Meagher rewards loyal Grylls with Boom ride
BRIDGET Grylls has been rewarded for her loyalty to the Chris Meagher stable by retaining the key ride on Boom Girl at the Gold Coast.
Boom Girl will be Meagher’s first Magic Millions 2YO Classic runner if she can win the Two-Year-Old Handicap (1100m) on Saturday.
The filly was third in a blanket finish over 900m at the Gold Coast two weeks ago at her first start.
It was an eye-catching effort and Meagher believes she should have won.
“It was a close finish and if we had drawn a good barrier she would have won,” he said.
“Bridget rode her work this week and said if anything Boom Girl was stronger than before her first start.”
Meagher said he hoped a win or a second on Saturday would get Boom Girl enough prizemoney to secure a place the Magic Millions 2YO Classic field on January 13.
“We are up against some very good horses including the favourite Sunlight but if we are going to be a chance in the Millions we have to race them,” he said.
“It would be my first Magic Millions Classic runner which would be a thrill.”
Grylls has done a lot of the riding for Meagher in the past year. She spent several weeks during the spring carnival riding work at Meagher’s Mornington base.
“Bridget has done a lot of the work with Boom Girl and she deserves to keep the ride,” Meagher said.
Adelaide jockey Clare Lindop, who won in 2008 on Augusta Proud, is the only female jockey so far to win the Magic Millions 2YO Classic but Grylls believes she can join her if Boom Girl makes the field.
“She is a lovely filly and she is going well,” she said.
Boom Girl is by first-season sire Spirit Of Boom who had his seventh winner when Spirit’s Pride won at Toowoomba on Sunday. The filly is raced by Grant Morgan’s Ontrack syndicate which has success with Meagher including two stakes wins by Savanna Amour in the Melbourne spring carnival.
The Sydney-based Peter and Paul Snowden training partnership will run Millions hopefuls Sokudo and Commissioner at Randwick instead of the Gold Coast.
A win by either would put them in the Millions field but they would not be certain to head north.