Joe Cleary remembers dad’s Magic Millions victory as he plots his own path to the race with A Million Roses

Joe Cleary has a potential Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic hopeful on his hands, as memories of his dad Frank’s famous 1992 win come flooding back.

Queanbeyan trainer Joe Cleary (right) and his father Frank.

Joe Cleary hopes his Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic hopeful A Millions Roses can be as tough and resilient as the trainer’s legendary father Frank.

Frank Cleary famously won the 1992 Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic with Clan O’Sullivan, an iconic five-length romp that his son Joe was on hand to celebrate as a teenager.

Joe, a Queanbeyan trainer who is now 47, has rookie filly A Millions Roses lining up in the Listed $200,000 Calaway Gal (1000m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday where she can showcase her Magic Millions credentials.

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Frank Cleary, 75, has seen his way through some serious health scares in recent years and if A Million Roses can be as resilient as him, she will be some sort of filly.

Jockey Grant Cooksley and Clan O'Sullivan take out the Magic Millions 2YO Classic in 1992.

“Frank had a heart attack a couple of years ago and then they found a cancer in a prostate at the same time, so he had a double whammy,” Joe Cleary said.

“But after the health scares, he is back and bouncing now.

“He’s going well, he has got the all clear now and he has been healthy.”

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Joe Cleary remembers when, on his first year out of school, he ventured to the Gold Coast with his father and partied after Clan O’Sullivan’s victory.

He would love history to repeat and have a Magic Millions winner himself, thereby becoming the first son of a Magic Millions winner to score the lucrative race.

Cleary isn’t quite daring to dream of Magic Millions glory – his unraced filly is $41 to make a winning debut when taking on the Calaway Gal on Saturday.

But Cleary has secured top jockey Ben Thompson to ride his filly and says she certainly won’t disgrace herself taking on Stakes company at her first start.

“I trained this filly’s mother, Lucy Rose, and a good client and I bred her ourselves,” Cleary said.

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“We put her through the Magic Millions sale but she was passed in, we had a genuine offer of $90,000 for her but we thought ‘stuff that, we will syndicate her ourselves’.

“She is a very nice filly, the only worry is whether it is all a bit too soon for her.

“We will be able to tell on Saturday.

“We have been able to secure Benny Thompson, I chased him a couple of weeks ago to ride her.

“This filly’s mother was very fast but I have actually taught her to settle a bit.

“With these two year old races being such cut throat events, I thought that was the way to go.”

Trainer Joe Cleary with daughter Maya.

Cleary admits it is a bit of a “throw at the stumps” with A Million Roses, but said he didn’t want to die wondering to see whether she had the talent to aim up at the rich Magic Millions day next month.

“I am either going to go really close to getting it right, or I’m going to be very wrong,” he said.

“I seem to identify the right horses to bring to Queensland, I have travelled up there since I was 16 with horses.”

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Stablemate Soul Lady will also race at Eagle Farm on Saturday, competing in the QTIS 3YO Handicap (1400m) where she is a $19 chance.

Soul Lady holds a nomination for the $3m Gold Coast Magic Millions 3YO Guineas, but needs to score some extra prizemoney to qualify.

Cleary likes her chances of doing just that on Saturday.

“This is the first time she has actually raced against her own age group,” Cleary said.

“She has always raced the older horses and has always been screaming out for seven furlongs.”