EF JAN 16 - OLLIE VOLLIE STANDS TALL

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 17, 2010

Eagle Farm, January 16, 2010.
Track - Good 2. Rail - True.
Open Handicap - 1200m. Time: 1-08.80.
1 Ollie Vollie; 2 Pride Of Power; 3 Eire Of Magic.

It ended up being a big day out for trainer Sue Grills who landed her first Metropolitan double when her old-stager Ollie Vollie outgunned his rivals in the last race at Eagle Farm to claim his eleventh career victory and take his stake earnings through the $300 000 mark.

Earlier Dealers had won the fourth race on the card for the Grills stable. Dealers and Ollie Vollie were both ridden by apprentice jockey Timothy Bell.

Ollie Vollie hugged the rail just worse than midfield in the early part and he continued to save ground until the turn where he cornered in sixth place. The acceleration was there when Bell asked for it and so was the run through traffic as Ollie Vollie threaded his way through runners until finally taking a split between Fangles and Pride Of Power to get into the lead with 180m left to run.

Once there it was just a question of Ollie Vollie maintaining his advantage to the line and the seven-year-old did that in determined fashion to hold off the persistent challenge of Pride Of Power by 1.30 lengths.

When Dealers had won earlier in the day Grills was asked how long it had been since her previous win in Brisbane. Grills said it was Ollie Vollie (on August 13, 2008), making it a period of seventeen months between Brisbane Metropolitan wins.

When Ollie Vollie won the last race here, the gap between Brisbane Metropolitan winners for Sue Grills was down to less than three hours and the stable’s first Metropolitan double was in the bank.

No wonder all connected with the stable were beaming!

WINNER FEEDBACK:
Trainer Sue Grills: “Ollie’s my favourite. He is a beautiful horse. For him to win was great. He’s been unlucky, but Tim (Bell) again rode perfectly.

“We’ve been letting him lead a little bit early. I said to Timmy to hold him up a bit today ... to let him have the last crack at them, so it was super. Timmy rode him absolutely beautiful as usual.

“A double in Brisbane! I can’t believe it. No, I’ve never had a metropolitan double before. It’s good to have good horses ... good clients and to have Tim. I’m lucky.

“I’ll have to head back this way again soon.” (Grills is based in Tamworth). “Yeah, I’ll bring them both back in two or three weeks. I haven’t even had a look in the book (the racing programme). I don’t mind if the city wins make it harder for me to place the horses at the country tracks. It’s good money up here. No, we’ll be back for sure.”

Apprentice jockey Timothy Bell: “He is a bit of a stable favourite, you know. Everyone loves him. He is the sort of horse you cuddle every morning once you saddle him up for work.

“He travelled well in the run and let down even better. His work on the other morning was super. It was probably the best he’s ever worked this prep ... even though he’s just got fit enough, believe it or not. He is a little fat roly-poly, but we got him fit and Mrs Grills has done a good job.

“I do a lot of riding in Sydney at the moment, but it is always good to come up here for a bit of variety.”

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS:
Winner (Ollie Vollie): 13.00 out to 14.00.
Favourite (Charming Rogue): 3.70 out to 3.80 in to 2.80. Finished seventh.

STEWARDS REPORT EXTRACT:
Myndos (K. Banks) jumped away awkwardly and missed the start. Yass River (C. Reith) and Black Ink (J. Jones) were tightened for room on jumping away between Fangles (J. Taylor) and Upilio (C. McIver), which shifted out.

Soiled (J. Byrne), Frosty (J. Wood), Eire Of Magic (S. Katsidis) and Upilio (C. McIver) were all caught wide rounding the first turn and were then all obliged to race wide for the remainder of the race.

Jockey K. Banks reported that she was instructed to ride Myndos quietly from its outside barrier, and after settling at the rear of the field the horse relaxed which resulted in Myndos settling further back than she would have liked.

Trainer T Gollan confirmed the instructions and indicated that whilst the horse got back further than anticipated, he was satisfied with the way the horse finished the race off. He further added that he now intended to give Myndos a short let up.

J. Bowditch, rider of Pride Of Power, reported his mount laid out throughout the course of the race.

G. Colless, rider of Charming Rogue, stated that he was able to secure a nice run throughout the course of the race, however after positioning the horse into clear running in the straight, it failed to accelerate and proved disappointing over the concluding stages.

Trainer A. Bailey could offer no explanation for the disappointing performance and indicated to stewards he would consider stepping the gelding up in distance in an endeavour to have the horse regain form. A post race veterinary examination of Charming Rogue failed to reveal any significant abnormalities.

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