Leading Brisbane apprentice Tegan Harrison has been given the nod to continue her association with Temple Of Boom during his Spring Carnival campaign.
Tegan Harrison will ride Temple Of Boom during the Spring Carnival. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Harrison was the regular rider for Temple Of Boom during the Brisbane Winter Carnival and the pair came so close to pulling off a remarkable Group 1 double with photo finish seconds in the $650,000 James Boag’s Premium Doomben 10000 (1350m) at Doomben and the $1.36m AAMI Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm.
Eagle Farm trainer Tony Gollan, soon to be crowned the Brisbane’s leading trainer for the first time, has booked Harrison to ride Temple Of Boom in the Spring in preference to securing a top Melbourne jockey as has been the case in past southern campaigns.
“She has never ridden interstate for me but she is going great and I think she deserves her chance to go down there now,” Gollan told The Courier-Mail.
“I don’t really want to put a Melbourne jockey on Temple Of Boom and the owners are really good with that sort of stuff.
“Temple has been running really well for Tegan. He is eight years old next week yet he will go to Melbourne in the best winter form of his life.”
Even though Harrison missed out on collecting her first Group 1 victory, she was able steer Temple Of Boom to a Group 2 win when the seven year old caused a huge upset in beating the more fancied stablemate Spirit Of Boom in the $175,000 Greenslopes Private Victory Stakes (1200m) at Eagle Farm at the beginning of the Winter Carnival.
But Spirit Of Boom was able to reverse the placings in the Doomben10000 in a tight photo finish before Temple Of Boom ran second to Sunshine Coast sprinter River Of Lad by the smallest of margins in the Stradbroke Handicap.
“I can’t fault Tegan for getting beaten in the Stradbroke, he ran great, and no-one would have thought he could run that well in the Stradbroke,” Gollan said.
Gollan has selected the Group 3 $150,000 Bobbie Lewis Quality (1200m) up the Flemington straight on September 13 as Temple Of Boom’s Spring Carnival pipe opener, a race the rising eight year old has run in twice before, including a second placing last year to Speediness.
“Temple knows the straight very well and he will be the perfect horse for her to ride in her first straight race in Melbourne. She will enjoy it,” Gollan said.
Gollan will then aim Temple Of Boom towards the Group 1 $450,000 Moir Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on September 26 and then the Group 1 $1m Sportingbet Manikato Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on October 24.
Harrison has been riding in great form of late and has quickly developed into one of the leading jockeys in Brisbane and with two metropolitan meetings to go before the end of the season is lying in fifth position on the jockey’s premiership table with forty-three winners.
She will join the senior riding ranks at the beginning of the new racing season in August after wrapping up her second apprentice’s title.
