Nominations set the scene for best Stradbroke Season yet!
MORE than 500 entries were received this week for the seven Group 1 features the Brisbane Racing Club will run during this year’s The Star Stradbroke Season, setting the scene for an outstanding carnival.
The Star Stradbroke Season kicked off in fine style last Saturday, where Sydney-based jockey Nash Rawiller took out the Group 2 Guineas-Victory Stakes double on Kovalica and Rothfire.
With the Sunshine Coast set to host this Saturday’s feature Hollindale Stakes meeting, the BRC catches its breath this week before gearing up for a monster five consecutive weeks of fantastic Group 1 racing.
The Ladbrokes Doomben 10,000 (May 13) will be a fitting start to this year’s Group 1 features, where The Everest winner Giga Kick attempts to round out what has been a fairy-tale season for trainer Clayton Douglas.
The last start winner of the Group 1 All Aged Stakes is a dominant favourite with Ladbrokes to add another big race to his resume, which is highlighted by a whopping $8.7M in prizemoney.
Giga Kick is among 26 entries for the Doomben 10,000, 10 of which are Group 1 winners, with his rivals set to include the past two winners of the race, Eduardo and Mazu.
The race will also feature the Queensland debut of boom three-year-old Aft Cabin, who is off a last start Group 2 win in Sydney and currently heads betting for The $3M Star Stradbroke.
Clear skies are forecast for next week, paving the way for Doomben to shine after the course was forced to miss last year’s carnival through inclement weather.
A week later (May 20) the XXXX Doomben Cup will be run, where the past two winners, Zaaki and Huetor, are forecast to meet again.
It shapes as one of the deepest Doomben Cups we’ve seen for some time, as the 35 nominations include 10 individual Group 1 winners, comprising horses that have won races like the Mackinnon Stakes, Turnbull Stakes, Queen of the Turf Stakes and Metropolitan this season alone.
Additionally, the 2021 Queensland Oaks winner Duais, who took out last year’s Australian Cup-Tancred Stakes double, is also being aimed at the race.
We then head to Eagle Farm, where entries for the Ladbrokes Queensland Derby (May 27) number 84 (up 15 on last year) and are headed by the boom Sky Racing Queensland Guineas winner Kovalica.
Hometown hero Rothfire currently heads betting for the Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup following his Victory Stakes success on Guineas Day.
The Channel 7 Queensland Oaks (72 entries) sits in the middle of the Eagle Farm trio of meets (June 3) and remains one of the most likely races on the calendar to unearth a future star, with Winx and Duais headlining recent winners.
We then head to The Star Stradbroke Day on June 10, where the $3M feature has attracted 16 individual Group 1 winners among the 122 nominations. In-form Sydneysider Think It Over is prominent in betting, but there’s a host of emerging three-year-olds aspiring to make their mark on Queensland’s most famous race this year too.
No less than 99 runners were entered for the $1M Ladbrokes J.J. Atkins, a race that like the Queensland Oaks, has a revered reputation as being a likely birthplace of a future superstar.
Entries for the $1.2M Sky Racing Q22 were not taken early this year, paving the way for horses coming through both the Queensland Oaks and Derby to enter the fray should connections choose the option of taking on the older horses in the rich middle distance WFA season finale.
The Star Stradbroke Season continues from Saturday, May 13 at Doomben Racecourse.