TWELVE years after his last win in the Collie Cup, Wellington trainer Jim McMillan will attempt to take out the race for the second time when his veteran grey gelding Gokstad lines up in the 1100m feature at Gilgandra tomorrow.
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McMillan has made an art of acquiring discarded interstate horses and achieving positive results, and that is what he did when Blue The Lot was successful in the 2002 edition of the cup.
The gelding did his early racing in South Australia before making his way to the central west, adding wins at Gulgong, Grenfell, Wellington, Warren, Bathurst and Trangie to his Collie Cup success.
Gokstad will have seven rivals in tomorrow's running of the race, and will start from barrier four.
McMillan bought the 10-year-old from Victoria four years ago, and in that time the gelding has won four races and been placed on a further 16 occasions.
"He's an honest old horse, very consistent," McMillan said.
"There's not many races around for him at the moment but he's going well and he's fit enough for 1100m so he should run alright.
"I don't think he's had too many runs in non-TAB races, he's always been going around at a decent level so he's been a good horse for us."
Gokstad's two runs back this preparation have been encouraging, finishing fifth at Warren first up and seventh at Bathurst last time out and while they were unplaced efforts, he wasn't beaten far on either occasion.
McMillan's team has been performing well in of late, with his most recent winner being Godliness, which was impressive at Narromine last Sunday.
"I've only ever got about five in work but they are all pretty consistent," McMillan said.
"None of them are stars. The other trainers don't get rid of them if they are, but they pay their way and are worth getting out of bed for in the morning."
Another of McMillan's team, Misblueblud, will also race at Gilgandra tomorrow while both Godliness and Mabrouk have been nominated for next Tuesday's TAB meeting at Dubbo.
