THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - BRUCE MCLACHLAN REMEMBERED AS GOLLAN CLOSES IN ON RECORD

By Graham Potter | Sunday, May 17, 2015

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

Is one of the Sunshine Coast’s most successful trainers of the past about to have one of his long standing records broken?

The late Bruce McLachlan enjoyed an illustrious career. Amongst his many achievements McLachlan won more Brisbane Premierships (18) than any other trainer and it was on one of those occasions, in the 1987/88 season that McLachlan saddled a record 78 metropolitan winners.

The fact that record has stood for twenty-six seasons underlines just how high a bar McLachlan set but now, six years after McLachlan’s sad, premature passing, his record number of winners for a metropolitan season is finally under serious threat.

Enter Tony Gollan.

The man who cut his teeth in racing in his home town of Toowoomba is not one to sing his own praises. In fact he is even uncomfortable when others are doing so, but underneath that modesty is a tough as teak competitive spirit and old school work ethic which has taken him to the top of his profession in Brisbane.

It was an early bonus to win the Brisbane Premiership last season so soon after relocating his stables from Toowoomba to Eagle Farm. To replicate that result for a second successive year, as Gollan is in the process of doing in emphatic fashion, underlines the on-going growth of his stable.

Even so, nobody gave much thought to Gollan taking the record away from McLachlan.

Gollan hasn’t done that yet but his latest mid-week treble on Wednesday has taking Gollan Racing to within ten wins of McLachlan’s record, with two-and-a-half months of the season left to run.

So where would you place your bets?

In a way, by closing in on a history making season, Gollan is paying homage to the memory of McLachlan.

Some really great achievements are so often forgotten with the passing of time but Gollan’s run at the record has revived strong memories for some of a period when Bruce McLachlan’s ruled the Brisbane domain.

It has given every racing enthusiast a welcome reminder of just how good a trainer Bruce McLachlan was and what an important contribution he made to racing, not just in Queensland, but in Australia.

*************************************************************************************************

Almost everything in racing is a gamble with no guarantees to any party, no matter what resources (financial or otherwise) they might have.

Take the case of Emaratee, a Fastnet Rock colt who was purchased for $4 million as a yearling. He made his debut at Gosford on Thursday and was beaten into second placing by a horse who failed to attract a bid in the sales ring.

Of course that doesn’t mean that Emaratee can’t on to better things or that the race winner is set for an illustrious career ... but somehow there is a racing moral in that story which serves the industry well.

Whether you are a Sheik from the UAE or a humble taxi driver from Queanbeyan ... or anybody else ... the ‘racing dream’ will always remain alive because the simple truth is that nobody knows where the next champion is coming from or who is going to own it!

More articles