TALKING ABOUT TEMPLE OF BOOM; THEN EYEING ANOTHER CRACK AT IPSWICH CUP DAY SUCCESS

By Tony Gollan | Thursday, June 11, 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.

Temple of Boom ... what an amazing horse he has been!

It was hard for me when Spirit Of Boom retired last year but when Temple Of Boom retires it will be by far the hardest day of my training career ... just because he is such a special horse, particularly to me.

His longevity and just what he does, it is so hard for a trainer to get a horse like this.

I remember when he was a new yearling walking out at Eureka Stud where I first saw him before I purchased him at the sale. He came into my barn when I had something like fourteen in work at Toowoomba.

He’s now eight, rising nine, and he is still part of my much bigger stable at Eagle Farm.

To do what he did on Saturday in the Stradbroke ... well, I’m just so proud of him.

I am really just so proud of him!

He’s is unlike numerous horses you get. When you know you have got him well and he is fit and healthy and sound, he just gives you everything. He gives one hundred percent.

He is not the best horse in Australia but he doesn’t leave anything in the locker. Like on Saturday he ran as good as he can go.

He’s always had the will to win but he hasn’t always had a strong constitution. He’s only developed that from a four-year-old on. In his two-year-old and three-year-old seasons he had a terrible constitution.

You had to struggle to get him to eat food and things like that ... but, even then, he always had that will to win. He always tried hard.

Coming into the Stradbroke I was already very proud of his run in the 10 000. The wide gate and the run he had ... but not only the run itself but the way he came through the run after what he had to endure and the effort he made.

Because he is such a special horse to me I really felt what he had to endure during that run.

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Then I was mortified when I drew the bad gate in the Stradbroke. I left the barrier draw straight away and shot back to the office.

It was not so much about the draw affecting his chances of winning the race. I just hate seeing him have to do it so tough in the run.

But the more I went through the race the more I thought we could get him across if we rode him a certain way. I was always worrying though that by riding him that way we would take a bit of that dash off him.

That’s what happened.

Full credit to Kerrin McEvoy. He won the race on Srikandi because of the way he rode the horse. I know it’s easy to ride them off good barriers but he made the most of his good gate. He made us work ... not just me, other horses as well.

He got his breather. Everybody got their chance but the winner got the softer run and she was just too good in the finish.

Our bloke, like I say, we are ever so proud of him. He’s come through the run brilliantly. If there was another Stradbroke in two weeks’ time I’d run him again.

He’s just got to the peak in his prep. It is just unfortunate he has to have a freshen up now.

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I’m really excited about heading to Melbourne in the spring with him.

I’m realistic. He’s not getting any younger. He’s not the best sprinter in Australia. I’m not like some of the other guys who’ve got the best sprinter in Australia ... in the world sorry ... after they win a race.

So I’m realistic about where we sit in the pecking order and that makes it harder for us to place him.

We are going with a different plan this year.

We will be trying to use the residual winter fitness we have to try and get him there early in the Melbourne spring.

That’s proven very successful for horses coming from our carnival here ... and we’ll see where that takes us.

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With regards to the immediate future we are looking forward to Ipswich now.

Ipswich was great for us last year. We went there thinking we had a couple of chances and ended up winning both the big races.

This year it is a different team again. It has probably been more thought out this year ... with Hi Son in the Cup and Gundy Spirit in the Eye Liner.

Alma’s Fury was only new to us last year and we were feeling our way with the horse and the Eye Liner was the race that came up whereas Brave Ali had got to a level and we had to look for another race with him so we lobbed him into the Cup.

With Hi Son and Gundy Spirit there has always been a plan to get them to these particular races on Saturday.

There is just that difficult period in the middle of this carnival to find races to go to with certain horses and that means the lead-up to this race is so different to what it has been in previous years with the reshaping of our carnival.

So, this year both of my horses are there by design.

They’ve both been targeted for their respective races.

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Gundy Spirit is a two-time winner at the track which I do think is important at Ipswich.

Hi Son ... his prep on the outside looking in probably does look a bit disappointing but I can tell you he’s there to run a helluva good race on Saturday. His 2000m run was a real good warm-up prep for this race. He’s really stepped his work up the last ten days.

Again I am disappointed with the barriers but I am very happy with both horses heading into the day.

They obviously need to get the right runs in transit, but I do feel both horses profile well for what will be, in spite of being a step down in class of from what we have being seeing, another competitive day’s racing.

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