Benagil recovered and back on track for Group 1 Queensland Oaks tilt for trainer Glen Thompson
Glen Thompson says Group 1 winner Benagil has recovered well from some minor lacerations when she 'ran up their arses' last start and he feels she is still the horse they all have to beat in Saturday's Group 1 Queensland Oaks.
Benagil is the benchmark for Saturday's Oaks at Eagle Farm, having already won the Group 1 Australasian Oaks in Adelaide and boasting a Group 1 runner-up finish behind superstar filly Treasurethe Moment during the Sydney autumn carnival.
But a spanner was thrown in the works of best laid Queensland Oaks plans when Benagil finished 10th, beaten seven lengths, in the Group 2 The Roses (2000m) at Doomben on May 23.
She pulled up with some cuts on her front and back legs but, after watching her have a spin around Eagle Farm on Tuesday, Flemington trainer Thompson declared his filly cherry ripe for an Oaks (2200m) tilt.
• PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW!
'Taking out that last run, she has got the best form in the race,' Thompson said.
'She has been racing against the best fillies and she ran second to probably the best three-year-old filly in the country (Treasurethe Moment) three starts ago in Sydney.
'If she brings her A game, I think she's going to be the horse to beat in the Oaks.
'You just need to put a line through her last run.
'She's also going to be a lot better going to the big Eagle Farm track and whatever track conditions she gets won't worry her.'
WATCH: Ahead of Saturday's Group 1 $700,000 Queensland Oaks, Benagil's trainer Glen Thompson tells @bendorries76 that his filly has recovered from some minor lacerations sustained in the Group 2 The Roses last start. ðŸ'‡ pic.twitter.com/ja4X0cdjlC
— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) June 2, 2025
* 'It jeopardises the Stradbroke': Benedetta back-up gamble
Benagil started the $3.50 favourite in the Group 2 The Roses on May 24 but wasn't a factor behind the David Vandyke -trained Philia, who scored her fourth consecutive victory and rocketed to Oaks favouritism.
But Thompson detailed why it was a total forget run for Benagil.
'Last start was a very messy race, she got back in behind the wrong horses and ran up their arses,' he said.
'She just got dragged out of the race at the wrong time when she needed to be building into the race.
'It was a hard watch and not good to see heading into a Group 1 race.
'She pulled up with a few cuts on her front and back legs, just superficial stuff.
'But she seems really good now and I'm really happy with her heading to Saturday.
'If she can bring her best form to Saturday, she is right in the mix.
'She is better ridden quiet in the second half of the field, back out of trouble.
'We will try to ride her like the best horse in the race and hopefully she shows she is.'
Benagil was the filly who gave Thompson his first Group 1 win in his own right.
He trained in partnership with Melbourne Cup -winning legend Mike Moroney until Moroney's tragic passing in late February.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
23 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Trainer Kris Lees to run Brudenell at Randwick on Saturday after weighing up Eagle Farm option
Racing history might be weighing heavily against Brudenell but trainer Kris Lees wants to give the sprinter his chance in the Listed $200,000 Bob Charley AO Stakes (1100m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday. Brudenell has been burdened with 59kg, an impost which has proven beyond all but four horses in the last 50 years of the Australian Turf Club's feature winter sprint, formerly known as the June Stakes. Classique Legend had 60kg when he won the Randwick sprint in 2020 en route to his triumph in The Everest, Jungle Edge won under 60.5kg in 2018, and Avoid Lightning (2014) and Oranmore (1977) both carried 59kg. Lees did nominate Brudenell for the Group 2 Moreton Cup at Eagle Farm as well but he felt the Bob Charley Stakes was the more winnable race. 'I will keep Brudenell for Randwick,'' Lees said. 'He's not great on a long float trip anyway. 'I know he has plenty of weight at Randwick but he has probably earned it. He goes to Saturday's race in very good form.'' Brudenell won the Listed Abell Stakes at Moonee Valley earlier this campaign and more recently ran a close second to Barber in the Listed Takeover Target Stakes at Gosford before a last-start third to The Instructor in the Listed Luskin Star Stakes at Scone. It's Brudenell's Abell Stakes, careering away for a classy victory ðŸ'« Mark Zahra & Kris Lees combine for Listed success at The Valley ðŸ¤� — (@Racing) February 28, 2025 The Bob Charley Stakes has attracted a final field of 15 with Front Page, who is co-topweight with Brudenell, also in the Moreton Cup. Also at Eagle Farm, Lees is chasing a third win in the Group 1 $700,000 Queensland Oaks (2200m) with either You Wahng or Eclair Encore. You Wahng, who ran a close third in the ATC Australian Oaks during the Sydney autumn carnival, has maintained her form as evidenced by a solid last start fifth to Philia in The Roses. 'This will probably be a more high pressure Oaks than what we had in Sydney but we know our filly can stay,'' said Lees, who has won the Queensland Oaks previously with Amokura (2023) and Vitesse Dane (2005). An epic win by Treasurethe Moment in the G1 Australian Oaks! She nabs the Victorian-Australian Oaks double in the final strides! 🙌 @mattlaurierace | @LaneDamian | @aus_turf_club | @WorldPool — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) April 12, 2025 Eclair Encore is also in the Group 1 $1m Queensland Derby (2400m) but Lees said she would contest the fillies classic. 'I'm thinking the Oaks for Eclair Encore despite the bad barrier (18),'' Lees said. 'I feel it is slightly the better option for her. We did consider splitting them up but we have to do what is best for both fillies.'' Amokura has had only five starts since her Oaks success and is resuming after nearly 12 months off in the Sydney Roosters Partners Handicap (1600m) at Royal Randwick. Lees explained Amokura had 'some bone bruising' which kept her out of racing for an extended period but said the mare has had a trouble-free preparation ahead of her comeback on Saturday. Amokura reigns supreme in the Queensland Oaks! ðŸ'' @Leesracing wins his second Queensland Oaks, while Damien Oliver scores his 128th Group 1 victory. — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 3, 2023 'Amokura's had a long build-up but she is going well,'' Lees said. 'I'm only going to give her a couple of runs and then bring her back for the spring.'' Lees also has Loch Eagle taking on stablemate Akomura in the mile race with the gelding impressing the trainer with his first-up eighth behind stablemate Tavi Time in the Scone Cup. Stardom in the Listed Woodlands Stakes.
ABC News
34 minutes ago
- ABC News
This plaque near a Canberra shopping centre car park offers a window into a family's tragic war story
There are little clues scattered throughout Canberra — a plaque here, a street sign there — pointing to a tragic story of a family that helped forge the nation's capital. Easily missed, they tell the story of a migrant family, three brothers and a fateful, tragic month. Englishman Walter Eddison survived a gassing in France during World War I and fighting on the shores of Gallipoli to set up life with his wife, three sons and three daughters on a 750-acre block on what was then the outskirts of Canberra in 1919. Anthony Hill, historian and author of For the Love of Country which retells the family's tale, said Canberra at that time was still sheep grazing country. "Canberra was just a beginning settlement — a population of only a few thousand. Just as the Eddisons were arriving did work really start," he said. But the outbreak of World War II would pause the growth of the capital and draw in the Eddison family. The three sons left the farm to fight in the war: Tom and Keith as pilots, Jack with the 2/20th Battalion. In 1941, the family received news that Tom was missing — possibly dead — after being shot down returning from a raid over Germany. Mr Hill said the Eddisons couldn't find out any information. Finally, in May 1943, the family received confirmation that Tom had been killed and was buried in the Netherlands. About the same time, the Canberra Times reported Keith was involved in "[giving] one of the severest hammerings this Japanese-occupied land has yet had". Just a fortnight later, days after Tom's death was confirmed, Keith was killed in New Guinea. It was at this time the family also received written correspondence from Jack — a prisoner of war (POW) in the Japanese Naoetsu camp after the fall of Singapore. The letter gave the family hope Jack would one day return. "Right through 1943, '44 and '45, they were waiting for Jack to come home," Mr Hill said. "[They thought], 'When Jack comes back, he'll fix the farm'." But they didn't receive any more correspondence. That letter, received in May 1943, would be the last. Mr Hill said after the news that two of his sons were dead and the other was in a POW camp, Mr Eddison refused to answer the telephone. He couldn't deal with more bad news. Mr Eddison was working out in a paddock when it rang in 1945. "Jack wasn't coming home. "You can imagine the devastating news." Jack Eddison had died of pneumonia on June 17, 1943, — just a fortnight after Keith had been killed. Mr Hill said the family's story showed "the real nature of war". "It was a great tragedy, but they were a stoic, brave family and they carried on," he said. The brothers' niece, Wendy Townley, grew up always feeling like she knew the uncles she had been too young to remember — from the photos on the walls, and the things they'd left behind. "They were part of the family," she said. "This is Jack's horse and Jack's dog and Tom's bed. They were talked about a lot." Yet her grandfather, Walter, never talked about his sons or the war. Ms Townley said she never quite understood as a child just what a tragedy it was. "But you don't ask questions as a kid. I wish I'd asked more about it. "I don't think it really dawned on me how really horrible it was until I had kids of my own and thought, 'Hell, how could you live with that?'. "My grandmother was so strong. She was my hero." Nowadays, the family homestead, called Yamba, has been replaced with a shopping centre. A plaque near the car park is the only remnant it existed at all. There are other tributes to the brothers, too. Mr Hill said the Eddison name was remembered in all sorts of places. "[Canberra] was named after people," he said. There's Yamba Drive, Eddison Park in Woden, and a plaque in St John's Church on the pew where Ms Townley and her family used to sit. "It's lovely the family are remembered," she said. When Ms Townley's brother sat down to start grade six at Canberra Grammar School — the school has a house called Eddison — he looked down to see the name 'Keith Eddison' carved into his desk. What many would have discarded as no more than schoolyard graffiti was just another little clue pointing to a most tragic history. "We're all very proud of the name."
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Gippsland communities fear erosion protection not coping with rising tides
Protective works paid for by the state government to shelter the coastline of southern Gippsland have failed in the wake of recent abnormal tidal activity. It has spurred renewed calls for permanent protective works to prevent further erosion, with some residents terrified that rising water could submerge their homes. Almost 150 kilometres south-east of Melbourne, Inverloch Surf Life Saving Club has been battling creeping coastal erosion for years. A 70-metre geotextile container wall was built in Inverloch in 2020 for $450,000. But sand erosion has since spread behind the wall and encroached on the clubhouse. Sand dunes abutting the clubhouse were hammered by abnormally high tidal water in late May. The water rose close to 3 metres throughout the week, breaking past a temporary fence installed to help prevent further erosion. Surf lifesaving club president Glenn Arnold said a stronger wall was the long-term solution. "If you're asking me, and I know this is a contentious issue, I'm saying throw rocks at it," he said. "It's not a wall, it's an ingress. "So it's protecting the dunes, backfilling behind the ingress into the ocean to allow more sand to collect." Mr Arnold said a wall made of rocks would be more suited to the area. "They're cost efficient, they're environmentally friendly, they're aesthetically pleasing, more so than ugly manufactured sandbags," he said. Member for Bass, Jordan Crugnale, said the Bass Coast Shire Council and the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action (DEECA) were monitoring both areas with designs to repair and extend the geotextile wall. A call for tenders has been put out for the reconstruction project. When asked if there was a need for stronger coastal erosion mitigation works, Ms Crugnale said the government was being directed by experts and science. Further along the coastline at Phillip Island, a $565,000 rock bag wall installed in April to protect residential properties in Silverleaves has failed to protect the beach. Residents watched as the wall of mesh bags filled with rocks struggled to fight the surge of rising high tides. Seawater has swept up behind the bags, cutting into the shoreline. Cowes resident and member of the Silverleaves Conservation Association, Will Dwyer, said a lot of sand and trees had been lost. "We've lost a number of banksia trees that have come down, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop." Rather than block the tide, Mr Dwyer said the rock bags had shifted the problem further down the beach. He said residents were frustrated and tired of fighting for a solution. "This has been going on for years. We've been fighting for years to get something to happen, and in that time we've lost 18 to 20 metres of foreshore," he said. "We're just concerned that it took years for them to do what they've done. "If it's going to take another couple of years, we're just going to keep losing foreshore until Silverleaves becomes inundated." A spokesperson for Bass Coast Shire Council said contractors would reinstate sand at both ends of the Inverloch sandbag wall this week. In March, the Victorian government announced more than $17 million in funding to address coastal erosion, safety risks and access issues across the state's most vulnerable sections of coastline, from Warrnambool to Lakes Entrance. A DEECA spokesperson said the government would continue to work with the council to monitor coastal hazards. Community members can have their say on the Engage Victoria website before June 8.
