Peter Robl's stable sizzling for summer carnival

By Jordan Gerrans

Former top hoop Peter Robl has even surprised himself with how seamless the transition to training in the Sunshine State has been this year and now he has 2023-24 Queensland Summer Racing Carnival plans with his team of gallopers.

The multiple Group 1-winner in the saddle relocated north in the middle of April this year to establish a new stable on the Gold Coast.

The 52-year-old previously trained his barn of horses out of Randwick in Sydney and now has 26 in his care at Aquis Park.

The Robl team have prepared eight winners from just 32 starters in their new venture in the 2023-24 season and boast a strong strike-rate.

They are winning at 25 per cent so far this campaign as well as nearly 60 per cent when it comes to top three finishes.

As the summer carnival heats up, Robl presents with Spicy Legend and Sakura Girl in the city this Saturday as they chase higher honours.

“I have found the first six months really good, we got off to a good start with a couple of horses winning,” the former hoop said.

“Now, the last six weeks, we have got a good team of horses that have been running really well.

“It has certainly been better than what I thought it would be, I thought it would take more time but a couple of horses that we have been racing have been doing the job on the race track for us. They have been progressing well.”

While Robl predominately rode in Victoria and New South Wales during his career in the saddle, the Sunshine State did provide him with a couple of key memories.

The multiple Group 1-winning rider collected an elite level triumph in June of 2009 at Eagle Farm in the old T.J Smith 2YO Plate for trainer Jason Coyle aboard Linky Dink.

He also won a BTC Cup at Group 1 level with Your Song for champion trainer Anthony Cummings in May of 2013.

Before a fall ended his career in the saddle later in the year, Robl’s last winning ride came at the Bundall track, saluting on Anymore on Magic Millions day of 2014.

“It has always been a good state every time I have come up, generally it is for those carnivals,” Robl said.

“I have had good success up here and it was a happy hunting ground as a rider. Hopefully we can continue that as a trainer.”

Robl thought he had a decade or so left in his riding career before injury cut it short in 2014.

Talented apprentice hoop Jasper Franklin earlier this year relocated to the Gold Coast from NSW to work under Robl.

Trainer Robl has been a big help for Franklin in the short time he has been with the stable.

“He is hard but he is fair, there is no mucking around and you are there to work,” Franklin said of Robl in September.

“I was lazy in Sydney and I came up here fresh and I told Peter that I wanted to try and work hard.

“Since I have been here he has been great and supported me. He has been a really good boss, he is just what I needed.”

The Robl camp have been well-represented by gallopers such as Richon, Spicy Legend and Hasten Delight following the northern move.

Hasten Delight won three on the bounce in Queensland and has since been sold overseas.

Richon was also on a winning streak of his own before he was beaten at Ipswich on Wednesday.

Robl is keen to see Richon in the Listed Falvelon at Eagle Farm later this month, which is a wild card race for Magic Millions day next year.

The trainer also has Magic Millions ambitions with recent debutant Private Tender who scored at his first official race start on the Polytrack last Saturday afternoon.

“He is a very promising gelding by All Too Hard, he won comfortably,” he said.

“He probably has a short time frame to get him there but we will aim him up and see where we end up with him.”

Before Magic Millions rolls around, the stable has a couple of winning hopes this Saturday.

The resuming Sakura Girl was accepted for The Gateway – which offers direct entry into next year’s Stradbroke Handicap – as well as the Just Now at Eagle Farm. 

The Kiwi-bred mare has since been scratched from The Gateway and will now take her place against her own gender in the Listed Just Now.

Sakura Girl campaigned through Queensland during the recent winter carnival and trialled nicely for Saturday’s assignment at the Gold Coast late last month.

“Sakura Girl is first-up off the back of one very nice trial,” Robl said.

“She has settled into Australia terrific. Her trial was pleasing and she has taken good benefit out of that.

“She is in good order for Saturday. Hopefully she is good enough on the day.”

Still a colt, Spicy Legend heads to the QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap over 1400 metres on Saturday.

“Spicy Legend runs in a three-year-old quality race and is going really good,” Robl said.

“Two starts ago he ran second at Eagle Farm in a three-year-old quality and then won quite comfortably at Ipswich a couple of weeks ago.

“He has been a model of consistency his last four or five runs and he goes into the race on Saturday in really good form and order.”

Sakura Girl and Spicy Legend are both $10 or more with bookmakers as of Thursday morning.