Mark Galloway's perfect voyage with Brodie

By Jordan Gerrans

When Mark Galloway was solely focusing on being a trackwork rider for Caloundra trainer Gary Duncan, he always had a fair opinion of mare Speaking Bad. 

The stayer won on three occasions across her 33 career efforts as well as being placed a dozen more times. 

Following her retirement in late 2020, Speaking Bad is now in the breeding barn and has produced a young filly that Galloway is now preparing in the infancy of his own training journey. 

After riding work at Caloundra for more than a decade, the Englishman nabbed his maiden winner as a trainer in Australia on Sunday afternoon with Speaking Bad’s daughter Brodies Voyage backing up her smart trial effort to score at her third race day appearance. 

After a lengthy tenure riding work for the popular Duncan, among other trainers, Galloway is now training his own stable after a gentle nudge from his wife Mel. 

Galloway has trained winners in Europe as well as riding as a flat and jumps jockey. 

The 44-year-old says he was unsure if he was ready to launch his own stable, but with his enthusiastic wife Mel keen on the idea - they have not looked back since.

“It was an absolute thrill and very special,” Galloway said of Sunday’s win. 

“I am doing it in partnership with my wife and once I get my general licence, we will hopefully go in together as co-trainers.

“She works just as hard as me, so it is a family affair.

“It was my wife who suggested I go into training, she said I was a bit too good to just be a trackwork rider.”

By Dracarys, the Galloway camp have had Brodies Voyage in their Sunshine Coast barn since the days following her breaking in process. 

She won a city trial in the middle stages of February and the stable thought they were on to a good thing. 

Brodies Voyage was taken to a city maiden on debut before going to Ipswich at her second start. 

She finished ninth on both occasions. 

A 1100 metre maiden on her local Polytrack was more to her liking on Sunday as she scored following a smart ride by the experienced Sean Cormack. 

“She has got potential and has showed that from the start,” the trainer said.

“She gave me a really nice 400 metre jump-out and then we took her to an 850 metre one, which she showed a lot in that day.

“I thought we would give her a trial at Doomben and that day, she did not even come off the bridle and won.

“We have had a couple of niggling issues with her since and in her first two starts, I think the occasion may have just been a big too big for her.

“We applied the blinkers for her third start and she came up trumps.”

Brodies Voyage is likely to head for a break now but her trainer feels she will get out to a mile or even out to 1800 metres as she progresses.

“It all seemed to work out well, she found another gear on Sunday,” he said.

“It was quite nice to see actually because that is what I have been seeing on the track.

“Sean is a good jockey and did a great job on her. I will be keeping him on my horses.”

Galloway hails from Liverpool in England with racing taking him across the globe. 

After competing around Europe, he had stops in New Zealand and Victoria before heading to the Sunshine State. 

The horseman initially worked for Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Brian Jenkins before linking up with Duncan at Caloundra.

Galloway has five gallopers on the books as well as a couple of babies he is breaking in. 

Interestingly, he prepares four different horses who are all sired by stallion Dracarys, including Sunday’s breakthrough winner. 

Galloway and his group of owners do not have a specifical preference for Dracarys’ progeny as the trainer says the glut of horses sired by the stallion came to his barn by complete chance. 

He first took a galloper to the races as a trainer in June of last year with his victory on Sunday coming with his seventh starter.