Tony Gollan has dominated the Queensland training ranks for a decade, but he is still waiting for that magic moment, which unbeaten filly Skirt The Law will be out to give him in Saturday’s Magic Millions Classic.
Gollan has had plenty of success at the Magic Millions, including Isotope winning the Snippets last year, but the flagship races of the two-year-old Classic and Guineas have eluded him.
Unbeaten filly Skirt The Law has the perfect preparation heading into Saturday’s Magic MiIlions Classic.Credit:Michael McInally
“They are as big as any race up here, because of everything that is around them,” Gollan said. “You win the Magic Millions and everyone knows it because everyone from around the country is here. There aren’t many races like that in the country.”
Skirt The Law is a real Queenslander, being a daughter of Better Than Ready bred at Lyndhurst Stud on Darling Downs. She scored her two wins at Doomben for the nine-time Brisbane premier trainer.
She cost $170,000 at last year’s sale and will run for the $500,000 Magic Million ladies’ bonus for female syndicates on top of the $2 million in prizemoney on Saturday.
“She was in the right bracket for a ladies’ horse and was a nice running filly; I always liked her,” Gollan said. “She has just kept improving, improving and improving. She was in the early bunch, but she wasn’t the standout in the early couple of gallops, she just kept stepping up. She has coped with the pre-Christmas pressure and thrived.”
Trainer Tony Gollan (right) has his hopes on unbeaten filly Skirt The Law in Saturday’s Magic Millions ClassicCredit:Getty
Skirt The Law beat four rivals on debut in November and backed it up with 5¼-length romp in December.
“She has won at 1200m and had a good trial on the track – everything about the preparation and timing has worked well,” Gollan said. “In the last six weeks, she has been the one improving. Even in her work on Tuesday you could see her improving again. It’s exciting to see.”
Skirt The Law has been backed into the third favourite at $7.50 after drawing barrier four. Empire Of Japan and Platinum Jubilee are in front of her in the betting.
Gollan will have a raft of runners at the Gold Coast and brings last weekend’s Rising Stars winners, Spiritualised and Latakia, back to the Gold Coast for the Magic Millions Guineas.
“It was a plan if they got a run and Spiritualised is the perfect horse to do it with because he just goes home and licks his bin and loves racing,” Gollan said. “He is still learning but that gives us scope for more improvement going into grand final day. Latakia was very good last week and the draw gives her the chance to have a similar sort of run.”
Meanwhile, Queensland stewards will re-inspect Magic Millions runners Mishani Renegade, from the Les Ross stable, and Sunsource, trained by Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, on Friday after concerns with their action.
Sunsource was stepping short in both forelegs, while Mishani Renegade was found to be lame in the off-foreleg. Ross told stewards his colt would be replated before the re-examination.
Magic Millions record for filly
Yulong Investments Australian boss Sam Fairgray didn’t know what it would take to buy Sunlight’s sister, but when the hammer fell he held the day with a Magic Millions record of $2.6 million for the Zoustar filly.
“It is hard to put a price on her because it is so rare for a filly like her to go into the ring,” Fairgray said. “Even if she doesn’t race, she’s a horse that will be very valuable to our farm and that’s what we look at her as an investment in our future.
“Obviously she has a great physique. We’re delighted that she’ll be racing with the Yulong colours and eventually she’s got a great future as a broodmare.
“With her residual value she was going to be worth a lot of money and with the prizemoney in Australia and the way she walked and her physique, hopefully we are here this time next year and, obviously, races like the Golden Slipper.
“When you’re buying quality you’re always going to have to pay and with the prizemoney in Australia we’ve been able to access a filly with great residual like this. She’ll have great value whatever she does.”
The mating of Zoustar and Solar Charged has been proven by not only three-time group 1 winner Sunlight but also Sisstar, a group 3 winner in Melbourne Cup week.
This filly came down to a contest between Sunlight’s trainer Tony McEvoy, Gai Waterhouse and Yulong. McEvoy stopped at $2 million with Waterhouse’s last bid at $2.5 million.
Widden Stud boss Antony Thompson, who bought Solar Charged for $650,000 to mate to Zoustar in his first year as a stallion, was delighted with another mighty return on an outstanding investment.
“That’s a cool thing [having the record],” Thompson said. “It’s enormously satisfying this family-owned Aussie farm can compete at this level with these guys,” Thompson said. “It paused at $1.6 [million] and I thought, ‘That’s good, but I probably would like to crack $2 [million]’. To see them to get $2.5 and $2.6 [million] was brilliant.”
It was a strong end to the day with an I Am Invincible colt out of Spright selling for $1.6 million to Coolmore to take the total of the million-dollar lots to five after two days of the sale.
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