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Big Heinrich team heads to Doomben

18 February 2020

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By Glenn Davis

Gold Coast trainer Gillian Heinrich will turn back the clock to her former glory days with one of her biggest representations at Doomben on Wednesday.

Heinrich has 11 runners engaged at Doomben but is unsure how many will start after some poor barrier draws and with the track rated in the slow range.

At the peak of her career, Heinrich was one of the State’s leading trainers and scored the biggest win of her training career with Military Rose in the 2010 Magic Millions Classic before she was diagnosed with bowel cancer five years ago.

Heinrich had more than 70 horses in work at the peak of her career but she and husband Hoss, a former Gold Coast Turf Club chairman and breeder, culled the stable numbers to around 20 while she underwent treatment.

She has now recovered after years of treatment and has steadily built her stable numbers back up to 34 in work.

To ease the burden of her early morning starts during her treatment stage, Heinrich started a joint training venture with her then foreman Ben Rodgers before they parted company a year ago following her recovery.

Heinrich has named Liability in the Class Two Plate (1110m) and Dixon Bay in the QTIS Three-Year-Old Benchmark 70 Handicap (1200m) as the pick of her team.

Jimmy Orman will ride Liability while Brad Stewart will partner Dixon Bay.

Dixon Bay is unbeaten in two starts and is coming off a dominant Class One win over 1200 metres at the Gold Coast on February 2 while Liability is resuming following his last start fourth to Go Dixie in Class Three grade at the Gold Coast in September.

“Dixon Bay has won two out of two and if he can win again, we may look at taking him to a three-year-old Saturday race in town,” Heinrich said.

Dixon Bay won his maiden on debut at a midweek city meeting Doomben last month.

Heinrich also expects a strong performance from Liability.

“Liability is first-up but he was quite good when he won a barrier trial at the Gold Coast a few weeks ago,” she said.

Racing Queensland webnews    February 18