ROBBIE DOLAN 'ON SONG' IN QUEENSLAND

By Graham Potter | Friday, November 3, 2023

Robbie Dolan has been pretty much ‘on song’ since settling into Queensland racing.

In the last month since his first ride in Queensland on October 4, Dolan has ridden at five racetracks and won races at four of them … at Eagle Farm, Doomben (twice – a race to race double), Sunshine Coast (three times) and at Gatton.

Dolan’s seven wins (at the time of writing) have come from thirty-nine rides … which translates into impressive eighteen percent winning strike-rate for somebody trying to break through in a new racing precinct … but, if you follow his form graph, and the steep upward curve it has taken in recent weeks, Dolan’s statement becomes even more emphatic.

While still finding his way from a standing start in the first half of October, Dolan’s first seventeen rides did not produce a winner. He then broke through at Eagle Farm on October 21 and immediately followed up with a second winner at the Sunshine Coast on October 22.

While it is still early days, at this stage it is fair to say that Dolan has not missed a beat since then.

In fact, in his last four meetings (thirteen rides) Dolan has brought home five winners (at a thirty-eight percent strike rate).

There is nothing like riding winners to announce your arrival and that message has now been relayed loud and clear.

While the likes of multiple premiership winning trainers Robert Heathcote and Stuart Kendrick and have already ultilised Dolan’s services, the fact that Dolan has gone looking for and taking on work in all directions can be firmly gauged by the rider having already been booked for rides by no less than twenty trainers in the short space of time he has been in Queensland … suggesting that it as much his work ethic as his talent that has helped send his quest for success on a new trajectory.

“Things were drying up a little bit for me in Sydney, so I came to Queensland looking for more opportunities,” explained Dolan, “and I probably mentally needed a change as well.

“My manager has been doing a great job and that shows with the amount of different trainers I’ve been riding for.

“I think it is a great place to live … and hopefully we get the family up here pretty soon.

“I’m by myself at the moment. My partner is in Sydney. We’ve got a young baby … still got a house in Sydney …and dogs, so it will take a while before we get that all organized.

“My partner is a hard worker. She is working flat-out herself. We are trying to save to maybe buy a house up here. That will be the goal.

“We’ll give it all a crack and see what happens.”

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