Temple Of Boom will return to the races in the 2014 Bobbie Lewis Quality at Flemington on Saturday and trainer Tony Gollan could not be happier with the veteran sprinter ahead of his return to racing.
Temple Of Boom returned to winning form in the Victory Stakes during the 2014 Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival. Photo by: Daniel Costello
Temple Of Boom failed to perform at his best in three starts during the 2014 Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival, but he found his best form when he returned to Brisbane to win the Group 2 Victory Stakes (1200m) at Eagle Farm on April 26 and finish a close second in both the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 (1350m) at Doomben on May 24 and Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 7.
Gollan told Racing Ahead that he was thrilled with the form of Temple Of Boom during the winter and he believes that the Piccolo gelding has had the perfect preparation heading into the Group 3 Bobbie Lewis Quality (1200m) this weekend.
“His first run in the autumn Hughie rode him at Randwick and he said ‘he is going to win a Group 1 this preparation’,” Gollan said.
“We all thought that it would be The Galaxy, but he choked down on a fair bit of kickback that day and I was very disappointed with the performance.
“He went back to Queensland, we put young Tegan Harrison on him and it has been well documented what happened then.
“He ran super all the way through and just going down in a bob of a head in the Stradbroke.
“He is coming off career best winter form, he has had an absolute perfect preparation and I couldn’t be happier with where we have him first-up for Saturday.”
The Bobbie Lewis Quality has drawn a capacity field of 20 runners and there is set to be horses spread right across the Flemington straight in the early stages of the race on Saturday.
Temple Of Boom has drawn next to the stand side rail in barrier 20, but Gollan does not believe that the wide draw is a concern for the eight-year-old who has produced some of the best performances of his career at Flemington.
“Tegan and Damian (Browne) are going to get there very early on Saturday morning and walk the track around the 9.30 mark,” Gollan said.
“I’m sure that Damian’s input to here will be very, very valuable and riding up the straight earlier in the day will only help them as the Bobbie Lewis is a lot later in the day.
“I’m sure Tegan will have some idea where she wants to be, but I don’t want her to overthink it.
“He has won drawn out very wide before up the straight the first time that we brought him down there, when Corey Brown won on him over 1100, so that barrier doesn’t hold any fears for me.”
Temple Of Boom is currently available at 2014 Bobbie Lewis Quality odds of $14, with talented Kiwi entire El Roca ($4.80) a narrow favourite from last start winner Flamberge ($6.50) and Team Hawkes-trained Chautauqua ($7.50).
