Latest news with #StradbrokeHandicap
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Automotive
- News.com.au
Truck driving hobby trainer Craig Cousins sets sights on Sydney first
For truck driving hobby trainer Craig Cousins, a trip to the interstate races means heading 13km south of the Queensland border to Murwillumbah. All that is about to change. Cousins, whose fairytale horse The Inflictor raced in the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap and won a stakes race a fortnight later, has set his sights on the big time of racing in Sydney. Cousins has never set foot on a Sydney racetrack but that will change when he heads south with The Inflictor who he will deploy in the $1.5m Alan Brown Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill in October. There is even an outside chance he could race in the $2m Five Diamonds if he impresses in Sydney. 'As far as going interstate with racing, Murwillumbah is as far as I've been,' Cousins said. 'I've never even set foot on Rosehill or any of the Sydney tracks. 'I've driven past them, but never been at them. 'At this stage, the Alan Brown would be his only run in Sydney. 'But if he happened to win by six lengths or something, I guess we would think about the Five Diamonds.' THE INFLICTOR! The Stradbroke fairytale galloper holds on for a gritty win under @RachelK11 in the Tattersall’s Mile! ðŸ�† What a win for Craig Cousins & connections ðŸ'� — RaceQ (@RaceQLD) June 28, 2025 The Inflictor is one of the feel-good stories of racing in 2025, given Cousins has a full-time job as a truck driver and only three horses which he stables out the back of his parents' house in Brisbane. The Inflictor raced without luck in the Stradbroke, finishing 11th, before rebounding to score the Listed Tatt's Mile a fortnight later. He was last seen finishing a brave third in the Glasshouse Handicap after not being given much peace up front. Currently having a short spell, Cousins will bring The Inflictor back for the spring and he will also contest the Weetwood Handicap in Toowoomba. 'He will be first-up in a race at Doomben over 1110m on September 13 and then he will race up in Toowoomba in the Weetwood before going to Sydney,' Cousins said. 'Cejay Graham will have the ride on him for the Queensland races. 'At this stage, he will have three runs in his next campaign. 'The idea of that is to then give him a small break and set him for a good race over the Queensland summer carnival.'
News.com.au
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Ben Dorries hands out his awards from the 2025 Queensland winter carnival
It's that time of year when racing writer Ben Dorries hands out his version of The Oscars. Our man has identified the best Queensland winter performers and also gone off Broadway for some of the carnival's most quirky and colourful moments. â– â– â– â– â– BEST ACTOR Humble hobby trainer Craig Cousins gets the Tom Cruise award for being the winter carnival's leading man. His home-bred hero The Inflictor may not have won the Stradbroke Handicap. But the story of the truck driving trainer with a handful of horses, one of which qualified for the $3m Stradbroke, will go down in carnival folklore. Cousins trains from stables out the back of his mum's house and he enjoyed every moment of Stradbroke week, even buying himself a new suit for the occasion. After The Inflictor won a Listed race, he went out of his way to thank the media and everyone else for the wonderful magic carpet ride he had been on. A real character and a gentleman. â– â– â– â– â– BEST NEW TALENT When Cool Archie won a couple of two-year-old races at the start of the carnival, it didn't really turn the dial. And there were a few sniggers when Chris Munce nominated the Group 1 JJ Atkins as the winter goal for his young colt. After all, racegoers in these parts are used to local heroes being overrun by big names like Waller and Cummings when they come to town. But he who laughs last, laughs longest. Munce and his son Corey, along with prominent owner Max Whitby, were celebrating when Cool Archie won five straight including the JJ Atkins. Unless Sydney bias kicks in, the sensational youngster should be a lock for Australian 2YO of the year honours. What a run, what a horse â�ï¸� Cool Archie takes out the G1 Ladbrokes JJ Atkins for Team Munce & Martin Harley ðŸ'� — Ladbrokes Australia (@ladbrokescomau) June 14, 2025 â– â– â– â– â– BEST PICTURE When Antino scored the Hollindale Stakes and the Group 1 Doomben Cup by as far as you could kick your hat. Wins the best picture gong as there were literally no other horses in the finish picture on either occasion. Tony Gollan collects training premierships and big races for fun – but this was his crowning moment. Antino can be a quirky horse and turning him from a sprinter-miler into a middle distance/stayer was a magical effort that David Copperfield would have been proud of. Queensland's champion trainer will have plenty of spring fun with Antino, who is the second betting pick in the Cox Plate behind Via Sistina. In case you missed it! Antino was a brilliant winner of the Group One Doomben Cup this morning... 🤯 — At The Races (@AtTheRaces) May 24, 2025 â– â– â– â– â– BEST CASTING Young Queensland jockey Angela Jones as a marquee winter carnival performer. The jockey who grew up in outback Queensland might not have won a Group 1, although she did get within a whisker when Zarastro led until the shadows of the post in the Kingsford Smith Cup. But she won five feature races, including for Gai Waterhouse and for the royal blue of Godolphin, and she more than held her own against the big name southern jockeys who ventured north. Won four straight races on Floozie and it wasn't her fault the mare was a beaten favourite in the Group 1 Tatt's Tiara. Should win the Brisbane jockeys' premiership. We will look back at the 2025 winter carnival as being the making of her on the big stage. Floozie brains them in the G2 Dane Ripper Stakes! ðŸ'¥ @tonygollan — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 14, 2025 â– â– â– â– â– BEST PERFORMANCE While Antino and Cool Archie both had claims, the gong goes to Joliestar. The mare's truly incredible triumph in the Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup had to be seen to be believed. On a day where it was close to impossible to make too much ground from back, Chris Waller 's glamour girl came from so far off them to win that it looked like she had been shot out of a cannon. There was a freeze-frame of the race with 100m or so to go posted on social media, and you deadset would have bet $101 about Joliestar winning. It might not have been a vintage field, but the manner of her win suggested a big spring carnival and potentially redemption in The Everest is coming. An EPIC finish in the G1 Kingsford Smith Cup sees Joliestar nab them right on the line to take her third Group 1! 🤩 @cwallerracing @mcacajamez @BrisRacingClub @RaceQLD — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 7, 2025 â– â– â– â– â– ROCKY BALBOA GOLDEN GLOVES The jockeys' room blue between Noel Callow and Kyle Wilson-Taylor was the bust-up of the carnival. It did what many of the actual races could not – get global headlines. The bad blood had been bubbling for a while but at the end of the day it was probably half a storm in a teacup. It won't be long before 'King' Callow has served his ban and returns to the races. Noel Callow has been banned over an altercation with a rival jockey, a penalty which could be reduced if he completes an anger management course, reports @bendorries76. — Racenet (@RacenetTweets) June 12, 2025 â– â– â– â– â– RISING STAR War Machine was the Stradbroke Handicap favourite from the moment he made a mess of his rivals in the Group 3 BRC Sprint. Some (including me) would say that backing a $3.20 favourite in the Stradbroke is a quick way to the poor house. But War Machine did it comfortably and could be one right out of the box. The late, great Mike Moroney identified him as a must-have horse and he has started to live up to what Moroney always thought he promised. Bring on the spring, as the penny hasn't even dropped yet. War Machine WINS the G1 Stradbroke Handicap! ðŸ�† Tim Clark with a flawless performance in the saddle! — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 14, 2025 â– â– â– â– â– BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Former Irishman Tom Sherry cracked his first Group 1 when he scored the Tatt's Tiara on Tashi and quickly paid tribute to his long-term partner Danika Losty. Losty has been there through Sherry's darkest times – even when he copped a drug ban as an 18-year-old in his Irish homeland. Sherry arrived in Australia without a job and with his passion for racing wavering, but Losty never lost faith and kept urging him to follow his racing dreams even when he was working on a building site erecting temporary fences. Bravo.
Sydney Morning Herald
03-07-2025
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
Red-hot Baker ready to strike with twin chances in Rosehill feature
Bjorn Baker has hit the mark more than just about anyone in metropolitan racing this season. So when the Warwick Farm trainer targets a feature with a horse attempting a seven-day back-up for the first time and another racing second up off a last-place finish, it would be dangerous to write him off. Baker, coming to the end of a breakout season, has last-start winner Thunderlips and Robusto tackling the listed Winter Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday. Five-year-old Robusto, which won the $2 million The Ingham at Randwick in December and was second in three other features in his first campaign with Baker, resumed in the group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) on June 14, where he faded to finish last after working forward early from a wide gate. With gate one on Saturday and 60 kilograms, Robusto is $8 with Sportsbet to hit back at Rosehill. Baker is confident of an improved showing back in grade. 'It was a tough ask, and he drew badly, which was always going to make it tricky,' Baker said of the Eagle Farm run. 'That work he had to do first up, he was always going to be vulnerable. It was a risky play, but you've got to be in it to win it.
The Age
03-07-2025
- Sport
- The Age
Red-hot Baker ready to strike with twin chances in Rosehill feature
Bjorn Baker has hit the mark more than just about anyone in metropolitan racing this season. So when the Warwick Farm trainer targets a feature with a horse attempting a seven-day back-up for the first time and another racing second up off a last-place finish, it would be dangerous to write him off. Baker, coming to the end of a breakout season, has last-start winner Thunderlips and Robusto tackling the listed Winter Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday. Five-year-old Robusto, which won the $2 million The Ingham at Randwick in December and was second in three other features in his first campaign with Baker, resumed in the group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) on June 14, where he faded to finish last after working forward early from a wide gate. With gate one on Saturday and 60 kilograms, Robusto is $8 with Sportsbet to hit back at Rosehill. Baker is confident of an improved showing back in grade. 'It was a tough ask, and he drew badly, which was always going to make it tricky,' Baker said of the Eagle Farm run. 'That work he had to do first up, he was always going to be vulnerable. It was a risky play, but you've got to be in it to win it.
New Paper
27-06-2025
- Sport
- New Paper
Tiara is a great fit for Tashi
The guesswork in spotting the last Australian Group 1 winner of 2024-2025 has been made just a little harder by one missing piece. None of the 17 runners to the A$700,000 (S$583,000) Tattersall's Tiara (1,400m) at Eagle Farm on June 28 (1.58pm Singapore time) is coming out of the Stradbroke Handicap. Queensland's premier Group 1 1,400m event, which was won by War Machine on June 14, has delivered the Tiara winners of the last four editions - Tofane (2021), Startantes (2022), Palaisipan (2023) and Bella Nipotina (2024). Since the fillies and mares contest earned Group 1 status in 2007, eight winners have borne the Stradbroke formline in their lead-up, with Srikandi (2015) and Tofane doing the Stradbroke-Tiara double, a feat achieved by only Dane Ripper in the pre-Group 1 Tiara era in 1997. Interestingly, the eventual 1997 Cox Plate winner is, in name, providing the perfect fall-back option to a Tiara renewal bereft of Stradbroke form this year. The Group 2 Dane Ripper Stakes (1,300m), which is held on Stradbroke day, is without a doubt the next best traditional prelude. No fewer than 10 of the 14 Dane Ripper runners in 2025 will contest the Tiara, including the first three home, Floozie, Tashi and Firestorm - who, unsurprisingly, head the market. If anything, the statistics around the Dane Ripper Stakes as a Tiara crystal ball are almost as compelling as the Stradbroke. For the nine Group 1 Tiara winners who did not come through the Stradbroke, seven rounded out their preparations in the Dane Ripper, with Red Tracer (2013), Cosmic Endeavour (2014) and Invincibella (2019) the three to have completed the double that Floozie is chasing. Undefeated in four runs this campaign, Tony Gollan's mare by Zoustar is a deserved favourite at 3-1, almost sharing that tag with Firestorm, on whom James McDonald is bidding to equal Malcolm Johnston's 45-year-old record of 16 Group 1 wins in one season. But, perhaps, the one anomaly to that market is Tashi's odds of 6-1. In the Dane Ripper Stakes, the Peter Snowden-trained mare did not see clean air as early as the winner Floozie, but still took a huge chunk of ground off her to miss out by only half-a-length. The one-pound swing in Floozie's favour is too marginal to account for the quote discrepancy. For that reason, Tashi represents much better value, especially if he finds daylight earlier. Knockers may argue that the Sebring five-year-old does not scream Group 1 material, but then again, neither do most of her 16 rivals. As a benchmark, the only Group 1 winner, 2024 South Australian Derby (2,500m) winner Coco Sun is first-up after a disappointing Spring campaign, and over a trip not made to suit. Firestorm and Semana are the only two Group-placed contenders, and also hail from the powerhouse yards of Chris Waller and Ciaron Maher respectively. Firestorm ran second to stablemate and glamour filly Lady Shenandoah in the 2025 Coolmore Classic (1,500m), while Semana's three Group 1 placings notably include her second to Bella Nipotina for a Maher 1-2 in last year's Tiara. Bella Nipotina, who was recently retired, was the last of seven favourites since 2007 to win the Tiara. It has, however, also hatched nine double-figure winners in 20-1 shots Russeting (2009), Miss Cover Girl (2016) and Tycoon Tara (2017), incidentally Snowden's only Tiara winner. A win by Tashi would not be as jaw-dropping, but would vault Darley's (Godolphin's old name in Australia) former head trainer back into the limelight and give his Irish jockey Tom Sherry a much-deserved first Group 1 silverware. manyan@
