THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - GOLLAN'S GIRLS MAKING THE MOST OF THEIR OPPORTUNITIES

By Graham Potter | Sunday, August 16, 2015

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

Record setting trainer Tony Gollan is off to a flying start in his quest for a hat-trick of Brisbane Metropolitan Premiership victories.

Going into yesterday’s series of meetings Gollan had already notched up six metropolitan wins (and two provincial victories) in the first two weeks of the new season and, interestingly enough, his eight winners during this period have all been ridden by two female riders, stable regular Tegan Harrison and stable apprentice Alannah Fancourt.

Harrison, who has a string of honours behind her name, is now very much an established senior rider in the city. While there have been several strong influences on her career to date ... trainer Bruce Hill was the man who guided her in the early stages of her metropolitan expedition ... Gollan’s show of confidence in Harrison at a time when she arguably needed it most is a telling factor in her success story.

Their trainer / jockey partnership has already gone oh so close to taking out a Group 1 event when stable stalwart Temple Of Boom were only outgunned late by the Sunshine Coast based, Natalie McCall trained River Lad in the 2014 Stradbroke.

So Gollan has helped take Harrison to the top level of the playing field and he continues to be a pivotal support base for her career ... and now he has taken Alannah Fancourt on board.

While the young apprentice is still very much in the steep learning curve process which entering city competition brings, Gollan has certainly not been shy to give Fancourt every opportunity to show her worth.

When Harrison first arrived in town she found the adjustment from provincial to city level quite difficult stating, ‘the better jockeys in town think so much quicker than you do when you first get there that it is quite intimidating.’

We all know racing is a confidence game and without this essential ingredient talent and raw ability can still struggle to gain a foothold.

Winning brings confidence ... but that is normally the end result. First a rider has to work hard to earn opportunities and then he or she has to turn those opportunities into good results which, in theory, then expands the range of opportunities.

Harrison has conquered that cycle admirably and she now in a position to play an important role in mentoring the up-and-coming Fancourt. But the biggest plus they both have at the moment is the common denominator they share in the form of Tony Gollan.

Gollan runs a professional racing stable so he is not there to try to make any statement for or against any group of riders.

He is there to train winners for his owners and he will choose riders to match his horses ... remember his stable also helped carry Jim Byrne to the jockey’s premiership ... but, whether he is aware of it or not, the fact remains that Gollan is doing great deal for the promotion and uplifting of the status of female riders by some of the choices he makes.

We sometimes talk about particular trainers who have had a number of top, young riders come through their care.

It is still early days and there is some way to go yet but away from the Premierships and record breaking numbers of winners, Gollan might just be starting another special legacy of his own.

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