Country Spotlight: Boulia Turf Club's return

By Jordan Gerrans

Veteran trainer Kerry Krogh has identified Dolladream as his best winning chance this Saturday as racing returns to Boulia for the first time since 2018.

The popular outback meeting has not been held each of the last three years for a variety of reasons.

The 2021 meeting was called off on the day of the races as the track was found to be too hard to race on.

There has been extensive work completed on the track since that day by Racing Queensland and the Boulia Turf Club, with officials confident the track is safe and ready for the five non-TAB races this Saturday.

The surface has been graded and regularly applied water to – as well as being inspected - in the lead-up to this Saturday to ensure racing can return to the town for the first time in four years.

Krogh, who trains a team of six out of Julia Creek, does not miss a Boulia meeting when they are held.

The club hosts one race day a year, with it falling on Easter Saturday.

“The track should be pretty good, it has always been a hard track over the years but I have been told people have looked at it in recent weeks and they think it will be good to go this year,” Krogh said.

“I always go to Boulia every year they race.

“I was there last year before they made the decision to not race.”

The experienced bush horseman has at least one galloper nominated for each of the five events from Boulia on Saturday, with two stayers in the Cup. 

He thinks his best winning chance will come in the Benchmark 50 Handicap over 1000 metres with Dolladream.

The Dream Ahead mare has not won since October of last year at Cloncurry but she is as honest as they come, running in the money on five separate occasions.

Mt Isa-based jockey Jason Hoopert has been booked to ride all of Krogh’s runners this Saturday, including Dolladream.

“She has been consistent since I had her,” Krogh said of Dolladream, who was previously trained by Scott Singleton in NSW.

“She has run second and third across her last four starts for me, which included third at Maxwelton last weekend.

“At her starts before that she ran second at Cloncurry to a horse that won the Open Handicap at Maxwelton by eight a bit lengths on Saturday.

“She will go alright at Boulia I reckon.”

The five-year-old mare has been based in Julia Creek for around a year.

From Julia Creek, it is around a four-and-a-half-hour drive for a trainer such as Krogh to Boulia.

Another Julia Creek-based barn will be well represented on Boulia Cup day, with Tanya Parry having more than 20 of her team nominated across the five races.

Parry, who is third in the country trainers premiership this season, thinks Isis Turbo in the QTIS Maiden Plate over 1200 metres is a solid winning chance while also being hopeful she can claim the Class B Handicap over the same distance, with four from her stable set to run.

"I love to see every country town get up and have their race meeting," Parry said.

"They have worked hard on the track to get it right."

There was 28 gallopers nominated across the five-event program on Monday afternoon with nominations extended until 9am on Tuesday morning.

The extension landed another six gallopers across the program. 

The Boulia Cup for 2022 will be run for $12,500 and be run over 1400 metres. 

It will be a triumphant return to racing at Boulia this weekend after their 2019 meeting was rescheduled to Mt Isa due to flooding in the town while in 2020 they did not run a race meeting due to COVID.

Boulia is the most southern-based club in the North West Queensland racing district.