THE WINTER CARNIVAL CONTINUES TO HIGHLIGHT THE SHEAR STRENGH OF THE SYDNEY HORSES

By Tony Gollan | Friday, May 29, 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.

From the outset at the Gold Coast, this year’s Winter Carnival has highlighted the shear show of strength of the Sydney horses.

Even during the Spring Carnival, not necessarily in terms of numbers runners-wise but with regard to their winning strike-rate, Sydney horses were good down there early in the carnival ... and they are good up here.

To me it is clear that Sydney is the powerhouse state of racing and they are bringing plenty of numbers to this carnival, just like Melbourne does to the Adelaide carnival.

Sydney trainers really do target this carnival and that why trainers in Brisbane, who only have a certain number of horses who can run in these carnival races, try to pick and choose their races accordingly.

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It is a tough battle for us but I believe that Queensland trainers, horses and owners, who race their horses in this state, all punch above their weight year in and year out.

We simply don’t have the buying power to compete on an even playing field.

You only have to look at the sales results ... from Easter in Sydney and the Magic Millions in January, the two premier sales in this country ... and see where the top horses go and who buys them.

So, in those circumstances, it is fair to say that the numbers that Queensland do get to the carnival on major days ... be it in Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne ... however low the number might be on occasions ... is a credit to the people looking after the horses we get in Queensland because we certainly don’t get that upper echelon bred, younger horse ... or rather, we might get a sprinkling here or there, but we don’t get a busload.

There is no complaint in that. It is just the way it is ... but it does explain why it is no surprise that we see this significant show of strength from the Sydney stables.

They are very strong.

They are very hard to beat.

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I know readers have been ringing some alarm bells concerning the small field in this Saturdays Group 2, Eagle Farm Cup and questioning the lack of local involvement.

After nominations were extended, the $250 000 race has ended up with just seven runners, five of them from the Chris Waller stable.

It is a weight-for-age race over a staying distance and therein lies the biggest reason for the small field.

I think if everybody was honest they couldn’t name a genuine weight-for-age stayer that is based in Queensland. I doubt if there would be any hundred-plus-rated horse that is a genuine 2200m and up horse in this state. To me, there isn’t one.

Queensland trainers haven’t been out there actively trying to source European horses. You don’t see us spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on these types of horses from Europe or even on yearlings from New Zealand.

What we have drummed into us in this state is QTIS, QTIS, QTIS.

So we are spending our money on the QTIS sale. We don’t have staying stallions there, so we go for sprinter / milers. Our best horses who have gone to challenge interstate in previous years have all been sprinter / milers.

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That is a worrying trend for me as there are staying races every week to be run and won.

So, yes, it is disappointing from a local training point of view to see a staying race this Saturday ... a weight-for-age race ... filled with Sydney runners.

I don’t like the look of it at all but, in fairness with regard to the five Waller runners, if you look at the staying fields in Sydney week in and week out, this happens every week down there.

It’s only a big deal this week because it is a Group, carnival race up here.

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If it was a handicap you’d probably have a much bigger field with some stayers having a crack at The Eagle Farm Cup but, at weight-for-age, it's good luck to Chris Waller.

He has a bunch of these horses in his stable and we have none at that level in Queensland, so it would be foolish for us to compete under conditions where we would be badly disadvantaged when there is likely to be a better suited race for our horse in the coming weeks.

That is no fault of the programming. It is the fault of the horses we have.

It is a Queensland problem. We are not embracing getting out there, getting off our bum, and sourcing these horses ... so we can’t complain if we don’t have them.

That is the issue we have.

If we want to challenge at weight-for-age level in these races it is up to us to get better stayers into our stables.

I will certainly be looking to bolster our stable strength in this regard where I can moving forward ... but it will be a process.

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