NO CIGAR ... BUT ENOUGH TO BE HAPPY ABOUT

By Tony Gollan | Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Group 1 winning trainer Tony Gollan is the leading trainer in Brisbane. Having won the Brisbane Trainers’ Premiership last season, Gollan has not only cemented his position at the top of the ladder for the second racing year in succession, but he is currently closing fast on the record for most number of Metropolitan wins in Brisbane in a season ... a record which has stood for twenty-seven years. Tony’s weekly blog appears exclusively on HRO.

I didn’t have a winner on the opening day of the carnival on Saturday but there was enough to be happy about stable performance wise and I came away feeling good about what lies ahead both on a personal level and for the carnival in general.

I think it is going to be a great carnival.

We’ve got a lot of interstate trainers here. A lot of interstate horses are here going up against the best of our local horses. It’s going to be great for racing.

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I’m looking forward to Toowoomba this weekend.

Whiskey Allround will go to the Weetwood. We decided to go that path with him because that is where his ratings are at. He has trained on beautifully since his first-up run.

He has only had one start at Toowoomba. It was his first ever run, on the cushion, and he won by a big margin. So he’ll go back up the hill ... wet or dry doesn’t matter ... and he will be a leading chance in the Weetwood, I suggest.

The Storeman will also head to the Weetwood. He is an excellent horse second-up. He is a dry tracker which is the only worry. There is a bit of rain forecast around this week that could throw things into a bit of turmoil for him, but otherwise he should improve sharply second-up, as he has done in his work and, importantly, he runs very well around the Toowoomba track.

We’ve also got Hi Son in the Cup backing up from Saturday.

Interesting Cup now with Pornichet, from the Gai Waterhouse stable, adding another dimension to the Toowoomba Cup.

I think it is great that the Cup meeting is getting horses of that calibre up there.

Previously the scheduling of the Weetwood was good in the sense that it was show day. That’s what people were used to and they don’t like change but, personally, I think Toowoomba deserves a metropolitan, Saturday stand-alone meeting. I’ve always wanted that for what is a big racing area.

Where the Weetwood was placed it was far too early to bring better horses into the race and it sat out there on its own and lost its place in the carnival. The Toowoomba Cup sat on its own too. It’s had more moves than Michael Jackson. It’s been everywhere.

I like the scheduling this year and I really hope they can get the best out of the day ... weather-wise, track-wise, competition-wise etc.

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As I said earlier, I didn’t have a winner at the Gold Coast but I was pleased enough with the day’s outcome for the stable.

Here is an overview of how things panned out for us.

Traveston Girl finished third in the Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas. She was outstanding. She was probably the run of our stable and one of the better runs at the coast all day.

I really don’t think she handles the circumference of the Gold Coast track all that well. It’s a tricky track. It’s the first time she’d been there.

She was wide off a bad alley. Always looked like it was going to be impossible for her to get in. That’s how it worked out and to see her still hit the line, I was amazed how well she went.

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Gundy Spirit’s third place in the Prime Minister’s Cup was an excellent effort.

It looked on paper like there wasn’t going to be much tempo so he was always going to have to go right back from the wide gate. He is definitely up to that grade but like most horses in that grade he needs to draw the barrier and get the right run.

The Gold Coast has always been a bit of a bogey track for him. I still certainly don’t think it is his favourite venue, so for him to run so well around that track just shows how well he is going at the moment. The key to him is dry tracks.

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Sheiswhatsheis was brave when finishing third in the Gold Coast Bracelet.

She’s been ‘a run at a time’ type of filly the whole way through because this is her first racing prep. With these sort of fillies you want to go so far ... but you don’t want to go too far either. I really didn’t want to get to the bottom of her in this prep.

With her racing on a track where the inside wasn’t so good, particularly so early in the day, it made our job a little bit tougher. It made it tactically a little bit different ... like how we had to do things off the awkward gate to get to certain parts of the track.

I think she was just beaten by a more seasoned and better filly in Bohemian Lily on the day. She’s done a really great job. Just four runs in and she has got Black Type next to her name. She’s going for a well-earned spell now.

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On some of the unplaced runners ... Hi Son (Chairman’s Handicap) was terrific in the circumstances. He was left in front on the weekend which is not his preferred racing pattern. He just doesn’t switch himself off. He is constantly working himself on the bridle whereas when gets that bit of cover he relaxes and he can finish off.

Temple Of Boom (Victory Stakes) did exactly what I thought he would do. The speed in the race was on the whole way. It sort of took his turn of foot away a little bit when there was that much pressure on in the race ... and he blew out in the last 100m ... 80m. He was on the back of Srikandi until the 100m. He just blew out of condition. I missed a jump-out with him and that played as a factor in the end.

I’ve got to own up to one with Pienkna (Silk Stocking). She is struggling a bit form-wise, but this latest result is probably due to a poor trainers’ decision more than anything else. The runs she is getting off these wide gates ... I probably should have scratched her. I had it in my mind I was going to scratch her. I went through the race and I thought we’d get a better run. We didn’t and so I really got what I deserved for running her on the weekend.

Rocket To Glory (Victory Stakes) just went too hard and got found out in that grade while Alma’s Fury (Victory Stakes) just couldn’t keep up, first-up, and he was under pressure a long way out on the very quick tempo. His last 150m was his best 150m. He was closest to them on the line which is what I wanted. He has come out of the run better than he went into it.

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