By Glenn Davis
Trainer Tony Gollan has preferred the home ground advantage over a Sydney trip with promising filly Miss Exfactor who will run at Doomben on Saturday.
Miss Exfactor was nominated for the QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap (1050m) at Doomben and a Benchmark 75 race over 1100 metres at Randwick but Gollan’s preferred option was to stay on home soil.
“She got 58kgs in Brisbane and 60.5kgs in Sydney where the track was in the heavy range and was probably more suitable for her,” Gollan said.
“But she’d have to contend with the trip down by float so my preference was to stay here.”
Miss Exfactor was spelled during the hotter months after winning two of her first five starts last year but it was too late for her to be aimed at the main winter races by the time she returned to Gollan’s stables.
The daughter of Your Song resumed to win against her own age on a heavy track at the Gold Coast in May before maintaining her unblemished record this time in with an impressive victory in soft going at the Sunshine Coast on June 2.
“She was going to run on Ipswich Cup day in a three-year-old race but she bumped her leg on the Wednesday before the race so I didn’t run her,” Gollan said.
Gollan believes Miss Exfactor has a bright future and is hopeful she can pick up a Stakes race during the Brisbane summer carnival before being aimed at next year’s Brisbane winter carnival.
“She’s a very nice filly who likes getting her toe in the soft ground, that’s why it was tempting to go to Sydney,” Gollan said.
“She’ll be aimed at the some of the fillies and mare’s races in the summer and hopefully she’ll go on to the winter next year.”
Miss Exfactor is yet to miss a place in her seven starts for four wins and three placings.
The filly cost $65,000 at the Magic Millions sales and has already earned connections more than $165,000.
Meanwhile Gollan, who is a runaway leader for a fifth Brisbane trainers’ premiership, won’t know which way to look on Saturday with runners also at the Gold Coast and Rockhampton.
“I’ve got runners at Doomben, the Gold Coast and Rockhampton so hopefully we can have a bit of luck,” he said.
Gollan, who also has runners at the Newmarket Handicap meeting at Rockhampton on Friday, will be represented by El Campeador in Saturday’s Rockhampton Cup at Callaghan Park.
El Campeador was runner up to the Matt Dunn-trained Zamex in the Ipswich Mile at Ipswich last month and will be striving to give Gollan his first Rockhampton Cup winner.
Racing Queensland webnews July 4