Spring Success Starts in The Star Stradbroke Season
19 November 2024
Queensland’s premier racing carnival, The Star Stradbroke Season, proved pivotal, yet again, for success in the Melbourne and Syndey spring carnivals.
Since 2021, 19 horses have catapulted from The Star Stradbroke Season to win 23 spring carnival Group 1 races, as well as The Everest in 2023 (The Everest was granted Group 1 status for the first time in 2024).
At time of writing, six horses have a spring Group 1 to their name after starting in The Star Stradbroke Season in 2024.
Of those six horses, four had placed in a Group 2 or Group 1 race during the Queensland winter.
Antino – Toorak Handicap (Caulfield)
Bella Nipotina – The Everest (Randwick)
Broadsiding – Golden Rose Stakes (Rosehill)
Deny Knowledge – Might And Power Stakes (Caulfield)
Knight’s Choice – Melbourne Cup (Flemington)
Lady Shenandoah – Flight Stakes (Randwick)
All spring victories are significant for the Brisbane Racing Club, but those achieved by horses trained in Queensland, Antino and Knight’s Choice, hold special meaning.
2023/24 Queensland Horse of the Year, Antino, trained by Tony Gollan at Eagle Farm, claimed his first Group 1 victory after showing great strength in the Toorak Handicap.
Gollan told Brad Waters of Racenet.com.au that he knew Antino was in peak condition.
"This year I knew I had him as good as we've ever had him and it was just a matter of luck on the day, and he took that into his own hands and got the job done," Gollan said.
Knight’s Choice made headlines as a $91 outsider with Brisbane-based Robbie Dolan in the saddle, saluting for Sunshine Coast based trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon.
In a post-race interview, Dolan revealed it was a dream come true.
“It is the biggest race in the world. I have my family here and my partner Christine, our little baby Maisy, and my dad flew over from Ireland and now you have me in tears.
“…Mate, I feel like I’m going to wake up any minute.
“Can you pinch me, mate?”
The unsuspecting gelding delivered Laxon her second Melbourne Cup victory in as many attempts.
Laxon’s first Melbourne Cup winner came in 2001 with Ethereal, who also won off the back of a Brisbane winter campaign, claiming the Group 1 Queensland Oaks and Group 2 The Roses that same year.
Notably, the Q22 has now produced back-to-back Melbourne Cup winners: Without A Fight (2023, finish: 1st), Knight’s Choice (2024, finish: 2nd).
The Star Stradbroke Handicap has also prepared back-to-back winners of The Everest. Think About It completed the double in 2023, and this year Bella Nipotina finished runner-up to Stefi Magnetica and subsequently won the world’s richest sprint on turf.
Lady Shenandoah and five more horses also tasted spring success by achieving Group 3 victories off the back of a 2024 The Star Stradbroke Season campaign: Here To Shock, Mchale, Lekvarte, Ostraka, and Fawkner Park.
The Brisbane Racing Club is already anticipating another exciting The Star Stradbroke Season in 2025.
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