The hammer dropped twice at the 2014 Australian Pacing Gold sale for the Watson family and their wider band of connections and this weekend those calls of ‘sold’ could transform a $22,000 outlay into more than $500,000 in career stakes.

Mildura trainer Ian Watson snapped up a Mach Three filly out of Jasper Jo for $15,000 for his owners and Malcolm Lennie purchased a Major In Art colt by Miss Athens for $7000, who was to race for Watson’s son Mark.

The pair would come home in the same float together and go on to become Flojos Gold and Brallos Pass, whose careers continue on Saturday night in races seven and eight at Tabcorp Park Melton.

“They were both broken in at the same time, they both went to the same paddocks and they had close to 10 months together,” Mark Watson said.

They also showed modest early signs before blossoming with racing.

“Brallos Pass, when I broke him in my wife said ‘what do you think?’. I said ‘he tries real hard but he’s a little paddly thing’. By about the second or third prep I thought I had a pretty special little horse,” Mark said.

That would be confirmed with Brallos Pass running fourth in the Australian Pacing Gold two-year-old final, won by Our Waikiki Beach, and then two months later second in the Vicbred Super Series final, when he was beaten a half-neck by Shadow Sax.

About two-and-a-half hours earlier on that same night – Saturday, July 4, 2015 – his dad Ian Watson would enjoy a training career high when Flojos Gold produced an unlikely victory in her Vicbred Super Series final, having only qualified for the final after a scratching and started as a 50-1 shot for reinsman Luke Watson.

“I gave Flojos Gold two or three preps before I sent her up to Dad,” Mark said. “She was just a plain, nothing special (filly). Dad went on holidays and my brother Luke worked her for a few weeks and told him to tip her into the paddock. Dad kept her racing and a month after she won the two-year-old Vicbred final.

“She was an emergency and Debbie and Gary Quinlan had to scratch one, so they were nice enough to ring Dad early in the week because he had to travel down from Mildura. The rest is history, she got a good trip and got over the top of some nice horses.”

Both horses would also enjoy three-year-old success courtesy of trips to Globe Derby, where Flojos Gold would snaffle the 2016 South Australian Oaks after Brallos Pass had earlier won the 2016 South Australian Derby.

Those performances have helped hoist them towards considerable stakes heights, with Brallos Pass’s 72 starts having yielded $299,382 in wins and Flojos Gold’s 54 starts producing $196,045 in stakes.

The latter has recently joined Brallos Pass at Mark's Kyabram stable to tackle greater opportunity at Tabcorp Park ahead of an impending retirement for a breeding career, a move rewarded with a win at Shepparton in restricted company on June 9 before a fourth placing last Saturday. Next stop is this Saturday's Group 3 Hyland Harness Colours Richmond Lass.

“She’s just done a super job around Mildura,” Mark said. “She’s had a few little hiccups along the way with hoof abscesses and things like that. She’s a mare that needs regular racing.

“We’ve drawn awkward Saturday night, I’ll leave it up to (driver) John (Caldow), but I imagine he’ll just try and drop out and if there’s a regular clip in the race she’ll run home and won’t disgrace herself. (Tell Me Tales and Berisari) look very hard to beat ... but (Flojos Gold) will win one in town in the next couple of months.”

Flojos Gold is considered a $23 chance in early TAB markets and then the following race, at 8.30pm, Brallos Pass will step out in the Join The VHRSC Pace

“Brallos Pass is just a lovely horse,” Mark said of the entire he’s trained for all 72 of his starts. “His run last week was good and he won’t be far away Saturday night either.

“He’s had his few little hiccups this season, he’s a six-year-old stallion and sometimes his mind earlier on in the season wasn’t on the game but we made a few gear changes and he had a good stint. His form doesn’t read great but it’s actually a lot better than what it reads. If Brallos Pass gets the right run in any race he’s got some chance.”