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| Staff Writer |
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Queensland trainer Tony Gollan has confirmed he will not be racing Gr.2 Moreton Cup Baller in the Gr.1 Stradbroke Handicap. Winning the Moreton Cup gives direct entry to the A$1.5m contest.He already has Isotope aimed at the same race.
Baller was ridden by Hugh Bowman who wins the race for the second consecutive year.
Gollan had originally planned on running Baller in the Group 3 WJ Healy Stakes on Tatt’s Tiara day, but said he will now have a second thought as he would likely cop a huge weight hit in the race.
Gollan was quickly becoming fed up with a string of second placings after Palladas, Bezique, and Garibaldi all managed to get narrowly beaten, but back-to-back wins with Vinco and Baller quickly put them behind him,
Baller has been a highly rated runner but when often performing below par Gollan admitted it had been hard work to get him back into the winners enclosure.
“We had him in an awfully hard company in the weight-for-age races and we dropped him back to his right grade,” he said.
“He travelled up like he did last year and he had enough in him to bump that horse out of the road.
“That is the Baller we know today, that is the right horse," said Gollan.
There are a lot of things that need to go right to get the hulking six-year-old to win, and Gollan was able to get his ducks in a row on Saturday, with Baller racing away under jockey Hugh Bowman to go back-to-back in the race.