Michael Nolan double continues good run for Toowoomba travellers
AFTER years in the wilderness, the one-time powerhouse nursery of Toowoomba is back in the main game and in-form trainer Michael Nolan has tipped the trend to continue.
AFTER years in the wilderness, the one-time powerhouse nursery of Toowoomba is back in the main game and in-form trainer Michael Nolan has tipped the trend to continue.
A Nolan double with Catseye Surprise and Angel Dancer, plus a longshot winner for Rex Lipp’s In The Genes, continued a big recent run of success for horses either trained at Toowoomba or coming off a lead-up run at Clifford Park.
After the advent of the Cushion track, Toowoomba form virtually became irrelevant in Brisbane, but that trend has changed.
In the past three weeks, Angel Dancer, In The Genes, Eminent Knight and Rough Eddie have all been metropolitan winners off a last-start Toowoomba run, while Catseye Surprise, Arthur Le Roi, The Monstar and star filly Sold For Song have been metro winners trained at the track.
Nolan, who also prepared a double a fortnight earlier, feels there’s no coincidence in the recent surge from him and his colleagues.
“Clifford Park is a very good training track at the moment,” Nolan said. “All our training tracks are first class and they have a really good course manager in Chris Nation.
“You can train your horses how you want to again. The Cushion track wrecked us for a long while and it wrecked me as a trainer. It’s taken a long time to get back to this point and it’s great to see more winners coming out of Toowoomba again.”
Catseye Surprise was having her first start for Nolan on Saturday and lived up to the trainer’s prediction of a big run, despite dividends as big as $33 on the totes.
“Based on her trial, a couple of jumpouts and the way she had been working, this isn’t really a surprise to us,” Nolan said.
“My cousin Tim Nolan bought her a few months ago as a broodmare prospect because she’s nicely bred and ever since we got her, I’ve really liked her. She certainly hadn’t worked like her form said she was going so I really expected her to race well.”
Catseye Surprise is from the great family of Danehill and further back the Eight Carat dynasty that produced champions of the ilk of Octagonal. More recently star siblings Shooting To Win and Deep Field have emerged in the same family tree.
Nolan will now see if he can convince his cousin to let the mare train on for another season, rather than going to stud this year.
Angel Dancer is likely to step up to a mile now after she made it three from three this campaign.
“I know she was being overhauled at the end, but she’s never been asked to run that sort of time before and she was chasing from a long way out,” Nolan said. “She’s won at a mile before and getting back to that trip she will be able to travel a bit better.”
Cahill makes most of late call-up
MICHAEL Cahill made the most of Damian Browne’s absence with a copybook ride to snap a two-year losing sequence for Victorian raider Akavoroun in Saturday’s Listed Tattersall’s Mile at Doomben.
Browne coaxed a return to form from Akavoroun at his previous start, but pulled the pin yesterday, reporting to stewards that he and his entire family had fallen ill.
Cahill quickly had Akavoroun in a nice trailing spot before he overpowered Flamboyer (fourth) and Brettan (second).
“The only time I was worried was when I got behind the 100-1 shot for a little bit, but otherwise it all worked out well and I’m lucky to get the late call-up,” he said.
Akavoroun is trained by Melbourne’s Ciaron Maher, but has been stabled in Brisbane with John Meagher, who will try to convince his former trackwork rider to leave the six-year-old here.
“I think they should leave him here now because it’s in company that suits him,” Meagher said.
The Tatts Mile rounded out a frustrating carnival for Maher, whose gun mare Azkadellia had to settle for two minor Group 1 placings.
Originally published as Michael Nolan double continues good run for Toowoomba travellers
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