Simpson stable building their reputation in the Sunshine State

By Jordan Gerrans

The training partnership of Adam and Dallas Simpson are on the rise in the Sunshine State despite not being able to catch each other to celebrate their milestone achievements on race day. 

The husband and wife team grabbed their highest honour as a partnership on Saturday as Miss Divine Em defied her price to record a dominant Pink Ribbon Cup victory on the Gold Coast.

It was the second metropolitan level victory for the Simpsons and their tenth overall since they prepared their first winner back in 2020.

The only problem is that they cannot seem to be together on race day to share in the spoils.

Adam represented the team on Saturday at Aquis Park while Dallas was taking another of their runners to Gatton.

It was the same occurrence at their maiden city winner as Dallas was at the metropolitan track, while Adam was on the non-TAB circuit at Gympie.

Adam and Dallas were married earlier this year, with Dallas Urand becoming Dallas Simpson.

They are hopeful of finally being together on race day when they bring up third metropolitan victory, which could come as early as this Saturday on the Darling Downs.

“It was pretty surreal and it took a bit to sink in,” Adam said of Saturday’s Pink Ribbon Cup triumph.

 “We still have not been able to celebrate a big win at the races together unfortunately.

“It was a great thrill, for sure.

“That is the biggest win for us as stable.”

The Simpsons have recently relocated to a new property not far from the track at Caloundra, which boasts 60 acres and a water walker for the 30 horses they have in their care.

The plan is to eventually build a track at the new property for slow work with their gallopers.

They still head to the Sunshine Coast Turf Club on most mornings with a small team for their fast work.

The training partnership are still relative newcomers to the Queensland training ranks.

They worked together at Tony McEvoy’s in South Australia breaking in horses before they relocated to Caulfield where they rode work and Adam worked as a stable foreman, among other roles.

They settled on Queensland just a few years ago to pursue their own training ambitions.

“We got engaged and moved up here and wanted to go out on our own, we always wanted to train,” Adam said.

“We thought it was the best option to train together once we did go out on our own.

“We still rode most of our own work for now and we have only just started getting in work riders to give us a hand.”

The team has so far collected ten victories, with the majority of those coming on the country and provincial circuit.

And, a mare like Miss Divine Em is likely to give the barn a chance to be under a greater spotlight.

The five-year-old has only been in Queensland for a short time, previously racing under the Patrick Payne banner in Victoria, before she was purchased for $25,000 by the Simpsons and their connections.

In just six starts for her new trainers, Miss Divine Em has only run outside the top four on one occasion, including two victories.

Rising apprentice Angela Jones got the seat on Saturday at Aquis Park in the feature race but it has been Tegan Harrison who has done the majority of race riding on the Simpson mare in her short time in Queensland.

“We thought she would be a nice mare when she got up here and Tegan gave a great report back after riding her in her first start for us, saying that she would be a really handy mare,” Adam said.

“She loves the environment we have got here at home.

“She gets her days off in the water walker and her days in the paddock, getting her head down to eat grass, which is the biggest thing for al our horses to ensure they can be horses.”

After leading all the way in heavy going on the Gold Coast this Saturday, the in-form mare now looks towards the Darling Downs this week and the famous Weetwood Handicap.

Co-trainer Adam says the Weetwood was always the main aim for the stable and the Gold Coast sojourn was just a late throw at the stumps, that worked perfectly.

“There is that saying that you do not stop mare’s in-form so we will go to the Weetwood,” Adam said.

For the first time in its 15-year history, the annual Pink Ribbon Cup race day at Gold Coast Turf Club was expanded into a tri-code event that embraced three separate meetings and rebranded Pink Ribbon Race week.

The Tim Butt-trained Swayzee took the prize in the harness code while in the greyhounds, Sandra Hunt’s Feel The Beat was successful on Thursday evening at Albion Park.