The windswept and rain-battered Gold Coast area has been in recovery mode this week, and the racecourse is in one of the most positive positions after Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred passed through seven days ago.
More than 600 millimetres of rain fell at the Gold Coast Turf Club following the cyclone’s worst effects, but track renovations over the past 18 months have paid off, with the track rated a Soft 6 as of Friday morning ahead of the rescheduled QTIS Jewels programme on Saturday.
Rockhampton trainer Clinton Taylor’s three runners – Chinny Boom, Astapor, and Divine Purpose – all fared well during the stormy period while based with Desleigh Forster in Brisbane.
Chinny Boom – in what looks like her final preparation – and Divine Purpose are back in Queensland after spring campaigns in Victoria with Peter Moody, while Astapor raced in New South Wales.
“The time away seems to have really seasoned them and hardened them up,” Taylor said.
“They came back from Peter really well, and Astapor was much the same coming back from Joe Pride. They haven’t missed a beat.”
If consistency counts, five-year-old mare Chinny Boom is right up there with nine wins and four placings in 19 starts.
After a Brisbane winter campaign that delivered a victory in the Listed Helen Coughlan Stakes (1200m) at Eagle Farm, Chinny Boom couldn’t secure a win in her two starts at Caulfield.
Returning to familiar territory could make all the difference this weekend in the Military Rose (1100m) for fillies and mares.
“Chinny’s trials have been terrific, and they indicate she may have even improved a little, and we couldn’t be happier,” Taylor added.
“Her trials in Melbourne weren’t that good. She didn’t settle into the atmosphere there, I’m not sure.”
“If you delve into Astapor’s form, he probably didn’t win, but he wasn’t beaten far in those runs.
“Some of the horses out of those races were winning group ones.”
Astapor lines up in the $500,000 QTIS Jewel for three-year-olds over 1200m, while Divine Purpose can give Taylor and jockey Justin Stanley – who is aboard all three runners – a winning start to the day in the Vale Larry Klinge (1700m).
“She needed that run at Rocky,” he said, referencing Divine Purpose’s second-placing first-up over 1300m in January.
“Then she was very, very good at Sunshine Coast the other day, a long way back, and Justin gave her a great ride. She never ran around a horse, and she looks like the 1700 metres this time will be right up her alley.”
Key to all of these horses, and Taylor’s team, is Justin Stanley.
The pairing boasts a 31.7% winning strike-rate according to Racing and Sports, along with a 64.7% place rate.
“He is such an underrated rider,” Taylor said. “Some of his rides go unnoticed; he does his homework, and he knows all of these horses like the back of his hand.”
