Temple Of Boom didn’t have a lot of luck towards the end of his much hyped spring campaign and trainer Tony Gollan is keen to make up for that during the autumn.
In fact Gollan may even stretch his star galloper all the way into the winter providing he can stay sound throughout the period.
Temple Of Boom starts off this weekend at Group 1 level in the Lightning Stakes but his grand final may not come all the way until the Stradbroke Handicap.
Gollan feels the five year olds best performances will be under handicap conditions and as a result his main autumn aim will be the Newmarket.
He comes into Flemington this weekend off an easy trial with an absolute love of the straight track.
“The main thing we did it for was fitness and he wouldn’t have blown a candle out at the end,” Gollan said.
“What we really wanted to do was give him a soft trial and get him to settle.
“It’s been our pattern to give him a trial or jumpout eight days before the race previously and in the past he has wanted to rip and tear a bit. This time he settled beautifully and Danny said his action felt beautiful.”
One of his rivals this weekend, Foxwedge, won the trial but was shaken up a little bit inside the final furlong.
Temple Of Boom is far from fully wound up for the Lightning but given his great record up the straight he’s expected to still be competitive.
“We expect him to run well in the Lightning but his real target down there is the Newmarket,” Gollan said.
“It would be just lovely if some rain came and took the fire out of the track (in the Newmarket). That would be just perfect for him.”
Temple Of Boom had a campaign from June until October last year and it could have stretched even longer where things to have gone a little differently.
Their method was to only run him with a few weeks between starts and off a similar strategy the Stradbroke would be well within reach.
“Spacing his runs worked really well last preparation. He was still at his peak in the Salinger and now he’s fully matured, there’s no reason we can’t do the same again,” Gollan said.
