Bargain $50,000 purchase GOSPEL GIRL broke through the $200,000 prizemoney barrier after capping a Saturday Metropolitan double for the team at Eagle Farm on Saturday. The daughter of Epaulette overcame a wide run in transit to score a determined victory and make it back-to-back wins at Saturday Metropolitan level for trainer Tony Gollan. The win followed on from the victory of stablemate IMPERVIOUS earlier in the day and extended our terrific run of results to start the new season with five wins and two minor placings from our 10 starters so far. Gollan Racing stable rep Craig Cavanagh paid tribute to the five-year-old mare&rsquo;s toughness given she rose 5.5kg in the weights and was trapped wide in the run. &ldquo;After she won her maiden we thought she might be able to win a Saturday race and now she&rsquo;s put two of them together,&rdquo; said Cavanaugh &ldquo;It was a big jump in the weights and given the ground she covered, she showed a lot of grit so it was good win.&rdquo; Congratulations to our partners Strong Bloodstock, Strong Bloodstock STW, Mr C D McGuire, Mr B W McMahon, Mr G J Carey, Yappy Daze, Mr D W Byron, Mr J M Clark, Mr I S Gabriel, Mr S Macmillan, Mr G J Hempenstall, Mr T Brown, Mr D J Mullaly, Mr R R Chapman, Mr L Haig, Mr T M Davis, A K Racing, Mr P T Collins, Mr S Lefebvre, Mr V Cahill

Strong Bloodstock

DOUBLE DELIGHT FOR GOSPEL GIRL

Talented filly IMPERVIOUS extended her impressive record after breaking through at Saturday Metropolitan level at Eagle Farm. After a luckless third in similar grade the start prior, the three-year-old Farnan filly atoned in style as she made it two wins and three placings from her five career starts for trainer Tony Gollan. The win was the first of a Saturday Metro double and extended our terrific run of results to start the new season with five wins and two minor placings from our 10 starters so far. Ridden perfectly by premier jockey Angela Jones in a stalking role travelling outside the leader, IMPERVIOUS showed plenty of toughness to wear down the pacemaker to win by a head on the line. Jones suggested there was plenty of improvement in the youngster who has already collected up over $100,000 in prizemoney for our partners. &ldquo;She was really good today and looks like she&rsquo;s got improvement to come still which is exciting,&rdquo; said Jones. &ldquo;It was nice to see her do everything just how we wanted. &ldquo;I was a bit worried she might get keen without cover but she dropped the bit straight away which was beautiful to see and she&rsquo;s just doing everything right.&rdquo; Congratulations to our partners; Strong Bloodstock, Mr A D Phillips, Mr M B Kerz, Mr P S Dhillon, Mr A J Cuddy, Mr J D Chevalley, Mr G J Roberts, Mr S A Marr, Mrs L Daffy, Mr A R Madigan, Mr B W McMahon, Mr T J Williams, Mr S Mitchell, Mrs R Turner, Mr A D Taylor, Ms A Stewart, Ms K Nicholson, Ms K Schrauf, Mr R Cutrie, Georges River Racing

SATURDAY SUCCESS FOR IMPRESSIVE IMPERVIOUS

DUKE OF CAMDEN continued our scintillating start to the new racing season after recording our third winner from four runners on Monday at Goulburn. The son of Trapeze Artist overcame a wide run in transit on the speed with top weight of 62kg to prove too strong for his rivals, kicking clear to win by four lengths under the urgings of Jay Ford.  The eye-catching victory marked our third winner from four starters to kick off the new racing season following on from the wins of GOSPEL GIRL and BLAZEN BOOTS over the past six days. Winning jockey Ford said the four-year-old was showing new-found maturity and was ready to go on with the job after making it two wins from three starts this preparation. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always shown ability but he&rsquo;s let himself down in the past,&rdquo; said Ford. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s held his form really well this prep. You&rsquo;ve just go to let him do him.  &ldquo;He was the most credentialed horse in the race and that&rsquo;s why he had that weight. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s won two from three this preparation and hopefully he can measure up in something a bit better.&rdquo; Trainer David Pfieffer said the son of Trapeze Artist had plenty of upside after making it three wins from his eight career starts. &ldquo;He did a really good job,&rdquo; said Pfieffer. &ldquo;I was a bit worried when he was pulling at the 600m but he looked like he was just traveling too nicely and was in a good rhythm. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a lot of upside if we can get that brain to work with us, he&rsquo;s only going to mature more and improve more. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s done a good job in his short career.&rdquo; Congratulations to our partners: Strong Bloodstock, SBS Punters Club 1, Mr B T Healy, Mr T J Williams, Mr W J Pollock, Mr J P Proctor, Mr P Walkden, Mr A Hopewell, SBS Duke, Mr P Code, Mr D Nelson, Mr J Prioste, Flying Codona Racing, Mr P Mosca, Mrs N Drysdale, Mr M E Peters, Mr K Buckley, Mr D Head, Mrs S Walkden, Mr T E Rankin

DUKE CONTINUES NEW SEASON MOMENTUM

GOSPEL GIRL continued our early season success with Tony Gollan when she scored her first Saturday metropolitan victory at Eagle Farm. Three days after her stablemate BLAZEN BOOTS had registered our first win of the new campaign, GOSPEL GIRL got in on the act with an all-the-way romp in the No Metro Wins Handicap (1200m). Given a beautifully-judged steer by Emily Lang, the mare relished the give in the track to bring up a four-timer for Gollan. Having opened her prep with a pair of minor placings, GOSPEL GIRL was rock hard fit third-up and after bouncing out of the gates, she never looked in danger of defeat as she took her career earnings past $150,000. &ldquo;I thought she was probably the stable&rsquo;s best chance coming into the day,&rdquo; said Gollan. &ldquo;She loves the ground and mapped to get on top of the speed with the light weight on her back. She didn&rsquo;t win by a big margin in the end, but I never thought she was going to get beaten. &ldquo;She looked fantastic today and she came here off the back of two really good form races. She&rsquo;s quite a big girl so it always takes a couple of runs to get her fit, but she was ready to run a race here today. Emily did a great job and it&rsquo;s a pleasure to train a winner for Blake and his team. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t pay a lot for their horses, but we&rsquo;ve trained a lot of city winners for them so we love training for them. We had a nice win with Blazen Boots in midweek so it&rsquo;s great to get another one on the board for the team here today.&rdquo; Many congratulations to our partners: Mr C D McGuire, Mr B W McMahon, Mr G J Carey, Yappy Daze, Mr D W Byron, Mr J M Clark, Mr I S Gabriel, Mr S Macmillan, Mr G J Hempenstall, Mr T Brown, Mr D J Mullaly, Mr R R Chapman, Mr L Haig, Mr T M Davis, A K Racing, Mr P T Collins, Mr S Lefebvre and Mr V Cahill.

GOSPEL GIRL ON SONG IN CITY WIN

BLAZEN BOOTS scored our first win of the new season when he made a red-hot return at Doomben, which has proved a very happy hunting ground.&nbsp;
The 7YO made light of his nine-month absence from competitive action to score his fifth metropolitan win on Wednesday, with four of them coming at Doomben.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Given a perfectly executed steer by Ben Thompson, who has hit the ground running since returning from his stint in Hong Kong, BLAZEN BOOTS led all the way in the Class 5 Handicap to take his career earnings past the $150,000 mark.&nbsp;
Given the son of Tavistock has won previously over the mile, his first-up success over 1350m bodes well for the remainder of his preparation.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Because it was a long time between runs, I was a little worried about him today,&rdquo; said trainer Tony Gollan.&nbsp;
&ldquo;He looked fantastic and he&rsquo;s been improving lengths in his work at home, but my only query was where we would end up in the run. Full credit to Ben, I just left it up to him and the ride won the race. The horse did a great job because there&rsquo;s still a fair bit of improvement to come with him.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Everything about him was really good today, he was as big and as strong as he&rsquo;s ever been and he&rsquo;s really sound at the minute. This was the right time of year for him to kick off, hopefully he&rsquo;s in for a good prep and we can pick off a Saturday race with him.&rdquo;
Many congratulations to all our partners: Bad Boys Racing, Mr B Hennock, Mr C Chapman, Ms B A Cooper, Mr C R Filer, Ms L N Jaques, Mr J Kennedy, Mr C M Schulz, Mudcrab, Mr M J Quilter, Mr S K B Smith, Mr P C Sposato, Mr M D Leitch, Mr L Te Keeti, Ms M Lillecrapp, Ms J Masters, Mrs C M Mayne, Showtime and Mrs J M Bradley-Smith.

BLAZEN BOOTS IGNITES OUR SEASON

Shrewd buy ZARAGOZA made the most of his home track advantage at Kembla Grange on Thursday when he enhanced an already prosperous prep with a second win since joining the Strong Bloodstock stable.&nbsp;
A $47,500 Inglis Online purchase, ZARAGOZA has now amassed more than $60,000 this campaign thanks to a pair of home track victories and three further minor placings.&nbsp;
All four of the gelding&rsquo;s career wins have now come on home soil, and despite a wide run in transit he was again too strong for his rivals in the Benchmark 68 Handicap (1000m) under Keagan Latham, who like trainers Rob and Luke Price celebrated a treble. 
&ldquo;He enjoyed the step up to 1200 metres today,&rdquo; said Latham post-race.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The draw looked a bit iffy so I was a little worried about where we might end up in the run, but it actually worked out perfectly. I thought there might be more speed in the race, but there wasn&rsquo;t much early tempo and we ended up three-wide. But it meant we could creep up and the horse did virtually all the work for me, I was just a passenger.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I thought he was just going to put them away quite comfortably, but he&rsquo;s a bit of a character and he did just enough to win. If he continues to win with a bit in hand then he should bounce out of his runs in the future. Overall it was a really good effort and I thought he stayed out the 1200 metres quite strongly.&rdquo;
His victory by a long neck also extended our strong recent form, with our last six starters having now produced two wins and a pair of minor placings.&nbsp;
Congratulations to all our partners: Mr S D Pleming, Mr T J Webster, SG Gilleland, Mr G Shalala, Mr L J Woodorth, Mr D Nelson, Mr M D Leitch, Mr R Cutrie, Mr A G Bloom, Mr M Bradstock, HuntyMcHud Racing, Mr P A Curran, Mr M Daniel, Mr A Youssef, Mr M Vassallo and Mr M Duncombe.

ZARAGOZA STRIKES AGAIN FOR CONNECTIONS

DUKE OF CAMDEN made a supremely stylish return to the races at Gosford on Thursday when he took his earnings past $50,000 with a second career win.&nbsp;
The 3YO had trialled nicely in the lead-up to his first-up run and promptly justified some strong market support with a two-length victory in the Class 1 Handicap (1200m).
Ridden a treat by in-form jockey Jason Collett, who was in the saddle for the first time, DUKE OF CAMDEN settled just off the early speed.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;
When Collett asked our boy for the maximum effort in the straight, he swiftly responded with a burst of speed to improve his race record to two wins and one minor placing from six starts for David Pfieffer.&nbsp;
&ldquo;That was a lovely win,&rdquo; said Collett.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The gate definitely helped us today, and it was good that he was cleanly away. I could see there was some speed outside us, so I just took a sit and he travelled sweetly the whole way. He transitioned through his gears and quickened really well, and in the end it was quite a soft win.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;d probably stay at this trip for now, but you could look to extend him in time.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Many congratulations to our partners: SBS Punters Club 1, Mr B T Healy, Mr T J Williams, Mr W J Pollock, Mr J P Proctor, Mr P Walkden, Mr A Hopewell, SBS Duke, Mr P Code, Mr D Nelson, Mr J Prioste, Flying Codona Racing, Mr P Mosca, Mrs N Drysdale, Mr M E Peters, Mr K Buckley and Mr D Head.

DUKE OF CAMDEN REIGNS SUPREME AT GOSFORD

A regal return by QUEENSTAR saw the filly shed her maiden status in style at Ipswich on Friday.
The daughter of Unite And Conquer had been given an extended break after suffering a minor injury when finishing fifth on debut at the same venue last December, and she made light of the long absence from the racetrack to power to victory in the Maiden Handicap (1100m). &nbsp;
Given a confident ride by Cejay Graham, QUEENSTAR knuckled down to her task in the home straight and ultimately had too much class for her rivals who were left trailing in her wake. 
The two-length win saw QUEENSTAR justify race favouritism and rewarded the patience of our partners, who shared in a cheque for $16,800 to ensure the weekend started early. 
&ldquo;She was very dominant and did everything right,&rdquo; said Graham. 
&ldquo;We had to do a bit of work from the wide alley, but once we got there she travelled in a beautiful rhythm. The leader didn&rsquo;t take me very far, but I was still confident a long way from home. If she&rsquo;d been challenged I think she would&rsquo;ve found plenty more, so she&rsquo;ll only go on with things now.&rdquo; 
Victory broke a frustrating run of seconds for the team, with four of our five previous runners having found one too good. &nbsp; The win was extra satisfying after we purchased QUEENSTAR's half sister by Profiteer earlier this year knowing the ability her older sibling had shown during her early education. We look forward to the future with both of these fillies after a great start for the family. Congratulations to our partners: SBS Punters Club 1, SBS Punters Club 2, Hollymount Stud, Mr J J Ryan, Polglase Racing, K C M B, Mr R J Knuppe, Mr S A Marr, Mr K Sendall, Mr D Nelson, Mr B T Healy, Nobbys Nuts Syndicate, Mr A J Cuddy, Mr C D McGuire and Ms L N Fanning.

QUEENSTAR SHINES BRIGHT AT IPSWICH

Recent stable acquisition ZARAGOZA delivered a swift return for connections when he scored at just his third start for the team with a determined win at Kembla Grange on Saturday. Despite a tardy getaway, the 5YO gelding recovered to settle just behind the speed and proved too strong as he ploughed through the wet conditions under the urgings of Keagan Latham. The win marked his third career victory from 13 starts for trainers Rob and Luke Price but his first since joining the Strong Bloodstock stable this preparation, just three starts ago. Latham suggested the win would now earn the striking Street Boss gelding a tilt at Metropolitan grade after carrying 60kg to victory in the Benchmark 64. "He won like he's been working," said Latham. "I think he was unlucky last start when he got caught deep of a slow speed but they went a good speed today. "He swims in the wet, it could have been a heavy 10 today and it wouldn't have been a problem for him." Congratulations to our parters Strong Bloodstock, Mr S D Pleming, Mr T J Webster, SG Gilleland, Mr G Shalala, Mr L J Woodorth, Mr D Nelson, Mr M D Leitch, Mr R Cutrie, Mr A G Bloom,

ZARAGOZA DELIVERS FOR CONNECTIONS

KING KAPA extended his sizzling recent form when he added another black type win to his impressive CV in the Ascot Handicap (1000m).
Trainer Tony Gollan paid tribute to an &ldquo;amazing horse&rdquo; after the King gave our partners a huge thrill with a eighth career win in the Listed contest at Eagle Farm on Easter Saturday.&nbsp; &nbsp;
The son of Capitalist smashed through the $500,000 prizemoney barrier after adding the Ascot Handicap to the Listed Hinkler Handicap (1200m) he claimed on his home track in June 2023.
The 6YO now has two wins and a pair of placings from his last four starts after showing great determination to get his nose in front under Cejay Graham, who is building a rich association with our boy.&nbsp; &nbsp;
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an amazing horse, he&rsquo;s been in work in the stables for about a year now, and he just keeps fronting up on raceday,&rdquo; said Gollan.&nbsp;
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got some aches and pains and we weren&rsquo;t even sure if he&rsquo;d still be racing this time last year, but he seems to be loving life at the minute and he&rsquo;s a real tradesman around the yard. I said to his owners that there&rsquo;s no point spelling him, because if you did that you might as well retire him. So we&rsquo;ve just kept him ticking along, and here we are winning a Stakes race in a very strong rendition of the Ascot Handicap.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a gem of a horse to have around, and he&rsquo;s a credit to the team at Strong Bloodstock who do a fantastic job with their horses. He&rsquo;s holding up really well, and he&rsquo;s a very happy, healthy horse in great form.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;
His next probable target is the Group 2 Victory Stakes (1200m) at Eagle Farm in a fortnight, many congratulations to all our partners: Mr B Armstrong, Fremia Racing , Mr D Clifford, Mr B R Potter, K C M B, The Foyers, Mr D Campbell, Mr I S Gabriel, Mrs L A Gabriel, Mr SA Marr, Mr A Boyle, Mr D P Gilmour, Roll Away Racing, Mr T M McDermott, Mr M McGuire, Mr J P Proctor and Georges River Racing.

Stable News

DUKE CONTINUES NEW SEASON MOMENTUM