Trainer Tony Gollan on 2024 Memsie Stakes hope Antino: ‘You don’t win Group 1s because you are due’

Queenslander Tony Gollan feels he can crack a Group 1 with Queensland weapon Antino who will take on big guns Pride Of Jenni and Mr Brightside in Saturday’s Memsie Stakes at Caulfield.

Ben Dorries

2 min read

August 29, 2024 - 2:00PM

Trainer Tony Gollan, pictured with jockey Vlad Duric after Antino’s Group 2 Victory Stakes win at Eagle Farm, thinks his stable star can mix it with the nation’s best in Saturday’s Group 1 Memsie Stakes at Caulfield. Picture: Grant Peters / Trackside Photography

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Champion Queensland trainer Tony Gollan is searching for his first Group 1 since 2021 and thinks first-up weapon Antino has the calibre and explosive finish to shock big guns Pride Of Jenni and Mr Brightside in the Memsie Stakes.

Gollan enjoyed a golden 2021 when he scored three Group 1s and believes his Queensland star Antino can deliver him another. But he says it’s not a case of being “due” a Group 1.

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“We are due another Group 1, but you don’t win Group 1s because you are due,” Gollan said.

“You win them because you have a horse good enough on the day and because everything goes right.

“If you take the amount of runners that I have in these spring Group 1 races, I haven’t had big numbers at them like the southern trainers who are based there.

“Antino has got such a good first-up record.

“He has only been beaten once fresh, although admittedly he has never been at this level fresh.”

Happy Monday! ðŸ˜ƒ

3x G1 winner, Pride Of Jenni, wins her jump out narrowly from Antino.@cmaherracing pic.twitter.com/4Cef5Z2SvI
— Racing.com (@Racing) August 18, 2024

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Gollan has enormous respect for Pride Of Jenni but is happy that Ciaron Maher’s frontrunning freak is in the Memsie field at Caulfield on Saturday to provide a good tempo.

He insists Antino is best suited steaming home off a good speed rather than contesting sit-and-sprint affairs.

Gollan feels that Antino, who was a narrow runner-up behind Attrition in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap when in Melbourne last spring, will have to run past both Mr Brightside and Pride Of Jenni to claim the Memsie.

“I think Mr Brightside will be in front of us, but the tempo is going to be on,” Gollan said.

Ahead of the Memsie Stakes this Saturday, @jamieleekah07 partnered Antino in a track gallop this morning ðŸ”¥ @tonygollan pic.twitter.com/h5t79j95t9
— Racing.com (@Racing) August 27, 2024

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“I’d rather be in this eight-horse field with a good tempo rather than a 16-horse field and be back in the field and have a lot of traffic to get past.

“You’ve seen with Antino before that he can chase for a bit, he can sustain a long run.

“The fact that Jenni likes to run races at a genuine clip and break fields up mid-race, no matter whether it’s 1400(m) or 2000(m), I don’t think that is a negative for my horse.

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“The old fashioned sit and sprint type Memsie Stakes races, they probably would be of more concern to my horse.

“When you have a horse like Pride Of Jenni in the race, to win this sort of race, you have got to have your horse really ready and you’ve just got to be a better horse on the day.

“There is nowhere to hide when she is in races.”