Premier trainer Tony Gollan has decided to change a few things to help consistent galloper The Storeman break a frustrating run of minor placings.
The Storeman ran his fourth minor placing in a row when third behind Architect at Doomben last week.
Gollan has elected to back up The Storeman in the 1200m Queensland Home Solutions Handicap at Doomben on Saturday.
“He has been a bit frustrating this time in as he has been minor placed so often without winning one. But then again he has been running mainly in the shorter races and they are recording sensational times for their last 600m in them,” Gollan said.
“I mean just about every race he has been in the winner has clocked better than 34 seconds and sometimes around 33 seconds for their final sectional.
“I have put blinkers back on him and stepped him up top 1200m. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of other leaders in Saturday’s race.”
With the step up to 1200m Gollan is hoping he can get a better gauge on where The Storeman is best suited, although history says it’s over the shorter trips – where he has won five times over 1050m.
“Take out his runs in stakes company during the winter and he has been a very consistent horse. But maybe he is just that little bit off winning against seasoned sprinters,” he said.
The Storeman has won nine races and $387,000 in prizemoney which is a great return on his purchase price of $13,000.
However, he has run only one placing in five stakes race starts and Gollan still holds out hope he can make that grade.
“We just have to try something a bit different so we can get where we want to be with him,” Gollan said.
Meanwhile, Gollan’s promising filly My Girl Hayley, a brilliant debut winner, will have her next start at Doomben on Saturday week or Saturday fortnight.
“There is a 1110m race on August 22 and a 1200m race on August 29. Depending on barriers she will run in one of them and then we can think about Melbourne,” Gollan said.
My Girl Hayley has been entered for the Group One Thousand Guineas at Caulfield in October.
