Team Toowoomba aim up to Queensland Oaks with Exotique Miss in Gold Coast Bracelet

Astute trainer Michael Nolan is happy to fly under the radar against some of the biggest names in Australasian racing with Exotique Miss as he plots a path to the Queensland Oaks with the underrated filly.

Exotique Miss is on a Queensland Oaks path. Picture: Grant Peters — Trackside Photography.

Astute trainer Michael Nolan is happy to fly under the radar as an underdog as he and Team Toowoomba plot a path to the Group 1 Queensland Oaks with Exotique Miss in the Listed Gold Coast Bracelet (1800m) on Saturday.

The Group 1-winning trainer has one of the more unfashionable runners in the fillies’ feature, but what she lacks in sale ring pizzazz, she makes up for in grit and determination, with Nolan keen to make the most of her three-year-old season.

After winning the Listed Daybreak Lover in impressive fashion, Exotique Miss was just as good seven days later in the Listed Princess Stakes, where she was one of the strongest finishers, despite travelling wide throughout.

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“We are an underdog, but we don’t mind,” Nolan said.

“A local group of Toowoomba blokes own her, I am a Toowoomba trainer, she was bred out of Warwick and we paid nothing for her.

“Here we are in a Bracelet against Molly Bloom, Gai’s horse (Amazonian Lass) and Chris Waller has a whole heap up here now.”

Despite an explosive turn of foot over 1400m in the Daybreak Lover, Nolan said the staying trip of the Oaks had been a long-range target for Exotique Miss.

“We bought her as a filly that we thought might win over some ground and we tried her half-brother Uncommon Valour over a trip this prep and he has really come into his own,” he said.

Michael Nolan is flying under the radar with Exotique Miss. Picture: Kevin Farmer.

“We thought we may as well plan her three-year-old campaign around the Oaks, it was a bit of a pie in the sky comment and we didn’t think we’d get this far.

“We are already at the Bracelet with two races to go, we will push through regardless and we will give her a decent spell after it all. If we come up a bit short, we do, but we are headed in the right direction at the moment.

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“We had to back her up the other day, which we had never done with her before, but to be ready for this race, we had to do it really.

“I thought she was terrific the other day, even though we didn’t win, it was one of her better runs really because she stuck on good and kept going through the line.

“It was a step up in grade for what we had been running against, I thought she acquitted herself really well in a better line-up.”

Exotique Miss is a $9.50 chance with TAB.

Originally published as Team Toowoomba aim up to Queensland Oaks with Exotique Miss in Gold Coast Bracelet