A dominant win by Traveston Girl in a 1200 metre race at Doomben has confirmed trainer Tony Gollan’s opinion she is a Group One filly in the making.
Gollan, who is in the box seat to claim his first Brisbane premiership, has earmarked the Thousand Guineas at Caulfield in October as a target.
Traveston Girl led all the way under Tegan Harrison to win Saturday’s Breakfast Creek Hotel Handicap in 1:9.20s, faster than older sprinters Jefferson Park and Heza Bobby Dazzler did in their victories.
But it was the manner in which she claimed the race by 5-1/2 lengths than the time which excited her trainer.
“She came from an outside barrier and Tegan had to ride her hard,” Gollan said.
“They caught her deep early but she went to the front and kept going.
Troy Schmidt’s River Junction Racing syndicate paid $60,000 for th filly by Flying Spur out of unraced mare Milande, a full sister to multiple Group One winner Defier and Gollan is still trying to work out why she was so cheap.
“I half thought there had to be something wrong with her,” he said.
“In this day and age a filly with her breeding usually goes for a lot more,” Gollan said.
River Junction and Gollan have had a wonderful season with about a dozen individual winners.
Gollan is also mapping out a campaign for Schmidt’s rising four-year-old stayer Amexed who won the Rough Habit Plate during the winter.
“He is out spelling and the spring comes around very quickly,” Gollan said.
“In the long term the winter carnival next year has some nice staying races for him but in between is a bit of a poser.”
Schmidt also owns the promising two-year-old Looks Like The Cat who was placed in the Group One J J Atkins (1600m).
