Brisbane trainers Tony Gollan and Jack Bruce devising plans for ex-Godolphin gallopers

Meet the ex-Godolphin stars who are ready to make an impact in Queensland under new stables.

Fleetwood has joined the Tony Gollan stable. Photo: Jeremy Ng/Getty Images.

Whether it’s the Toowoomba Weetwood or the $1m Magic Millions Snippets, Brisbane trainers Tony Gollan and Jack Bruce have already started mapping out plans for their newly acquired gallopers from a recent sale of Godolphin horses.

The racing and breeding powerhouse sold close to $2.2m worth of 25 ready-to-race horses last Wednesday as it prepares to enter a public training model from August 1.

Deagon trainer Bruce, High Calibre Racing and Clarke Bloodstock forked out $135,000 to buy four-year-old gelding Razors, who finished runner-up to Kintyre in last year’s $350,000 Group 2 Queensland Guineas (1600m) at Eagle Farm.

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Gollan Racing and Craig Sneesby paid $150,000 for gelding Fleetwood and the stable will also train Pereille, who was bought by Australian Bloodstock for $170,000.

Four-year-old Fleetwood came third in the $175,000 Listed Creswick Stakes (1200m) at Flemington in July last year, while Pereille was runner-up to Marble Nine in this month’s $175,000 Listed Santa Ana Lane Sprint Series Final (1200m) at the same track.

Read: Ramornie-winning jockey plans to retire this year

“Fleetwood is just a progressive horse who we think will do really well up here,” Gollan Racing’s general manager Andrew Dunemann said.

“We also picked up Pereille, another horse who’s very progressive.

“I do think Fleetwood in particular is a Magic Millions horse. He can go to the Snippets (on the Gold Coast in January) or one of the other top sprinting races.”

The short-priced Pereille gets the win on the board at start #7! pic.twitter.com/2RJKIrYJ3I

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) July 5, 2023

Dunemann said the major benefit of buying from powerhouse Godolphin was the transparency of the sale.

“The way Godolphin does things is second to none, really,” he said.

“They don’t breed horses to sell, they breed them to train, and that means the horses don’t have the intervention early on that others do.”

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Bruce said the $160,000 Listed Toowoomba Weetwood (1200m) on September 27 at Clifford Park was a potential target for Razors.

“He could be a Weetwood horse if he can sharpen up at 1200m, although he’d probably want to win a couple of times between now and then,” Bruce said.

Razors will now be based in Queensland. Photo: Bradley Photos.

“He might be able to sneak into that race with 54kg which is obviously attractive being a Listed race with good prizemoney.”

Bruce said Razors’ NSW Benchmark rating of 83 would be lowered in Queensland, giving him more racing options for the stakes-placed horse.

“I had my eye on a few of them and I thought he was probably the best value,” Bruce said.

“He has great form and one of the attractions of him is that he’s only a two-win horse so we’ve still got the class system to work our way through in Queensland.

“He’s rated 81, the handicapper tells me in Queensland, which is still a good, fair Saturday class rating for a horse who’s been stakes-placed and has some serious form on the board.

“In terms of my stable and where I’m tracking, I’m looking for horses like that so he’s well worth the price.”

Originally published as Brisbane trainers Tony Gollan and Jack Bruce devising plans for ex-Godolphin gallopers