Nettuno bounces back to winning form in Swiss Ace Plate at Sunshine Coast

Tony Gollan loaded the Swiss Ace Plate with five runners and saluted with the outsider of his bunch at the Sunshine Coast.

Nettuno was back to his best to win the Swiss Ace Plate at the Sunshine Coast. Picture: Grant Peters/Trackside Photography

When the penny finally dropped for Nettuno, the $500,000 weapon did it in devastating style.

In one of the strongest editions of the Swiss Ace Plate that champion trainer Tony Gollan has seen, Nettuno made his rivals look second-rate at the Sunshine Coast.

Gollan had five runners in the race, including the well-backed $2.90 second elect Zoustyle, but it was $19 outsider Nettuno who was the giant-killer.

Gollan has always felt Nettuno has had an awesome engine but often in his career he has struggled to bridge the gap between potential and performance.

After booming on to the two-year-old scene with three consecutive wins last year, Nettuno lost his way at times and has struck bad luck including a wrenched joint in his Sydney campaign earlier this year.

Nettuno takes out the Swiss Ace Plate at juicy odds for @tonygollan! pic.twitter.com/5jKdJUyen4

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) November 18, 2023

But on Saturday, Nettuno showed he is the real deal.

They went mad up front in the Swiss Ace (1000m), with Zoustyle stranded out wide, and Nettuno sat behind them and unleashed a powerful sprint to record a dominant victory first-up.

Gollan horses filled three of the first four placings, but it was Nettuno who was the hero of the side.

The galloper, who was a $500,000 purchase at the 2021 Magic Millions Sale, is in for a bumper summer campaign with all roads leading towards Magic Millions day in January.

“He has always been a good horse, right from day one, but things hadn’t been going right with him,” Gollan said.

“But we didn’t geld him, we decided to give him a really good break and have an old-fashioned spell.

“Every time we have trialled him or jumped him out we have had different gear on him, he has tricked us and we have tricked him, we have tried to mix things up a bit for him.

“That’s probably the strongest Swiss Ace field I’ve seen for a while and he made them look second-rate, he is a very promising sprinter.

Nettuno scored a dominant win in the Swiss Ace Plate. Picture: Grant Peters/Trackside Photography

“I can’t wait for the rest of the summer with him.

“I know there are some good horses around in Queensland at the moment and some good sprinters, but I doubt there is going to be too many better than him this summer.”

Classy Rob Heathcote sprinter Prince Of Boom, the $2.70 favourite, was pulled up out of the race by jockey Martin Harley and stewards reported the galloper had suffered cardiac arrhythmia.

Meanwhile, Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michael Rodd continued his terrific comeback from a 30-month stint from being sidelined with troubling concussion issues.

Rodd had ridden a Wednesday city winner but his triumph on National Choice on the Sunshine Coast was his first Saturday metropolitan winner since returning.