APOSTLE TRIUMPHS IN THE PAT O'SHEA PLATE

By Graham Potter | Friday, March 27, 2026

The Pat Webster trained Apostle scored one for the locals at Toowoomba when he outgunned the Tony Gollan trained Boomelli in the featured $125 000 Pat O’Shea Plate over 1200m for two-year-olds, prevailing in a highly pressurised finish.

The son of St Mark’s Basilica had saluted at Eagle Farm three weeks earlier in similar fighting fashion, upstaging the $1.60 favourite Martist that day in a QTIS Two-Year-Old Handicap over 1300m, and he again shut out the more fancied runners here when keeping Boomelli and Swift Dragon back in second and third place respectively.

On a very windy day at Clifford Park, Swift Dragon, who saluted at double figure odds in the $500 000 QTIS Jewel (2YO) over 1200m at the Gold Coast in his last start, topped the betting boards at $2.10, Boomelli was on the second line of betting at$3.60 and Apostle jumped at starting price of $5.50.

Mark Du Plessis, who was on board Apostle in the win at Eagle Farm, again held the reins of the Webster trained runner here, and he positioned Apostle beautifully on the heels of the leaders all the way to the home turn where he cut the corner and pushed Apostle forward into the leading line.

Boomelli, who has raced just ahead of Apostle in the first half of the race, went with the Webster trained runner and chased hard down the centre of the track.

With 100m left to run there was little between these two runners. If anything, it looked like Boomelli had momentum on her side, but Apostle just put his head down and simply refused to be beaten so that, when push came to shove, Apostle claimed his reward with a hard-earned win leaving Boomelli having to settle for second place.

The favourite Swift Dragon wasn’t the best away and raced at the back of the field until the approach to the home turn where he was asked to make up ground out wide on the track.

Swift Dragon straightened as the widest runner, with some three lengths to make up, and, although he improved to snap at the heels of Boomelli all the way down the home straight, the chestnut never seriously threatened to go past that runner and was never close enough to challenge Apostle.