 12th consecutive Queensland Metropolitan Trainer Premiership in the 2024/25 season.
“God willing, it’ll be 12. That would be another good feat for us. Obviously, whether we get near a metro record or not, I’m not sure. I’d love to train 200 overall winners for the season. It’s something I’ve been unable to achieve in the past and I’ve got a couple of little goals there that I want to try and achieve for the season.
“But that all comes down to doing things well week in, week out, dotting our Is and crossing our Ts. I think the procedures, the way we’re doing things well at the moment, as long as we can continue to do that, then the results can look after themselves.”
Gollan enjoyed a stakes-race treble on the card at the Gold Coast last Saturday, as talented mare Floozie (Zoustar) took out the Silk Stocking (Listed, 1400m), while Rockribbed (Night Of Thunder) broke through for his first black-type victory the ATC Trophy (Listed, 1200m).
The day was capped off when stable star Antino (Redwood) returned to the races with a blistering 3.5-length first-up win in the Hollindale Stakes (Gr 2, 1800m).
This Saturday, Gollan will saddle four chances in the Spirit Of Boom Classic (Gr 2, 1200m) at Doomben. The race, named in honour of a horse Gollan prepared and formerly known as the Champagne Classic, has an honour roll that includes Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible), Zousain (Zoustar) and Dubious (Not A Single Doubt).
The first of the stable’s chances in the two-year-old feature is Midnight Spirit (Spirit Of Boom), a $150,000 Karaka National Yearling Sale buy, who scored an impressive 1.3-length win on debut last December. Last seen finishing third in the Darlello Stakes (Listed, 1000m) last time, Gollan believes the colt is well placed to improve again from a low draw and will thrive in the step up to 1200 metres.
“He was good last time out. He settled back off them over the 1000 metres and had to go through horses and suffered interference. He was able to shoulder through and I thought he was really good through the line. The low draw on Saturday suits him, the step to 1200 metres is a big plus, and I think he’ll run terrific.
Lining up alongside Midnight Spirit will be Lockyer (I Am Invincible) and, while he is still searching for his first win after four starts, Gollan is optimistic the regally bred $800,000 Rosemont-owned colt can translate his home-track promise to raceday performance.
“He is a horse I really like. I’ve made some key changes to him, I thought he choked down the other day at Eagle Farm. We put a crossover and a tongue tie on him. His work’s being great. He’s a very impressive looking horse, but I really want to see him show us on raceday what I see of him at home. So we’ll ride him quiet from the barrier, I just want to really see him hit the line.
The $1.2 million filly Hi Barbie (I Am Invincible) will also represent the Gollan stable in the Group 2 this weekend. The juvenile burst onto the scene with a debut win in the Phelan Ready 2YO Plate (Listed, 1100m), will have to defy the wide draw of barrier 14, but Gollan hopes the talented filly can return to her best after a string of luckless unplaced runs.
“Her two worst runs have been at Eagle Farm for two different reasons, but two reasons nonetheless. I think back at Doomben is a plus, but the wide gate is not ideal.
“Tim Clark rode her in the Magic Millions and I thought she was the run of the race on that occasion. So I don’t know where we’re going to get from that draw, but she’s definitely in good shape. She’s trained on beautifully, and certainly has the ability to figure in a race like this.
The daughter of Yarraman Park’s banner stallion I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) is out of star mare Outback Barbie (Spirit Of Boom), who was a four-time stakes winner for Gollan.
“I think she does have the class of her mother. She’s a different sort of filly, she’s a much bigger, scopier filly with a massive stride. Her mother had a really good turn of foot and was a real sprinting filly. I think this girl could get that little bit further, there is no reason why she wouldn’t get 1400 metres or even a mile. She has a big action, I think she’s a really quality horse, but I really want to see her start to do things a bit better and start to show me that.”
The sole emergency in the field, Gollan is hopeful ‘untapped’ filly Lucky Lass can gain a start. A 1.5-length winner at her sole race start at the Gold Coast, the daughter of Lucky Vega (Lope de Vega) was a $70,000 Inglis Classic buy for her trainer.
“She’s a sharp little filly. She begins, puts herself there, she had one start where she was good and she won. She’s a nice filly, she’s trained on. She’s not a big thing, but she’s very athletic and she’s all business.
“She just really knows what it’s all about. So she’s a filly I like, I don’t know how good she is. I think she’s pretty untapped like a lot of these two year olds. But she’s a lovely, really professional racehorse this one.”
Each of Gollan’s four runners also hold nominations for both the BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and the J.J Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m) later in the carnival, but the trainer says progression will be run-dependent.
“I think with most two-year-olds this time of year, we just take it one run at a time, I know it sounds a bit cliche, but we do. I just want to see them all race well, if they race well and look like they’re heading in the right direction, we head towards the Sires’.
“If I need to deviate from the path for a poor performance or not finishing off or whatnot, then I’ll do that then. But if I can get positive runs from all four, then we’ll head towards the sires’.”
Gollan will also send out two runners in the day’s feature, the Doomben 10,0000 (Gr 1, 1200m) and expects Hidden Wealth (Better Than Ready) to relish rain-affected ground, while Zarastro (I Am Invincible) will only run if the surface stays in the soft range.
“I think the wetter, the better for Hidden Wealth. I’d be very forgiving of his first up failure. He was caught three wide and the limb working as hard as anything. He’s got the low draw here, he loves wet ground. Got a very familiar jockey back on board in Tommy Berry. He can be a big, big improver, could easily be a knockout.
“Zarastro probably wants to track no worse than a soft six. If we can get a soft track, then he will take part if the track gets too wet, into the heavy range, then he’ll let him sit for another day.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the carnival, following last weekend’s heroics, Antino is set to go head-to-head with champion mare Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai) in the Doomben Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) a week on Saturday and, after pulling up well from Saturday’s feature, Gollan believes the gelding is ready to go.
“He has come through the weekend remarkably well. He pulled up remarkably fit Saturday and he’s really bounced through the run beautifully.
“He was back under saddle today. He’ll just stretch his legs a bit next Tuesday on the course proper, and he’s pretty ready to go. On the weekend he paraded a little bit fresh, so it’s brought him on really nicely, so there’s not too much to do now, just maintenance heading towards Doomben.”