Gollan with high hopes for Spirit’s Boom three-year-olds

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Champion Queensland sire seeks to boost season with Spiritualised and Golden Boom in Gold Edition Plate at Eagle Farm

Two seemingly unstoppable forces of Queensland racing – Tony Gollan and Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) – combine for a powerful tilt at black type today in the Gold Edition Plate (Listed, 1200m) at Eagle Farm.

Gollan, already looking home and hosed for his tenth straight Brisbane trainers’ premiership, saddles two major chances in the $200,000 three-year-old sprint, both of whom can boost Spirit Of Boom’s quest for a fifth successive title as Queensland’s champion stallion.

Golden Boom, a $150,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast purchase who has bounced back from colic surgery, is an odds-on favourite after winning his first two starts at Caloundra by six and a half and one and a half lengths, which followed equally dominant romps in the gelding’s two barrier trials.

And stablemate Spiritualised – his sire’s most expensive yearling to date – is vying for second-favouritism in the six-horse field. The striking colt, from a half-sister to VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Personal (Fastnet Rock), is seeking a fourth win from eight starts, second-up from a spell.

Both are possible candidates for the $2 million Magic Millions Guineas (RL, 1400m) at the Gold Coast on January 14, with Gollan saying today’s outcome will determine whether they are targeted for that step up to 1400 metres.

“They’re both going really well and are in great shape,” Gollan told ANZ Bloodstock News. “I won’t put either one on top, but I think both will develop into very good class sprinters.

“It’s a bit of a shame I’ve got to start them in the same race. This was always in the program for Spiritualised after his first prep, and then Golden Boom started to get revving up into his prep, it was a logical race for him, too.

“I’ll wait and see regarding the Magic Millions Guineas. We’ll get through the weekend first. It’s Golden Boom’s first prep so I don’t know how deep I want to go with him, and Spiritualised has got to show me he’s relaxing well enough to get the 1400 metres.”

In the meantime, they’ll strive today to provide further headlines for Spirit Of Boom. His four straight state titles notwithstanding, Eureka Stud’s $33,000 flagbearer is enjoying something of a breakout season through fifth and sixth crops thrown by some topline mares, after breeders north and south of the Queensland border awoke to his capabilities.

After finishing 18th on the general sires list in 2020-21, Spirit Of Boom reached a new career peak of 14th last term, when eighth nationwide by winners. The 15-year-old is now 11th by winners for the current season with 55, and while that’s 12 behind his main Queensland rival – Lyndhurst Stud’s Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) – he appears to have career-best crops of two- and three-year-olds in training.

He shares top spot nationwide for two-year-old winners – with I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) – with his four winners from ten runners. They’re headed by filly Miss Coota, from the Fastnet Rock (Danehill) mare Rock Garden, who’s won her only two starts in Brisbane by seven and five lengths and is among the favourites for the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m); and by Malaboom, who took last Saturday’s Calaway Gal (Listed, 1000m) at Eagle Farm to become her sire’s first stakes winner of the season.

Spirit Of Boom is currently eighth among three-year-old sires by winners, with 20 from 62 runners, with Spiritualised his highest earner, and with Rockhampton star Chinny Boom winning her first five starts by up to eight lengths before a nose second to the stakes-winning Stroll (Snitzel) in the Mode Stakes (Listed, 1200m) at Doomben two weeks ago.

“Early on, Spirit of Boom was a good horse serving lesser quality mares, and only had glimpses of good mares in his first three crops,” Gollan said. “But his current two- and three-year-olds are out of his books of better pedigreed mares, and it’s no fluke they’re doing a good job. They were superior types as yearlings and they’re superior horses to train. He’s having a terrific season.”

Spiritualised embodies that later recognition of his dual Group 1-winning sire’s potential at stud. He is from the Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) mare Personalised, who was put to Spirit Of Boom just after he’d finished second to Zoustar (Northern Meteor) on the first-season sires table in 2017-18 (and first by winners, with 18 to Zoustar’s next-best ten). Victoria’s Musk Creek Farm then bought Personalised in-foal for $525,000.

Two years later, Gollan and John Foote Bloodstock bought the resultant colt at the Gold Coast for $575,000 – still Spirit Of Boom’s top yearling price – weeks after Personal’s VRC Oaks win.

“He was an obvious yearling – a strong colt with a beautiful action and a beautiful head, and he oozed quality from the get-go,” Gollan said.

“There were about three or four of us duelling for him, and I came out on top. I probably paid more than I wanted to, but I didn’t want to leave without him. Thankfully, the group allowed me to pay that much for him, and I’m glad they did because I think the price will be vindicated in time. He’s an outstanding colt and he’s going to be a really outstanding sprinter as he continues to mature.

“I think he’ll get more of a trip. He’s got a good depth of pedigree as far as having a bit of stamina to him, and that’s why he’s such a tough sprinter at the moment. Once he learns to relax a bit better he’ll get a bit further. He’s a bit of a work in progress in that regard but he’s getting there all the time.”

Spiritualised has a double Danehill (Danzig) pedigree, a 4Sx4D cross through two sons – Spirit Of Boom’s damsire Special Dane, and Personalised’s grandsire Redoute’s Choice.

Golden Boom – a $150,000 Gold Coast purchase by Chris Wessel’s Archer Park Racing – also has a cross of Danehill but it is of the more-vaunted gender-balanced variety and comes through his bottom line via second dam The Golden Dane, a dual Sydney Listed winner.

“Double Danehill is something that’s worked very well with Spirit Of Boom,” Gollan said. “He’s got Danehill in his bottom line. If it’s in the sire’s top line it’s a bit iffy, but it’s worked well when stallions have Danehill in their bottom line.

“And Golden Boom is a horse who doesn’t get too coarse with that cross. He’s a lovely athletic horse and the cross has worked well. With sires who have Danehill coming through their female line, that double cross is very good, and I think gender balance is a good key to it.”

Golden Boom – who Gollan expects to handle his first try past 1000 metres – comes into today’s race from a four-week break, with his trainer aware he’s still developing after some slow early months post-purchase due to a colic attack when first in pre-training.

“He had to have surgery, with a bit of stomach removed where the blockage was and put back together,” Gollan said. “That put him off the scene for quite a while, so physically he’s not quite there yet, whereas Spiritualised is much more mature and stronger.

“But Golden Boom is a lovely animal, very athletic, and I think this time next year he’ll be the real deal as a sprinter. I don’t like to put the cart in front of the horse in terms of how good he might become, but he’s run sectionals already which are comparable to open company and Listed and Group level horses. If he can continue to improve as he gets older – furnish and learn how to race – he could be a real serious sprinter for the stable.”

The Gollan/Spirit Of Boom pair face competition today from a colt by their sire’s rival Better Than Ready in Steady Ready, who was last night second favourite on the back of two wins and two placings from four starts.

And Toowoomba gelding End Assembly (Outreach) comes to town after winning his first two runs at home by seven and five lengths. The Mark Currie-trained gelding could be a late hurrah for his Widden sire Outreach (Exceed And Excel), who’s had one Listed winner among 158 runners and stood for $4,400 this spring. Widden’s Antony Thompson told ANZ Outreach had covered “20 or 30” mares this season and would be relocated next year.

“Outreach hasn’t done much but they always get at least one good one, don’t they?” Currie told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“End Assembly has done everything right. He’s won well but he’s very immature, and after he has a break after this race, he’ll come back a way better horse.

“This race is a different kettle of fish to what he’s contested at home, and the others have proven themselves in better quality races, but he won’t be too far off them.”