Trainer Tony Gollan has confirmed that Group 1 placegetter Traveston Girl will return to racing in the 2015 Gold Coast Guineas this Saturday.
Traveston Girl will have the chance to return to winning form in the 2015 Gold Coast Guineas this weekend. Photo by: Daniel Costello
Traveston Girl stamped herself as a filly to watch when she won the Breakfast Creek Hotel Handicap (1200m) in dominant fashion during the 2014 Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival and she was sent to Melbourne for a spring campaign.
The Flying Spur filly made her black type racing debut with a solid fourth in the Listed Cap D’Antibes Stakes (1100m) at Flemington on September 13 and she battled on bravely to finish fourth in the Group 2 Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield on September 28 before she produced the best performance of her career to date to finish second behind Amicus in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield on October 11.
Traveston Girl was sent to make her return to racing in the Listed Fireball Stakes (1100m) at Royal Randwick on March 7, but she was withdrawn from the race due to a minor virus and was set for a winter campaign exclusively in her home state.
Gollan believes that the virus that stopped Traveston Girl going to Sydney may have proved a blessing in disguise and he told Sky Racing that he is happy with the condition of the three-year-old heading into the 2015 Gold Coast Guineas this weekend.
“She is a nice filly,” Gollan said.
“We elected to give her plenty of time in the paddock and basically bypass Sydney altogether.
“We had her set to run down there, but she has a bit of a blood irregularity and we gave her another week back in the paddock to really set her for the winter, which was our target.
“She is in great order.”
Gollan also included Bearskin, Feels Like Home and Pienka in the 2015 Gold Coast Guineas nominations, but he revealed that Feels Like Home is the only horse guaranteed to join Traveston Girl in the field for the Group 3 event.
Feels Like Home finished second at Doomben on April 11 in her first race start for the Gollan stable since she was transferred from the care of Danny O’Brien at the end of last year and Gollan expects the More Than Ready filly to produce an improved performance in the Gold Coast Guineas.
“She is a nice filly and she has a lot of improvement in her from that first run the other day,” Gollan said.
“She had the one jump-out going into and these Victorian horses always improve the more runs you give them on their Queensland leg.
“I was very pleased with her first-up at Doomben and I suggest she will be a lot better again on Saturday.”
The 2015 Gold Coast Guineas field will be released tomorrow and could include the likes of Miss Cover Girl, Pinch River, Nostradamus, Sultry Feeling and Time For War.
