Glen Milligan is dreaming big.
The Taree trainer has an excellent reason to think ahead, too, with his up-and-coming mare, That’s Molly, claiming her second Country Cup success in five weeks.
With stable apprentice Zac Wadick in the saddle, the four-year-old won the Gloucester Cup (1400m) at Taree’s Manning Valley Race Club on May 1.
She backed that effort up with a fourth in the Class Three Highway Handicap (1600m) at Scone on May 13, and on May 27, the four-year-old was again contesting another race in town, finishing 10th, beaten less than five lengths in the Class Three Highway Handicap (1400m) at Royal Randwick.
Back on her home track on Tuesday, the Dissident mare out of Grand Excess proved too good in the $30,000 Wingham Cup (1614m).
Ridden a treat by Wadick, That’s Molly ($4.80) found a gap on the home turn and had enough left in the tank, defeating the Brett Dodson-trained Kapsali (Jon Grisedale, $4.40) by 0.06 of a length while in third and 0.87 of a length back was the Ross Stitt-trained He’s A Copy Boy (Luke Rolls, $8.50).
Milligan confirmed his intentions to set That’s Molly for the $80,000 South Grafton Cup on July 9 (1600m), with the eight-furlong race a qualifier for the $3 million Big Dance.
“She’s flying,” Milligan told NSW Country and Picnic Racing.
“We were debating what we were going to do with her, and as they say, with mares, when they’re in form, keep them racing, and that’s what we’ll do, and we’ll probably push on to the South Grafton Cup.
“She’ll be up in grade, but with how she is going, we may as well have a crack; old Texas Storm won it for us a few years back, and she goes as well as he does.”
That’s Molly isn’t the biggest mare, but Milligan believes she still has some filling out to do and that she will only improve on her record of 15 starts and four wins.
“I think she will continue to get better,” Milligan said.
“When we bought her from Melbourne, she was small and very narrow, and after she ran a good third at Tuncurry, we decided to give her a chance, and we spelled her for three months, and she has strengthened up, and with another spell, we’ll keep putting condition on her, and she might turn out to be all right over 2000m.”
Since her spell, That’s Molly has raced very well, winning three times in seven starts, including her two Country Cup wins, and Milligan said it was a matter of keeping her eating and feeling happy around the stables.
“She is a little pleasure to do anything with; on race day, she’ll bury her head into your chest, and whoever rides her for work, she’ll turn her head around and bury it in as if she wants to say she doesn’t want to go to work,” Milligan laughed.
“She’s a pleasure to ride, shoe, float, and she has had the seven runs this prep, so there will come a day where she will go ordinary, and she’ll need to go to the paddock, but for the moment, we just need to keep her eating.”
Milligan enjoyed another winning double at Taree on Tuesday, with Wadick again weaving his magic on Tayla’s One ($17) in the 1007m Maiden Plate.
By Super One and out of Miss Manage, the four-year-old only cost connections $1250, and while she took a little longer than usual to educate, Milligan’s patience paid off following her victory in the $30,000 Country Boosted event.
Milligan’s stable has been on fire recently, winning seven races across meetings at Port Macquarie and Taree since Mach 25.
“We had a lean patch when dad died at the start of February through to March, but since April, we’ve been on fire,” Milligan said.
“We sacked a couple and sold some, and it’s been the cheaper ones that we have had more luck with.”
It’s been an up-and-down year in general Milligan, who went through his lean period while the family dealt with the passing of Glen’s father and local trainer, Bob Milligan.
“Not having him there for a yarn after the races has been the hardest thing,” Milligan said.
“He never really got out to the stables at the end; I was running it for five years, and he had a job to walk, but I miss those little chats.
“Racing kept him going, and outside of racing, he didn’t really have anything else; he watched a bit of NRL, but racing is all he worried about.
“He would get out of bed, go to the lounge room, and watch the racing station all day.”
Charmmebaby keeps bringing in the cash
While she is not in Glen Milligan’s stable, the Taree trainer and connections still own the Lawrie Mayfield-Smith-trained Charmmebaby.
The six-year-old – boasting a record of 38 starts for nine wins and nine placings – has earned connections just shy of $600,000 in prize money.
The Charm Spirit mare out of Lithe has taken connections on the ride of a lifetime.
For Bob and Glen Milligan, she won a Highway Handicap at Rosehill Gardens on November 2020, while she went on to win the Mid-North Coast Country Championships qualifier in 2021 before finishing third to Art Cadeau in the 2021 Country Championships final.
She also won the 2021 Jungle Juice and Taree Cups for the Taree stable.
In Mayfield-Smith’s care, she’s won the 2021 Quality Brisbane Handicap and the 2022 Listed Wayne Wilson Plate.
On Saturday, she finished second in the Quality Spear Chief Handicap at Eagle Farm for the second year in a row, and connections will be hoping she can defend her title in this Saturday’s Listed Wayne Wilson Plate at Eagle Farm.
The $17 chance has drawn gate nine of nine, and Craig Williams will take the ride on the $17 chance.
