The evergreen and much travelled Ollie Vollie makes his homecoming to Warwick Farm on Saturday after a long absence.
Formerly trained at Sydney’s southwestern track by Guy Walter, Ollie Vollie was transferred to Sue Grills at Tamworth in mid-2008 when he fell just short of city grade.
The nine-year-old has now raced himself out of country sprints and Grills is happy to travel him to Sydney or Brisbane in search of suitable races.
He lines up as one of the lesser fancies in the Listed Razor Sharp Quality but Grills expects him to perform well off the back of a close fourth in the Listed Keith Noud Quality at Eagle Farm on November 26 won by Listen Son.
“He’s been a great horse to me but he is hard to place now,” Grills said.
“The owners sent him up to me for easier races.
“He’s never run a bad race for me since I’ve had him at my place.
“I can’t run him in the bush any more unless it’s a quality handicap so I just keep looking at Brisbane and Sydney to see where he’s best placed.
“I was going to take him to Brisbane last week but it was a very heavy track so I put a late nomination in for the Razor Sharp.
“He is a good traveller and nothing worries him.”
Grills is under no illusions about the task ahead in a quality summer field of sprinters on Saturday headed by Group One placegetter Rarefied and Melbourne visitor Catapulted.
“They are two very good horses but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ollie Vollie run a place,” she said.
“He ran a great race at Eagle Farm last start.”
Ollie Vollie finished just 1-1/4 lengths behind Listen Son in the Keith Noud when he was ridden by Grills’ former apprentice Tim Bell.
The leading junior rider in NSW for the past two seasons, Bell has now made Queensland his home as the retained apprentice for Nathan Tinkler’s Patinack Farm operation.
Ollie Vollie will be ridden on Saturday by Jay Ford while Nash Rawiller takes the ride on the favourite Rarefied in the absence of Darley’s number one ride Kerrin McEvoy through suspension.
McEvoy was outed for a month by WA stewards who also relegated his mount He’s Remarkable to second after interference in the Group One Railway Stakes at Ascot earlier this month.
Shortly after the Railway, McEvoy rode Rarefied to second place behind Ortensia in the Group One Winterbottom Stakes.
The Winterbottom was Rarefied’s third consecutive second from three starts since he returned from an 18-month injury-enforced absence from the track.
AAP TURF
