Birchley celebrates best season yet

Sunday 14 June 2015, 3:21pm

A double at the feature Ipswich meeting has put the stamp on popular Brisbane trainer Liam Birchley's most successful season yet.

Birchley won Saturday's Ipswich Dash with Rock Royality and the Winter Stayers Series Final with Pop 'N' Scotch to give him 41 metropolitan winners for the season.

His previous best was in 2008/09 when he had 39 metropolitan winners and finished second on the trainers' premiership.

Currently third on the metropolitan premiership, Birchley has trained five city class winners in the past week with a double at Doomben on Wednesday and a winner at the Sunshine Coast last Monday.

Overall in 2014/15, he has prepared 73 winners for around $3 million prize money.

"I don't take much notice of records," Birchley said.

"I know it has been very good for the two-year-olds. They certainly have been firing and it means we should have a good three-year-old season with them."

Birchley has had 11 individual two-year-old winners this year including Hardline in the New Zealand Karaka Million and Blueberry Hill who took out the Group Two Champagne Classic.

"Hardline is back in pre-training and I haven't decided exactly which way to go with him," Birchley said.

"Blueberry Hill is having a break and we are also mapping out her three-year-old program."

Birchley is also hoping to be a player in some of the last feature races of the winter.

He is thinking of starting Rock Royality in the Ramornie Handicap at Grafton on July 8 and Pop 'N' Scotch in the Queensland Cup (3200m) on July 4.

Birchley had a solid base before he took up training 15 years ago.

With a diploma in Animal Husbandry, Birchley worked for four years at the Turangga Stud in NSW and Trelawney Stud in New Zealand.

He also honed his skills as foreman for Brian Mayfield-Smith, American trainer Neil Drysdale in California and Bill Mitchell in Brisbane.

– AAP

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