Munce stable looking to the stars of the future

By Jordan Gerrans

A Group 1 champion in the winter of 2023, Eagle Farm trainer Chris Munce says his team will pin their hopes on their juvenile brigade when the Queensland Racing Carnival rolls around in a few months’ time.

The former elite-level jockey grabbed his maiden Group 1 training triumph as classy mare Palaisipan claimed the Tattersall’s Tiara over 1400 metres at Eagle Farm in late June of last year.

The 54-year-old Munce was a Grand Slam-winning jockey in his riding days.

Palaisipan ran her final race in the Tiara after having been sold to a Japanese-based breeder.

Looking ahead to the rich winter period of 2024, Munce has high hopes for a few young horses in his team.

Munce – who sits fifth on the city trainers’ premiership for the season – identified Devine Force and Poster Girl as two ‘babies’ from his camp to watch over the carnival.

Filly Devine Force is unbeaten in two career trips to the races against her own age group on a Saturday in town.

Poster Girl – who is owned by Brisbane school teacher Debbie O'Toole – was last at the track when finishing sixth to star juvenile Storm Boy in the Magic Millions Classic on the Gold Coast last month.

“I think we have got some nice young horses, I really do,” Munce said.

“We have some nice horses looking forward into the carnival

“We have the likes of Devine Force coming back and Poster Girl, they are two-year-olds.”

Devine Force and Poster Girl have both won at a metropolitan level so far in their young careers while Munce also has his eyes on another from his team who is yet to taste success in the city.

Gelding Payline has not won in six starts but he has run in the money on four occasions and has been desperately unlucky to not have broken his maiden status yet.

“I have a lot of time for him as a three-year-old,” Munce said of Payline.

“He is still a maidener but he has run in some very good races and I think he is an above average galloper.”