The Tony Gollan trained Ef Troop won his first start convincingly at Doomben, leading all the way over 1050m and making it look very easy in the end. It was supposedly a though race for the 2-year-old, coming up against the highly-rated Hopes Eternal, who was a massive winner in his maiden at Toowoomba, starting his run from 9th and winning easily by 4.8L.
Hopes Eternal was again a winner his next start, this time coming from 10th to record a 2.8L win at Doomben over 1050, before coming up against Ef Troop on 4th of November, also over 1050 at Doomben. Showing his class, Ef Troop was a dominant winner on this occasion, finishing over 5L in front of Hopes Eternal who faded to finish 4th.
Even more remarkably for the Spirit Of Boom gelding Ef Troop, he has had 2 trials for a winning aggregate of 28.5L, winning his last at the Gold Coast by a colossal 20L margin on the 7th of December.
Ef Troop will run around again this Saturday in the Phelan Ready Stakes, this time over 1110m, currently $3.00 equal favorite with South-Australian Crockett, who currently sits on the third line of betting for the Magic Millions 2YO classic, slightly edged out by Ef Troop.
In a 5-horse field, Ef Troop and Crockett will likely battle it out for the win however Ef Troop looks to have a few lengths on Crockett, running less then a second slower over 1050 (1:00.33), then Crockett over 1000 (0:59.40). Assuming Ef Troop leads as he did lat start, he will be very hard to catch.
Ahead of Ef Troop in the fixed-odd futures market on the TAB for the Magic Millions 2YO classic is Bondi ($8.00). The Peter and Paul Snowden colt was beaten 0.8L in his only start, the 1000m-listed Breeders plate at Randwick. Although beaten, he recorded a 0:56.82, nearly 3 seconds faster then fellow hopeful Crockett.
Also by Spirit Of Boom and a half-brother to Ef Troop, equal second-favorite Jonker drew attention after his 9.3L trial win in November, before starting $1.45 favorite in a 900m race at Newcastle, accounting for the field with an on-pace 3L victory.
Won by Houtzen in 2016, The Magic Millions 2YO Classic is a 2 million-dollar race held in January at the Gold Coast, a race in which trainer Tony Gollan has earmarked Ef Troop as a solid performer.
“He’s a very nice horse but he’ll be even better when he furnishes later on”, Gollan told Racing Queensland.
“He walked around the parade ring like a three-year-old and he’ll go out for a 10 day break now before we set our sights on the Magic Millions.”
Another standout performance from Ef Troop this Saturday could see him go into sole favoritism for the Magic Millions race in January, with some punters already taking the juicy $11 odds for the young star. See the market for Magic Millions 2YO classic here.