Amahni’s Girl to resume in town

By Glenn Davis

Amahni's Girl will make her return to racing at Eagle Farm on Wednesday.

Amahni’s Girl, who was previously trained by the David Payne stable in Sydney, will be chasing her fourth win at her 12th start in the Benchmark 70 Handicap over 1400 metres.

Veteran Gold Coast trainer John Gilmore picked up the four-year-old daughter of Adelaide as a freebie after Payne moved her on following two Sydney barrier trials.

“She couldn’t make a $600 bid when she went through at an online public auction,” Gilmore said. 

“So, the owner gave her away to a girl as a leisure horse but her breeder really wanted her to race so they gave her to me to see how she’d go on the track.

“She had the lowest of low expectations when she first came here but she came back from her first campaign and won three times.

“She’s turned out to be a nice mare and as good as any I’ve trained.”

Gilmore is closing in on his fourth decade training and has a happy knack with bargain buys.

His former useful galloper Sea Raider cost $10,000 at the Magic Millions sales and went on to return almost $500,000 in prizemoney.

His 2021 Ipswich Cup champion Happy Go Plucky was another cheap $7,300 buy at the Magic Millions and earned almost $500,000 in prizemoney with 10 wins and 19 placings from 73 starts.

Amahni’s Girl will be having her first start since finishing second to Thinkhardandfast in a 2020 metre Benchmark race at Doomben last November.

“She’s had a jump-out and went quite well so I think she’ll race well but it’ll depend on the pace,” Gilmore said.

“I think she’ll stay and I think she’s got a bit of a future.”

Gilmore has been training for around four decades and has a wealth of experience behind him after training in Macau and China.

He trained for five years in Macau and won their biggest races including a Derby and Director’s Cups.

“I then trained on mainland China for about six years in the early 2000’s before I took up a managerial role for one year at the jockey club in Wuhan before eventually coming to the Gold Coast," he said.