He’s about to begin his seventh season as the star of Tony Gollan’s stable and Temple of Boom shows no signs of stepping down from his pedestal.
The nine-year-old lines up in Saturday’s Group Two Missile Stakes (1200m) at Randwick as the starting point to another spring campaign.
In the years since he won his first race at the Gold Coast in January 2009, his trainer has gone from handling a small team at Toowoomba to winning two Brisbane premierships from his Eagle Farm stable.
Temple Of Boom was halfway to Melbourne to begin his preparation in the Aurie’s Star Handicap which he won in 2011 when the Missile Stakes came into play.
“He had been in Sydney for three weeks and when the Missile came up a bit light-on we decided to enter him,” Gollan said.
“He was meant to go to Melbourne on Wednesday but we decided to stay in Sydney instead.
“He’s settled in well at Randwick and his two trials have been really good so it made sense to stay where we were.”
Sydney’s leading apprentice Winona Costin gets the opportunity for a milestone Group win and Gollan is more than happy to have her aboard.
“Winona has been riding him in all his work and his trials and I’m very happy to have her on,” he said.
“He is a kid’s horse and he has a great nature.”
The gelding is deliberately forward in his preparation having had just a couple of weeks off after his fourth in the Stradbroke Handicap in June.
“We didn’t want to waste that residual fitness and the idea is to get him up to 1400 metres early in his campaign and catch some of those stayers getting ready for longer races.
“The Memsie Stakes is the race we are looking at.”
The Memsie (1400m) on August 29 is the first Group One race of the new season.
Gollan said Temple Of Boom, who gave him his first Group One win in the 2012 Galaxy, would spearhead his spring carnival team.
“We’ve got a couple of horses that might go down but they have to earn it,” he said.
“Temple is the flag bearer. He is a happy and healthy horse and I think he is as good as he was the winter before last when he ran second in the Doomben 10,000 and the Stradbroke.”
Punters have taken the hint with Temple Of Boom the second favourite for the Missile behind Messene, last year’s runner-up.
