MICHAEL NOLAN’S THREE SIGNIFICANT CONTRUBUTIONS TO THE RICH HISTORY OF THE WEETWOOD - PART 1

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Toowoomba based trainer Michael Nolan might have had to wait a while before he claimed success in the Weetwood, but he now has his name entrenched in no less than three very significant moments in Weetwood history.

MICHAEL NOLAN’S SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS IN WEETWOOD HISTORY - PART 1: MISS IMAGICA BECOMES THE FIRST HORSE IN 42 YEARS TO WIN BACK-TO-BACK WEETWOODS.

It was Michael Nolan who put the finishing touches on Miss Imagica, the only horse to have won back-to-back runnings of the Weetwood (in 2012 and 2013) in the modern era. In fact, that feat is so hard to accomplish, you have to go all of the way back to Wine And Song’s success in 1969 and 1970 to find the last horse to do that double before Miss Imagica came along with her heroics … that forty-two year gap between back-to-back winners putting Miss Imagica’s results in telling perspective.

“We moved from Warwick down here to Toowoomba in 1989, and I started full time training in around 1990,” said Nolan, describing his long journey to Weetwood success.

“Obviously from that period on, living here in Toowoomba, I’ve been to every Weetwood. At the start that was only as a spectator and a passenger. To be truthful, at that time I never thought there would come a day when I would have a Weetwood winner.

“I watched a lot of other local trainers win it, so, when the win did come around it was pretty special.

“I’m not sure whether we won the first year the cushion track was put in or the second year … I can’t remember … but they had put the synthetic in. With the Weetwood coming around and Miss Imagica proving herself to be very adept on that surface, obviously, the Weetwood then became our goal from an early time with her.

“When we won our first Weetwood, it was with a lot of my Ashgrove school-mates that I boarded with for a couple of years down there. Michael Doxey kick-started the whole syndicate aimed at the thrill of having a Weetwood winner. He was the catalyst that got us all together to race a horse … and that horse was Miss Imagica.

“So, it was sort of a dream … a bit of a fairy-tale the way it all eventuated.”

Having broken the mould, a second Weetwood success for Nolan was quick to follow.

One year later, Miss Imagica was back. Same place. Same challenge. Same win! (Also, on the Cushion track).

“She had it all to do that day,” said Nolan, taking up the story again. “There were a lot of other decent horses in that race and a lot of horses had got used to racing on the cushion … and she had to jump from a very wide draw. We just drew way out.

“Skye (Bogenhuber) was on her that year. We had Miss Imagica going well, but she still had to overcome the draw. It was a real tough run.

‘She sort of dived on the line. We didn’t even know we had won. It was so close, but Pat O’Shea called it. It was one of his brilliant calls. I think he said, ‘Miss Imagica has got up off the canvas.’ I think that was his call.

“We had won our first Weetwood. Miss Imagica with Nori Yamada in the saddle. I remember it like it was yesterday!”

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