Parry’s five star Mount Isa clean sweep

By Jordan Gerrans

When you have the number of runners the Tanya Parry stable boasts on a regular basis, it is only a matter of time before the team walks away from a race meeting with a clean sweep.

The Parry team at Julia Creek regularly chalks up three or four winners at a meeting on the non-TAB circuit.

They finally landed the full handful at Mount Isa’s Buchanan Park on Saturday afternoon, winning all five races on the card.

The Parry stable is a dominant force on the North West circuit and reaffirmed that with Groove Jet, Last Ditch Effort, Polly Hoffa, Zephirine and The Wellian all scoring in a red-letter day for the barn.

“It’s a bit of a goal to do that,” Parry’s partner and stable representative Aaron Spradau said of the five-winner result.

“But, we would not want to do that every week because you like to see racing get shared around a bit with the winners.

“We just like to be quiet and just try to be friendly with everyone and good sports. We like to see it get shared around racing. It’s got to be that way.”

Across the five-event program, the Parry camp started 15 runners.

While it was a day to remember for Parry, Spradau and the entire team, it was also a special day for hoop Brooke Stower.

Stower, who has experience riding in the city earlier in her career, rode the first four winners of the Mount Isa meeting for Parry and was aboard the favourite in the last event, The Tyler.

The Tyler was forced to settle for third in the QTIS Ratings Band 0 - 60 Handicap over 1450 metres, with stablemate The Wellian saluting by more than six lengths with jockey Nor Yadi in the saddle.

“It was pretty special,” Spradau said.

“It’s nice to get five, but we’re happy to go to the races and we like to see it get spread around a bit.

“It’s good to see all the trainers and that get a win, but it was a special day. A couple of the horses were surprises.

“There were a couple of travelling horses that came in for the meeting, horses from Philip Cole and Bevan Johnson, so we thought it was going to be a bit of a tough day.

“But, it was just one of those days that everything fell into place and it ended up being a good day.”

While it is rare for one trainer to prepare the entire card of winners, it is not unprecedented, especially in the western areas of Queensland.

Top Mount Isa horsewoman Denise Ballard trained all five winners at Boulia many moons ago.

On the jockey front, riders such as Jeffrey Felix, Isabella Teh and Wanderson D’Avila have all ridden the card in recent times at country venues.

It has been a hot start to the new season for Parry and, prior to Saturday’s Mount Isa meeting, she collected a winning double at Richmond and Mount Isa in the earlier stages of August.

The Julia Creek horsewoman finished atop the Queensland Country Trainer Premiership at the conclusion of the 2025-26 campaign with 91 winners, 30 more than her nearest rival, Toni Schofield.

The 56-year-old Parry prepares a big team of horses alongside her partner Spradau, who is a former top jockey in the area.

The Mount Isa meeting on Saturday was called by emerging broadcaster Bryse McElhinney, who made special mention of Parry’s remarkable achievement in the last of the five races.