Trainer Noel Doyle is a quiet achiever of Queensland racing but might find himself in the spotlight if two-year-old Aimee lives up to his expectations.
The filly came from a wide alley on Saturday to make it three wins on end in the $100,000 Sky Racing Plate (1200m) at the Gold Coast.
Doyle now has his sights firmly set on the Group Two BRC Sires (1400m) and the Group One JJ Atkins Stakes (1600m) during the Brisbane winter carnival.
“I will give her a short break and have her back for the winter. I have no worries about her at the 1350 metres in the Sires which is at Doomben this year,” Doyle said.
“And I don’t see why she won’t run out a strong 1600 metres in the Atkins.”
Her Gold Coast win followed wins at Doomben and Eagle Farm.
Doyle was a more than handy jockey and the regular partner of top Queensland mare Eye Liner late in her career.
Since taking out a trainer’s licence in the 1970s Doyle has built an amazing record from a team which rarely goes past 20 horses.
He enjoyed his biggest success with Kinjite, winner of the Group One Spring Champion Stakes and Epsom Handicap.
He has also endured trying times with Stylish Century moved on after his two-year-old career to Bart Cummings and then Bill Mitchell before being trained by his owner Dick Monaghan.
Don’t Play was beaten by the barest of margins in the 1989 Stradbroke Handicap, Brisbane’s most prestigious race.
The trainer has high hopes Aimee, the winner of three of her five starts, can measure up to his best.
“She isn’t up with the best of them yet but she is getting that way,” he said.
