On any other sweltering Sunday the thought of a near 500 km road trip towing a horse float would have held little appeal. Last Sunday however trainer Nick Olive felt no pain as he departed his Queanbeyan stables with just one horse on board - five year old gelding Just Go Bang who nine or ten hours later was scheduled to run in the Gilgandra Cup with top weight of 61 kgs. Nick’s decision to undertake the marathon journey was handsomely rewarded when Just Go Bang led most of the way for Kody Nestor to score a gallant win in the $50,000 feature. Nick’s buoyant mood on Sunday morning was directly attributable to a well deserved win by stable runner Moritz Girl in Saturday’s TAB Highway at Royal Randwick. “There’s nothing like a winner to put a spring in your step, especially a win on the sacred turf at headquarters,” said the resilient trainer.
Sound efforts at her previous two starts saw the chestnut mare go out a clear cut second pick at $4.60. She’d been responsible for a stunning performance when a two length fifth behind Everido at Kembla on Gong day. Nick gave her plenty of time to get over that very hard run and didn’t produce her again for a full month with a quiet Canberra trial in between. Moritz Girl with Tim Clark up fleetingly looked the winner in a 1600m Randwick TAB Highway on December 21st, before being nabbed late by the highly promising In Summer. Suffice to say there was relief in the Moritz Girl camp when In Summer’s name was among the scratchings on Saturday morning. With Clark booked for multiple rides on the Sunshine Coast, the wily veteran Kerrin McEvoy was Nick’s choice as substitute rider.
In danger of being trapped three wide on the first turn, McEvoy unhesitatingly allowed Moritz Girl to slide into second place outside Adolphus while favourite Associate settled between horses in the third tier. McEvoy must have noticed at some stage how well Fiorsum Fred was travelling on his inside, because he never let that horse out of his sight around the turn and over the rise. He was content to sit at the girth of Adolphus to the 200m which effectively kept Fiorsum Fred under lock and key. The latter made a late dive when clear to get to within half a length of the winner, but the bird had flown.
Moritz Girl's trademark low head carriage was evident as she held off Fiorsum Fred to win the TAB Highway - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Moritz Girl’s history is brief but interesting. The flashy filly attracted enough interest at the 2022 Gold Coast Sale to be knocked down to Annabel Neasham and Lizzie Jelfs Bloodstock for a healthy $350,000. A proportion of that figure was probably generated by her spectacular looks - a stylish chestnut with a dominant white blaze, a knee high white stocking on her near foreleg, and dazzling white markings on both hind legs. Her sire, the distinguished Japanese racehorse Maurice had been keenly pursued as a shuttler by Arrowfield supremo John Messara who saw the son of Screen Hero as an ideal “outcross” for many Australian mares.
Neasham wasn’t overly enthused about Moritz Girl’s first two barrier trials and elected to take the chestnut filly all the way to Mudgee in quest of a two year old win. She scrambled home to win that juvenile race with Jett Stanley in the saddle before being turned out. She was back as a three year old to finish a first up second at Hawkesbury followed by a Cl 1 win at Canberra in the hands of Alysha Collett. A fourth at Wyong and an average third at Goulburn saw Annabel add Moritz Girl to the next shipment of horses bound for her Gold Coast stables.
The mare was given a good spell before resuming as an autumn three year old, but the change of environment was to do little for the stylish filly. A distant eighth at Doomben was followed by a fourth at Beaudesert and then came the run that would see Annabel abandon all future plans. Taken all the way to Warwick for a BM 70 race Moritz Girl covered extra ground before finishing a struggling seventh of twelve runners. The Inglis Digital Online Sale beckoned.
After extensive research and assurances that the filly was carrying no soundness issues, Nick Olive recommended her as a likely prospect to the Mad About Racing Syndicate who were pretty chuffed to snare the Maurice filly for a modest $22,500, a fraction of her yearling sale price. Before long a large group of new and existing clients jumped on board, including other smaller syndicates. Nobody has taken the trouble to do a headcount of Moritz Girl’s ownership group, but last Saturday it looked to be more than the combined total of the two test teams battling for supremacy just down the road at the SCG. The Sky Thoroughbred Central cameras captured some unbridled elation in the minutes after the win.
The Moritz Girl syndicate is probably not the biggest to ever grace the Randwick winners circle but it can't be too far short - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
The mare’s record for the Olive stable makes her yet another Inglis Digital success story - just six starts for wins at Dubbo and Randwick, a third at Albury, a second and a fourth at Randwick and the aforementioned fifth at Kembla. $112,000 has jumped into the syndicate account off an outlay of $22,000. That’s good business in anybody’s language.
At 51 Nick Olive is as passionate about the training of thoroughbreds as he was when he gained a degree in horse management at the University Of New England’s Orange campus in the early 1990’s. His first practical experience came under the tutelage of master horseman Ken Callaughan at the trainer’s famous Capricorn Park operation near Canberra. “Ken was a great friend and a wonderful tutor,” says Nick. “He paid me a huge compliment at one stage by appointing me as stable foreman. I’ll always remember him as the first great influence in my racing life.”
When Callaughan elected to relocate to the new Goulburn training precinct in the late 90’s, Nick jumped at the opportunity to work for established trainer Barbara Joseph who was still based at Bombala in the NSW Monaro region. In early 2000 Barbara was instrumental in launching young Olive’s solo career by letting him take over the training of Sir Chambray, a horse she already had on her books. The gelding had registered a number of placings but hadn’t been able to break through for a win. At start number four under the Olive banner, Sir Chambray won a Cl 3 event at Canberra with Scott Pollard in the saddle.
The ever astute Nick Olive doesn't miss a trick at the races - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
The respected trainer has always regarded Zenarta as the horse to bring him under notice as a serious professional trainer. In the spring of 2005, he put his judgement to the test by taking Zenarta to Melbourne for the time honoured Wakeful Stakes, following wins at Goulburn, Warwick Farm and Randwick. With Jay Ford in the saddle, the filly ran a cracking third to Serenade Rose and Astronomia beaten just over a length. Zenarta hadn’t been nominated for the VRC Oaks, but Nick returned home a very contented young trainer. The following autumn the same filly beat all but Marju Snip in the Gr 1 Schweppes Oaks at Morphettville, firing Nick’s resolve to one day experience the thrill of elite level success. A decade later he would realise that dream.
Voice Commander remains one of the Queanbeyan trainer’s all time favourites. The genuine Commands gelding won twelve races all up for the Olive stable with nine placings for a very healthy $714,000 in prize money. His wins included the prestigious Weetwood Hcp at Toowoomba, a Frank Underwood Cup, a Festival Stakes as well as the Goulburn, Gundagai, Queanbeyan and Wagga Cups. Voice Commander was the kind of horse every country trainer dreams about.
Nick Olive’s once in a lifetime horse was the gallant mare Single Gaze who raced thirty five times for five wins, twelve placings and an impressive $2.3 million in prize money. For those who query her win record, Nick is quick to point out that the daughter of Not A Single Doubt raced at the top level for the majority of her career. Her date with destiny came in 2016 when she won the Gr 1 Vinery Stud Stakes with Kathy O’Hara in the saddle. Perhaps her finest moment came in the spring of 2017 when she beat all but Boom Time in the Caulfield Cup. Unhappily she had a chequered run in the Melbourne Cup of the same year and finished many lengths behind Rekindling.
It’s well documented that Single Gaze was also the centrepiece of Nick’s worst day at the races when involved in a horror fall at the top of the straight in the Australian Oaks. The chestnut mare clipped heels, somersaulted and landed on top of her hapless jockey Kathy O’Hara who sustained a long list of injuries. The tough-as-teak Kathy stunned family and friends when she was back riding in races in just over four months. Conversely it took Single Gaze a long time to recapture her three year old form, but she hit a purple patch in Brisbane in the winter of 2017. The pony sized chestnut mare won the listed Tails Stakes, and the Gr 2 PJ O’Shea Stakes and finished second in both the Hollindale Stakes and Brisbane Cup. Her Caulfield Cup placing came just a few months later. Few days go by when Nick doesn’t spare the bonny mare, at least a passing thought.
Nick and Kathy O'Hara proudly display the handsome trophy after Single Gaze's win in the 2016 Vinery Stud Stakes - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
There are no Single Gazes in the trainer’s twenty two horse team currently but he’s still enjoying what he does, and relishes the challenge of trying every new horse that comes through the Queanbeyan operation. He’s obviously delighted with the progress of Moritz Girl who hasn’t reached her optimum potential, but he’s equally enamoured of Toes In The Water whose four wins include a Rosehill TAB Highway last June. It’s coincidental that Toes In The Water is also a daughter of the high profile shuttler Maurice. As well as acting as float driver to Gilgandra on Sunday, the versatile Olive also doubled as Just Go Bang’s strapper. With wins in a Randwick TAB Highway and a Gilgandra Cup under the belt in just twenty four hours, the arduous return journey to Queanbeyan wouldn’t have seemed half as bad.
(Banner image - Moritz Girl's spectacular white blaze caught the eye as she thundered to the line in the TAB Highway - courtesy Bradley Photographers.)