Tony Gollan goes from eight horses in Brisbane to a decade of dominance

Tony Gollan made the move down to Brisbane from Toowoomba in 2012 and has become a juggernaut, where he will bring up his 10th consecutive trainers premiership on Saturday.

Tony Gollan has won six Group 1’s over his career. Picture: Grant Peters—Trackside Photography.

Tony Gollan first made the move to Brisbane 11 years ago with a team of just eight horses, on Saturday he will put the finishing touches on his 10th consecutive metropolitan trainers championship to mark a decade of dominance.

Sitting on 134.5 wins, Gollan is more than double his nearest rival (Chris Waller, 64) and says he has no plans to slow down anytime soon, adamant he has another 10 years in him.

While he did not win a Group 1 this season, Gollan finally broke through to win the Magic Millions 2YO Classic with Skirt The Law, and says it is a good example of finding ways to improve his stable.

After making the move to Brisbane from Toowoomba following Temple Of Boom’s win in the Group 1 Galaxy in Sydney in 2012, Gollan has grown a juggernaut, but says he won’t stop to reflect on his 10th premiership until it is all said and done.

“I will sit back one day when it’s all finished and reflect about it, not now,” Gollan said.

Tony Gollan made the move to Brisbane in 2012. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

“It’s easy to get motivated because it is a cutthroat industry, second place is the first loser, so we are there to win and we need to get better at what we’re doing.

“It’s not easy to win races in town, or to win premierships, so we’re not resting on our laurels, we want to be better again next year.

“The goal is always to go better than the previous year, we will sit down and identify what we did well and not so well and try to do some things better.”

Remarkably, the only year Gollan did not win the premiership in town was his first year, where he had a barn of just 30 horses.

“I came down to Brisbane with eight horses, I had 38 when I was in Toowoomba,” Gollan said.

“The eight I came down with were all that were good enough really, I came down during the carnival in 2012.

“I had five of my own, then picked up three. I got a few more through the off season and the new season.

“I gradually filled my 30-horse barn, it took a bit of time to get there, I was lucky the club were good enough to give me time to fill it.

Trainer Tony Gollan will win his 10th consecutive trainers premiership on Saturday. Picture: Grant Peters — Trackside Photography.

“Temple Of Boom was my best horse, I won The Galaxy in 2012 and came down after he won that.

“Spirit Of Boom was in the stable at the time too along with Listen Son, they were the three big ones, then a few others came in.

“I was always quietly confident I could do a good job in town because I had a good grounding underneath me.”

Despite flirting with a Sydney stable in 2016, Gollan is adamant Brisbane is home to him as he looks to continue his record-breaking run.

“I’m firmly entrenched in Brisbane, I have a young family here and it is a good work-life balance here,” he said.

“It’s a different stage of my life now to what it was when I first moved down and I can honestly say I am really enjoying it, I’m enjoying training and I want to keep getting better.

“There’s another 10 in me, I’m not that old, but we are going one season at a time.”

Originally published as Tony Gollan goes from eight horses in Brisbane to a decade of dominance