Glitter Strip notches up unusual treble

By Andrew Adermann

Depending on who you ask, you’ll probably get a different opinion on Glitter Strip - but that’s because there’s three of them.

No, your eyes have not mistaken you when flicking through the form guides; in Queensland you’ll find a Glitter Strip across all three racing codes – thoroughbred, harness and greyhound.

If age is anything to go by then all three will be around for a while yet, all are two-years-old with a total of 10 combined starts between them – all within the last three months.

There’s no link between the connections of the animals aside from a common love of racing –and RQ sat down with those involved to chat about the multiple Glitter Strips doing the rounds in Queensland.

Brian Siemsen is the Principal Manager of Black Soil Bloodstock, who bought the filly at a sale in Melbourne and retained a share in the two-year-old.

“We picked her out of a draft with Tony Gollan and she was an absolute steal,” Siemsen said.

“I do some data analysis and she came up brilliantly and then John Foote really liked her, noting she’d be a nice three-year-old getting over some ground.”

The filly, trained by Gollan, has only had the one career start, claiming a debut win at Ipswich paying $7 on the TAB.

“Neither myself or Tony were surprised that she won first up, but it was the forward showing we didn’t expect,” Siemsen said.

“She took up that forward position and got a kick off the turn and booted away again and she hadn’t been showing that real gutsy gusto in any of the work she was doing but then get her to race day she was steely as they come – especially considering we see her as more of a three-year-old.”

Brian said the ownership team got a bit creative when devising a name, based on the filly’s breeding lines.

“Monopole is the dam, so it’s got a lot to do with Vegas and being the ‘Glitter Strip’ over there,” Siemsen said.

“Monopole, you can read into that what you like so that was one of the names floated out there and everyone thought it was a great name.

“Our sire is Street Boss, so when you combine Street Boss and Monopole you can get quite creative about Vegas!”

Park Ridge-based trainer Tarquin Neal owns the greyhound Glitter Strip, and landed on the name in similar fashion to Brian.

“I’ve only just recently moved down here, and I went out to Daniel Henry’s to purchase another dog,” Neal said.

“He had this other dog in the yard and I asked what her name was and he said ‘Glitter Strip’, and the name came from her mother who was Vegas Bound.

“I fell in love with her instantly, and her name suits her too because she has this white strip that goes down her.”

The greyhound has only two starts to her name for one win – a super impressive three-and-a-half length victory on debut at Ipswich – and like the thoroughbred, connections are bullish about how good she can be.

“What she’s showing at the moment is better than any other dog I’ve had, so I think she does have a bit of a future,” Neal.

“She should’ve easily won that second start too but just got checked and shuffled back mid-way through the run after leading comfortably, but that’s racing.”

Unlike its thoroughbred and greyhound counterparts, the pacer Glitter Strip’s name was inspired more locally than the Vegas theme.

“His sire is a horse called Sunshine Beach so initially we were looking at beaches up north there,” trainer John Cremin said.

The trotter has notched up seven starts for one win and two minor placings for John and wife Tanya, and after spotting some early ability in the gelding, wanted a name that stood out to match.

“We were giving him a go around our track out here one morning, and younger horses generally have a bit of trouble getting around our place and he went around with no trouble at all,” Cremin said.

“We thought at that point we might have one who is going to go alright and wanted to give him a decent name – when you find one that has a bit of ability you want to give it a name that people remember.

“It was just to do with the coastal theme of the horse’s breeding really.”

A common theme across the three animals’ connections is that they all quickly became aware of the other’s existences.

“My Glitter Strip came out and raced on the Tuesday and won at Ipswich, that Saturday night the trotter ran and then on the Sunday the galloper ran and won too,” Neal said.

“I then got tagged on Facebook because there was another Glitter Strip that had come out and won.”

“It was a coincidence that a friend of ours has a share in the galloper and he rang me and said that they have the same name,” Cremin said.

“He told me at that point there was also a greyhound with the same name but it’s all just one big coincidence.

“It would’ve been nice if he had won his start when the other two had won in the same week, but you can’t have everything.”

Unfortunately, we’ll never see the three of them match up against each other but if we did, there’s a bit of conjecture about who may get the chocolates.

“We’d need a head start I think, but if you give us 100 metres it would be a close competition,” Cremin said.

“As far as speed goes, he does possess some high speed so he’d give them a good run for their money.”

Siemsen was bullish about the thoroughbred’s chances over say 500 metres, but any shorter than that and he thinks the grey could be a real shot.

“I watched the replay of the dog the other night and she was really impressive,” he said.

“If it was over 500 metres then I’d be backing my horse but it wouldn’t want to be any shorter than that because Glitter Strip the dog wins then.”

Neal conceded to the galloper as well, but more so just wanted to see it come to fruition.

“Anything past 300 metres then my girl is no chance, but I would just love to see that kind of race actually happen – having all three Glitter Strips there with each other, it would be a great way to promote our sports,” he said.

“You could even do it down on Australia’s Glitter Strip (the Gold Coast) like they do for the horses during Magic Millions.”