Bart’s Racing News: UBET Stradbroke Day

Wednesday, 06 June 2018

The recent history of the UBET Stradbroke Handicap underlines the daunting task facing top weight Impending in Saturday’s Group 1 sprint.

Impending, shooting for back-to-back successes in the Stradbroke Handicap, has been weighted on 57.5kg. Only two horses in the past 30 years has carried more than 56kg to victory – Campaign King (1988) and Rough Habit (1992). The four-year-old son of Lonhro’s credentials are first class. He has started three times to date at the Channel Seven Brisbane Racing Carnival for a smart win in the Victory Cup, a close second in the KIRIN Doomben 10,000 and a win against the tempo of the race in the Altus Traffic Kingsford Smith Cup a fortnight ago.

Those three races were run at weight-for-age and now Impending has to concede a lot of weight to some well performed sprinters especially the three-year-olds Champagne Cuddles and Perast, both handicapped on 50kg. The respective riders of this pair Jeff Lloyd and Corey Brown have clearly shown their level of confidence by trimming their normal riding weights by a whopping four kilos. Champagne Cuddles will become the fifth three-year-old filly since 1953 to win the Stradbroke. That’s not a great strike rate which is even further illuminated in the past 30 years with just four wins for this age and sex from 34 starters.

However Champagne Cuddle’s formline this winter cannot be ignored. She ran a record in brilliantly winning the Gold Coast Guineas first up and then was without luck when a close third to Impending in the Altus Traffic Kingsford Smith Cup. After sitting three wide without cover Champagne Cuddles tried valiantly to go under by 1.3 lengths. Perast earned an automatic entry into the UBET Stradbroke Handicap field by scoring in the Sky Racing Fred Best Classic two weeks ago. His Sydney autumn efforts were below par but he has found his best form in Brisbane to score at his past two starts.

The Gai Waterhouse-trained Sedanzer looks hard to beat in the Pages Event Hire Brisbane Cup (2200m). The Sebring mare was second up when she won the Scone Cup over 1600 metres on May 11 but then jumped sharply in distance to 2200 metres when a scrambling third in the Channel Seven Premier’s Cup on May 26. Waterhouse’s father T J Smith trained the Brisbane Cup winner six times and she was successful with Tullamore in 2011.