New training team chasing Vo Rogue double

By Jordan Gerrans

The Barry Lockwood and Emma-Jane Vincent combination are one of the hottest stables in the Sunshine State and they will throw a couple of exciting fillies in the deep end on Saturday in the Vo Rogue Plate.

It is a race where the team is the defending champion, with their former stable flagbearer Give Me Space winning the event last year.

Give Me Space has since transferred to the camp of the Hayes family in Victoria.

When Give Me Space stormed home from last to win the Group 3 prize this time last year, veteran horseman Lockwood was training solo.

He has since added long-term understudy Vincent to his training ticket in a partnership.

While Dialidae and Adorable Thought do not have the imposing resume of Give Me Space leading into the Vo Rogue of 2026, Lockwood believes they deserve their chance.

“They are all going well and they have been in races to suit, that's the main thing with horses, is to place them where they can win,” Lockwood said of Dialidae and Adorable Thought’s recent victories.

“We've got a few out of their grade this weekend but we're trying to get a bit of black-type with them.

“So, you throw them in the deep end and see what we can do and if that fails, we can go back to the grade that they're eligible for.”

In a lengthy training career, Lockwood has collected an array of Group victories in his more than a decade in the Sunshine State after originally starting out south of the border in New South Wales.

If Dialidae and Adorable Thought were to be successful on Saturday afternoon, the result would be a maiden triumph at the level for his new training partner Vincent.

Between November 29 and December 31 of 2025 – the Lockwood and Vincent team were almost unbeatable.

They took 14 runners to the races and returned home to their Eagle Farm base with nine winners and four other minor placings.

In those nine victories, Dialidae and Adorable Thought were both successful and are last start winners heading into Saturday’s 1300 metre test.

Dialidae – who wears the same colours of Give Me Space – broke maiden ranks at Caloundra in the middle of December while Adorable Thought did the same at a midweek city meeting just days prior.

“Well, they are coming into it as winners, but they are at the lower end of the grade,” Lockwood said.

“They are lowly rated, but they are in great form and hopefully they can pick up some black-type during the meeting. They are going very well.

“It's an opportunity for the breeding side of things, they're fillies. If you finish in the first four you've got some black-type and it's worth a fortune these days.

“So, for the owner's side of things, we just head that way and see what we can do.”

The in-form barn of Lockwood and Vincent also had stablemate Miss Personality in the Listed Nudgee Stakes, but they opted to scratch her after she drew a wide gate.

Instead, the winner of her last two starts will contest the Class 6 Plate over 1000 metres earlier in the program.

Queensland’s Summer Racing Carnival has already been a busy one for the newly minted training partnership after Pre Eminence claimed a sprint Benchmark 85 event last Saturday.

The five-year-old gelding has now won three in a line and is on a path to Magic Millions day.

The stable is still tossing up which race they will contest at the Gold Coast on the 17^th of next month.

“I find Pre Eminence pretty exciting,” Vincent said.

“He's come a long way, like the horse himself in the stable. He's an absolute dude and he's firing on race day. He has won his last three and on Saturday, that was that was pretty tough.

“He was pretty soft going into Saturday, so for him to do that, I'm excited for what he could do over Magic Millions.”

Co-trainer Lockwood also identified Carpaccio as a horse to watch over the summer carnival.

The five-year-old has stepped up in trip every run this preparation with his latest effort a solid third-place finish in Benchmark 70 company last Saturday.

The Lockwood and Vincent partnership was officially formed in the back end of 2025 after the duo had worked together for almost a decade.

The 36-year-old Vincent began riding trackwork for the respected horseman before building up her capabilities around the barn.

At 72 years of age, experienced conditioner Lockwood says the time was right to take on a training partner.

“She's a great trackwork rider and a great judge with horses, how they feel and how they gallop,” Lockwood said of Vincent.

“She suits me, I get good feedback off her, as well. She's just brilliant at the races with owners and such. She does a great job.

“Now she runs the stable. She does a great job, she's very good with the horses, I've got to say that.

“I have no fears to go to the races and I'm very particular how I want the horses saddled and everything and I know that gets done properly.

“A lot of the planning is still left to me at this stage because there's more to it than just saying we're going to the races, you've got to plan ahead as you go and she's taking more and more on board every week but what will happen eventually.

“She'll be ready to go soon and she can take it on her own.”

As an experienced trackwork rider and stable foreperson for several high-profile trainers across Australia and New Zealand, the move into an official training capacity had long been coming for Vincent.

Lockwood is regarded as one of the true gentlemen of the racing game in the Sunshine State and the significant opportunity to officially train alongside him is not lost on his younger co-trainer.

“It was really cool to see how excited Barry was about it and of course I was excited, as well,” Vincent said.

“I feel very lucky. It's been a great privilege to work with someone like Barry. I have been gradually doing more and more at his stable.

“It is a privilege, I am lucky to be working with someone that you have so much respect for and you just don't stop learning around Barry.

“I pick up so much and I'm still learning so much. I think we work very well as a team.”