Queensland horseman Tony Gollan celebrated a huge result in the Kingsford-Smith Cup 2021 at Eagle Farm with his horses Vega One and Jonker running a Group 1 quinella.

Vega One (pictured at the Gold Coast) scored an upset win in the 2021 Kingsford-Smith Cup. Photo: Steve Hart.

The former Toowoomba-based trainer now calls Brisbane home and enjoyed his fifth career Group 1 with an upset in this year’s $700,000 Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m) thanks to a brilliant ride by champion female hoop Jamie Kah.

“To run one-two in a Group 1 here at home, and this is home now, is just fantastic,” Gollan told Sky Thoroughbred Central after the race.

Kah became the winningest Group 1 female rider in Australian racing history with six, going past Michelle Payne after winning the Kingsford-Smith Cup aboard Gollan’s Lope De Vega five-year-old Vega One.

The galloper broke down badly after his fourth in last year’s Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) and was sent to Victoria to undergo rehab.

After much work and patience, Vega One returned this April and has been racing in excellent fashion including a second in the Group 2 Victory Stakes (1200m) and last start fourth when under a length beaten in the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 (1200m).

Up to the 1300m, fit fourth-up and on a Good track he was too good for his rivals even after getting checked in a vital stage on the straight.

Kah never panicked despite finding herself behind a wall of horses the final furlong, instead sneaking out into a gap on the outside and flashing home out of nowhere to deny the fellow Gollan-trained Jonker who nearly went all-the-way after leading the field around.

“That’s so good,” Gollan said.

“I’m so proud of these horses.

“He (Vega One) had a major injury last year after the Stradbroke. They rehabbed him really well down in Victoria.

“I didn’t know where to look. I thought Jonker was going to hang on.”

The runner-up, Spirit Of Boom entire Jonker, was having his first run since a third to subsequent Doomben 10,000 champion Eduardo in Sydney’s Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m) on March 27 and further franked that form with his brave second.

In third rounding out the Kingsford-Smith Cup trifecta was the Peter & Paul Snowden-trained Signore Fox towards the inside, while the Godolphin-raced Trekking ran a strong fourth after looming as a danger late down the outside.

Gollan suggested that they could go around again with Vega One in the $1.5 million Stradbroke Handicap back at the track on June 12.

“It was a long-range mission to get here and into the Stradbroke again with him,” he said.

“We’ve had a torrid time with him this prep…so it’s just amazing.

“We were on a knife’s edge whether we were even going to be here this week, with just a million little things going wrong.

“The horse did a great job.”

All-in Stradbroke Handicap odds at Ladbrokes.com.au on Vega One at $8 (in from $12), while Jonker has firmed notably in from $51 to $21.

Click here for the latest pre-field 2021 Stradbroke Handicap betting markets courtesy of Ladbrokes.com.au.

2021 Kingsford-Smith Cup Results & Finishing Order

Table Credit: Racing Australia.