HOME TRACK DOUBLE FOR TRAINER MICHAEL NOLAN

By Graham Potter | Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Michael Nolan stable scored a notable double at its home track at Toowoomba on March 28 when the promising Upstart Legend and Spill The Tears took the honours in a Class 3 Handicap over 1300m and a BM70 Handicap over 1100m respectively.

Upstart Legend was resuming after a four month break from racing, but the chestnut filly had solid enough form behind her to see her installed as the $2.20 race favourite.

The three-year-old daughter of Worthy Cause did have a market rival though in the form of the $2.90 second favourite Swiss Babe, who was also first-up, and the betting market had got it right as these two runners did indeed fight out the finish.

Not only did they contest the finish, but Upstart Legend and Swiss Babe essentially had the race to themselves from the start where they landed alongside each other in the lead.

Upstart Legend initially held a narrow lead briefly on the outside of Swiss Babe, but Damien Thornton, riding Upstart Legend, then allowed Swiss Babe to slip through and take up the running on the rail, happy to position Upstart Legend just a half a length back to the outside of Swiss Babe as they took the field to the home turn.

These two runners still held station at the head of affairs in the first part of the straight until, coming through the 200m mark, Thornton asked Upstart Legend to claim the initiative and he duly pushed forward into a narrow lead.

The battle was not over yet though as Swiss Babe continuing to fight on, but that narrow advantage that Upstart Legend had gained inside the last 200m became a winning margin as the Nolan trained runner maintained a committed effort of his own to the line to score by a 0.20 length margin.

Upstart Legend has now won three of his eight starts (with two runner-up finishes in there for good measure) and his prize-money earned now standing at $146 250.
_______________________________________________________________________

Four races later, Spill The Tears gave the Nolan stable a double on the day.

Nolan was, in fact, the third trainer to have Spill The Tears in his care. Previously Lindsay Hatch (one) and Robert Heathcote (three) had both won races with the horse and so Spill The Tears who came into the Nolan yard as a four-time winner.

Spill The Tears was having his third start for the Nolan yard here, and while the first two unplaced runs for the stable were nothing to write home about, there was a factor in his overall form-line which would prove to be a telling one.

Prior to this run, Spill The Tears had only raced three times at Toowoomba and he won them all and he would successfully defend that particular unbeaten record with some aplomb here at fair value odds of $5.50.

Spill The Tears landed in the leading line, but was caught four wide and, after holding his position out wide without being able to get in for some 200m, Taylor Marshall elected to drop Spill The Tears out of that speed chase and he took the Nolan runner back to fourth, then settled in fifth place, some three-and-a-half lengths behind the leader in the sweep to the home turn.

Marshall kept Spill The Tears at a comfortable gallop until the field approached the home turn, when he again had to make a wide run.

In spite of that, the Nolan trained runner quickly moved into contention and was only one-and-a-half lengths off the lead when the race went on in earnest early in the straight.

The run home from there was simply dominated by Spill The Tears, who quickly surged to the lead and took no prisoners as he cleared out to win every bit as decisively as the official 2.80 length winning margin suggests.

This win advanced Spill The Tears’ race record to five wins from fourteen starts, with his wins coming over 1000m to 1400m.

More articles