ANTINO - COMFORTABLE AND ON TRACK FOR THE MEMSIE

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Caulfield, August 30 … the Group 1 Memsie Stakes … that is the immediate target for the highly talented Tony Gollan trained Antino, a two-time Group 1 winning son of Redwood.

Antino will be first-up after a five month break from racing which he earned following a perfect Queensland Winter Carnival Campaign in which he was a runaway win in the Group 2 Hollindale Stakes over 1800m before repeating the dose with a fluid, equally emphatic win in the Group 1 Doomben Cup when stretched out to 2000m for the first time.

Gollan’s travelling foreman Baylee Nothdurft, talking to Raceing.com, offered this update after Antino participated in a jump-out at Cranbourne on Monday.

“He was out to do a little bit, but not bottom him out,” said Nothdurft. “We were really happy the way he trialled and very happy with the way he pulled up from his trial.

‘He doesn’t need much work,” continued Nothdurft. “Since we’ve been getting him out to these middle distance trips, we’ve been able to get a really good base fitness under him without having to gallop him too much.

“He has definitely travelled down (from Brisbane) better than last year. He took a couple of weeks to get back on his food last year, but he was straight back into the routine here in Cranbourne.

‘Last year’s experience has obviously held him in good stead.”

Twelve months ago, Antino also ran in the Memsie first-up where he finished in a game enough fourth place.

He had four further starts during that Melbourne campaign, coming home in third place in the Group 1 Makybe Diva behind Mr Brightside, in third place behind Pride Of Jenni in the Group 2 Feenan Stakes before striking gold with a well-deserved win in the Group 1 Toorak. He then rounding off his trip south with a runner-up result in the Cantala Stakes, finishing less than half-a-length behind the nineteen-time winner Mr Brightside when racing at level weights.

A statistic perhaps worth noting at this time is that Antino has won four out of seven starts first-up.

Now a seven-year-old, Antino has a seldom matched winning strike-rate, having saluted in half of his twenty-six starts … for which his connections have, to date, been rewarded with over $3 million in prize-money.

Now for the next chapter.

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