Tony Gollan was understandably well pleased with what he saw at the trials at Eagle Farm yesterday morning.
Gollan runners won four trials with one runner, EF Troop, catching the eye in particular, when winning Trial 14 by eleven lengths.
It is more than three years ago now, but, when EF Troop started out, she won her first two starts for Gollan … the second coming in the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes.
He then tackled the Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic, with his race sadly probably remembered more for the mayhem he caused going into the first turn, then the result itself in which EF Troop finished fourth in a race all connections would rather forget.
EF Troop had a further nine runs for the Gollan stable after that which included another win, an eye-catching runner-up finish in the Group 2 Todman Stakes and a run in the Group 1 Golden Slipper in which he finished unplaced, five lengths behind the winner Estijaab.
At the end of July 2019, EF Troop transferred firstly to the Tony McEvoy yard and then to the Tony and Calvin McEvoy training partnership for which he had nine runs for one win in the Listed Xmas Handicap at Morphettville.
Then EF Troop came home … and Tony Gollan is very pleased to be reunited with the now five-year-old son of Spirit Of Boom.
“He came back to us. We ran him in that midweek the other day. I wish we hadn’t on the wet ground. He doesn’t like it,” said Gollan.
“We put the blinkers back on him for the trial … he needs a bit of a wake-up … and you all got to see the glimpse of what I sort of see in the horse.
“He is going phenomenally well this horse. He was going to go to the Ramornie, but the race didn’t set up well for him on soft ground with the amount of speed in it.
“I think we have just got to get his confidence back. He is probably a bit down on confidence and, if we can get that back … in the right grades and races … then I think he can get back to where I thought he was at, which is running in stakes races again, because he is a bloody talented horse.
“He is in a good headspace, but we need to get that confidence under his belt. I have always been confident that I could get the best out of him if I got him back home here.
“Riding him for speed and letting him use his big action is what suits him, so I want to have the horse feeling really good about himself and I think the trial win will go a long way towards achieving that. From here on in, it’s up to me to find the right races for him … and then off we go.
“You don’t take too much out of dirt track trials, so we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but I did like what I saw.
“I’m very happy to get EF Troop back and, I can tell you, it will be very satisfying if I can get the job done with him.”
