Saddling up half the field in the Bribie Handicap, Tony Gollan had weight of numbers on his side and the race went virtually to script as the two most fancied of his sextet, Golden Boom and Zarastro, fought out the finish.
It was the former who came out on top, jockey Kyle Wilson-Taylor able to get Golden Boom ($6) into a good rhythm from an outside draw in a move Gollan’s stable representative Craig Cavanough said was decisive.
“He’s a horse who you just get into a rhythm and have him breathing properly,” Cavanough said.
“He is one of those horses that can choke down. If you’ve got him breathing right, as you would have seen in Melbourne when Blake (Shinn) rode him and he just got beaten in that race (Carlyon Stakes) at Moonee Valley, he had him in the right sort of rhythm and he kept on finding.”
Golden Boom is building a handy record and has now won six of his 16 starts, Saturday’s success in the Bribie Handicap (1000m) his third at black-type level.
However, Cavanough believes runner-up Zarastro ($6) could prove the horse to follow, given he was having his first start since placing behind subsequent Group 1 placegetter Right To Party at Flemington in August.
“He will improve big time from this, especially when they step up to six furlongs,” he said.
“Two very nice runs by two very, very nice horses.”
The Jason Deamer-trained Hard To Say ($4.40 betting fav) was doing his best work late for third, while the Gollan-trained Nettuno ($15) did a tremendous job to get within three lengths of the winner after Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Robbie Dolan was almost dislodged shortly after the start.
Earlier in the day, The Inflictor ($21) gave trainer Craig Cousins one of his biggest thrills on a racetrack, responding to the urgings of Cejay Graham to post a determined victory in The Gateway (1400m).
The winner of the race is exempt from a ballot for the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m), although connections can also opt to sell their spot in the race.
Cousins indicated the latter was the more likely option with The Inflictor, a last-start Doomben winner who he was confident would run well despite being sent out at double-figure odds.
“I couldn’t see him getting beaten today,” Cousins said.
“He’d done so well since Doomben. Cejay rode him an absolute treat and the rest is history.”
