TONY GOLLAN IS COMPETING ON A DIFFERENT LEVEL

By Graham Potter | Saturday, February 5, 2022

Tony Gollan has made the Brisbane Trainer’s Premiership his own ever since he first put his name at the top of the leader-board in the 2013/14 season.

Gollan has won that Premiership every season since then … eight times in all … and now, just halfway through the 2021/22 season, there wouldn’t be anybody betting against him claiming his ninth successive Premiership.

The statistics tell the story.

After six months of the current season Gollan tops the Brisbane Metropolitan Premiership with 53 winners … a full twenty-three winners ahead of the Steven O’Dea / Matt Hoysted training partnership and twenty-four winners ahead of Chris Waller.

Gollan’s 53 winners at the halfway mark of the season is also more than double the amount of wins of any other trainer other than the two closest to him and is more than the combined totals of the last four trainers in the top ten on the current ladder.

It is a demolition job and, yes, it does come, in part, with having large stable numbers to call on and some quality horseflesh at your disposal, but that also has to be backed with a combination of training expertise, meticulous planning, attention to detail and a large dose of hard work if the plan of continuing to advance the stable’s profile, presence and success rate is to come together.

That scenario, as well as the now almost mandatory, modern day stable communication commitment to looking after clients by keeping them instantly abreast of what is happening … think social media … has to be finely managed for it to reap success. It is not just a matter of sending the horses around.

And Gollan seems to have all of that down to a nicety.

The 53 winners at the halfway stage of the season is a significant number for another reason as, while nothing over the next six months is guaranteed, it does theoretically leave the stable on track to reach the magical one hundred metropolitan winners for the season for the third time in a row.

Gollan set the bar that high in each of the last two seasons when showing a best return of 108.5 winners in the 2019-20 season and again hitting the century mark last season with 103 winners.

Interestingly enough, when Gollan won his first Brisbane Premiership in 2013/14 he claimed the title with just 56.5 winners, underlying the level of growth the stable has enjoyed over the past eight years … as well as the impressive and dizzying upward trajectory that the stable has been able to maintain for a long period of time.

Gollan’s second Premiership the following year came courtesy of 79 winners … breaking the long-standing record of the late Bruce McLachlan whose 78 winner mark, secured in the 1987/88 season. had stood for thirty-seven years.

And it was just onwards and upwards from there.
Not of that any of this is a particular surprise as Gollan’s plan of attack is always pretty much target orientated. He sets his sights and goes for it with a passion which, at times, can overflow into an intense expression of emotion … but even that fuels the recipe for success rather than dilutes it.

“Group 1 winners are the main thing. Obviously, we want to be competitive at the Carnivals at the pointy end of the big races … but we also want to be competitive week to week as well,” said Gollan.

“We’ve obviously got a big team of horses now and we’ve managed to break away a little bit … but its is still very competitive racing up here. If we can get the hundred that will be great. If we don’t … well. It is what it is.

“I’m always trying to grow and build on what we have got. We don’t just sit on our laurels … and we do try to make sure we do that every year.”

That is why Gollan Racing have gone from putting a secure foundation in place to building a tower of strength. Gollan’s formative years at Toowoomba and the success he gained there seem a long way away.

“We were keen to take the jump from Toowoomba to Brisbane for a little while,” said Gollan, “but we had to wait to be given boxes in the new shed at Eagle Farm. We eventually made the move in the Winter of 2012.

“We only had eight horses at the start in at Eagle Farm and they allowed us time to fill it. We had other horses at home in Toowoomba, but we didn’t bring them all down.

“We gradually built up those numbers to forty and, from there, up to seventy horses and now to ninety. I’m capped with the number of boxes I can have at Eagle Farm at the moment. If I can get another twenty or thirty boxes that would be fantastic.”

At the Gollan stable it is all about looking after the present and working towards creating the future they want.

Nothing in racing is ever plain sailing and you can be sure that Gollan has had his share of difficulties and disappointments like anyone else … but, what is equally certain is that the operation systems that Gollan has put in place are working very well.

Will this be another one hundred metropolitan winner season for the stable?

We know from past experience that there is every chance it could very well again be within Tony Gollan’s reach, but the hard fact remains that it will always be a very tough target to hit.

It is likely to add another thread to the end of season interest when that time comes around when the countdown to that goal could make fascinating watching over the last couple of weeks of the season!

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