Friendship
will count for little when Eagle Farm "stablemates" Rob Heathcote and
Tony Gollan do battle in the Mt St Michael's College Handicap on Saturday.
Gollan's new
oncourse stables at Eagle Farm have been in operation since May and the young trainer
has already landed five winners to
trail Heathcote by two wins
in the opening month of the new racing season.
Gollan and
Heathcote may be racetrack rivals but the pair are close friends away from the
track.
Heathcote
is a renowned fitness fanatic and is often seen peddling his way around
Brisbane on his bike as well as spending hours in the gym and pounding the
streets running.
"I do
a lot of bike riding and workout in the gym to keep fit and now Tony comes
along with me jogging," Heathcote said.
"Tony
has his own personal fitness trainer as do I and we're both very keen to stay
in good shape.
"But
when it comes to running Tony puts 100 metres on me very quickly."
Heathcote's Racing Heart is looking for
back-up-back wins in the 2106-metre opening event while the Gollan-trained Topping
(pictured) is back home after finishing fifth in the Premier's Cup Prelude (1800m) at Rosehill
on August 18.
Gollan is
confident Topping can deny the four-times premier trainer another victory with
Racing Heart and hasn't ruled out returning to Sydney with his gelding when the
spring carnival is over.
"He
ran a great race in Sydney and I thought he was very unlucky not to finish
second," Gollan said.
"It's
very strong in Sydney this time of the year with so many imported horses so I elected
to come back to Brisbane with him.
"He
looks to be well placed on Saturday but I'm not giving up on Sydney and we may
go back when the carnival is over."
Heathcote believes
Racing Heart has a great chance from barrier one but admits it's an open race.
"I'm
confident he'll be hard to beat again but there's four or five horses who could
win this race," Heathcote said.
"My
bloke gets in well at the weights with the claim and barrier one is ideal."
The
six-year-old son of Show A Heart also has an excellent Eagle Farm record with
five wins and three placing's from 12 starts.
"He's
a determined little fighter and is all courage," Heathcote said.
Racing Queensland webnews August 30
Photo: Trackside Photography
