Latest news with #StradbrokeHandicap
Herald Sun
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Herald Sun
Peter Snowden aiming to turn Queensland winter carnival fortunes around in Eye Liner Stakes
Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News. Sydney trainer Peter Snowden hopes another gear change will do the trick for his underperforming gelding Xidaki in the $200,000 Listed Eye Liner Stakes at Ipswich on Saturday. The Ciaron Maher-trained Warnie ($2.40) is definitely the horse to beat in the 1350m race but Xidaki poses a genuine threat if he can rediscover the form that led to his last victory, in the $300,000 Group 3 Winx Guineas (1600m) at Caloundra last July. Snowden decided to put a cross-over nose band on the gelding this campaign because the four-year-old was 'over-racing badly' but the results have been lacklustre. • 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! Xidaki finished seventh in the Group 3 Hall Mark Stakes (1200m) at Randwick in April, ninth in the Listed Takeover Target Stakes (1200m) at Gosford on May 10 and seventh in the Group 3 BRC Sprint (1350m) at Doomben two weeks later. He is rated as a $7.50 chance in the Eye Liner Stakes behind Warnie and the Tony Gollan-trained Devastate ($7). • Warnie can honour cricket legend with consolation victory 'I've had a cross-over noseband on him this time in because he was struggling last time in and I felt it cost him a couple of races,'' Snowden said. 'But it seems he has been resenting it this preparation because he's been getting too far back in his races. 'So I've taken the noseband off for Saturday and hope he can settle closer in the run. 'Ipswich is a track where you have to stay positive and he has drawn five. I don't want him to get too far back from there. 'I'm confident he has the tactical speed to be in the first five or six in the run. 'He's going great at home and I can't believe he won't be running well on what he has been showing me in his trackwork.' Xidaki last win was in the Group 3 Winx Guineas in July last year. Picture: Trackside Photography. Lindsay Park star War Machine emphatically won the BRC Sprint before impressively taking out the $3m Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) three weeks later at Eagle Farm. Xidaki crossed the winning post almost five lengths behind War Machine in the BRC Sprint but on the bright side, Snowden was pleased with how his galloper hit the line. 'He got too far back last start and had a lot of work to do but he was one of those finishing hardest late,'' Snowden said. 'The horse that won it (War Machine) went on to win the Stradbroke Handicap. 'If he can hold his spot on Saturday it will go a long way to helping his chances at Ipswich.'' • Lipp out to fulfil $40m Lotto winner's spring carnival dream It will also comfort Snowden knowing that Xidaki was a narrow runner-up to Ostraka in the $1m Group 3 Silver Eagle (1300m) at Randwick last October but finished ahead of the Ben, Will and JD Hayes-trained War Machine. It's fair to say that Snowden is due for some luck in this Queensland winter carnival. His mare Tashi has twice just missed the chocolates - in the Listed Helen Coughlan Stakes (1200m) and Group 2 Dane Ripper Stakes (1300m) - while the appropriately named gelding Need Some Luck finished half a length behind winner Compelling Truth in the Listed Hinkler Handicap (1200m) last Saturday at Eagle Farm. Originally published as Trainer Peter Snowden banking on gear change bringing out best from Xidaki in Eye Liner Stakes
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Warnie chasing consolation prize in Eye Liner Stakes after missing out on Stradbroke Handicap
Australia's cricketers couldn't get it done in the recent World Test Championship final, but keen cricket fan Nathan Bennett is hoping his horse Warnie can pay tribute to legendary former spin king Shane Warne. Syndicator Bennett, currently on holiday with his family travelling around WA in a motorhome, is convinced Warnie would have given the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap a mighty shake if he had scraped into the field. The four-year-old gelding was stranded as a Stradbroke emergency, ending up two outside the starting field, and will instead race for the consolation prize of the Listed Eye Liner Stakes (1350m) at Ipswich on Saturday. Ciaron Maher-trained Warnie is the $2.50 favourite and looks the one to beat. He flew home in the Group 2 Moreton Cup, finishing third behind Front Page, when a win would have given him a golden ticket into the Stradbroke. He has drawn favourably in barrier three at Ipswich and Sydney jockey Regan Bayliss will ride. 'He was surging home in the Moreton Cup and another 20m, he would have won and won his way into the Straddy,' Bennett said. 'This horse is flying and we were hopeful he would get in the Stradbroke, as with a light weight we were pretty confident he could have gone close. 'He has sometimes been cruelled by barriers this horse. 'But this time we have drawn well and out to the 1350(m) will really suit. 'He can race a bit closer to the speed than he has been and so with the barrier draw we can always find a spot, rather than be chasing them from right back in the field. 'I don't think Ipswich is the place you want to be trying to come from too far back.' Bennett purchased the galloper from a sale in Ireland and he had his first start in a two-year-old race at Royal Ascot in 2023 when James McDonald rode him. The horse got his name because when it came time to name him, there was an Ashes cricket series on and Bennett always loved watching the late, great Warne take wickets. • 'We had to come up with a name really quickly and I just thought, the Ashes are on and that's where Warnie used to do his best stuff,' Bennett said. 'We thought we would name him in honour of the great man. 'I have always loved cricket and now I love watching this horse named after Warnie go around. 'I was a bit surprised the name Warnie hadn't already been taken, it was a lot easier than what I thought.' The Warnie camp believes the gelding has a promising future and would love to deploy him in a Group 1 race in the Melbourne spring carnival. 'We want to try to get him to the (Group 1) Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield in September,' Bennett said. 'But we really need to win another race to get his rating up a touch more before we can really try to lock something like that in. 'We are chasing our tail a bit with him, we want to get the rating up now, and then we can back off him a bit and set him for a race like that.' Bennett also races Phillip Stokes -trained three-year-old gelding Stay Focused who is the $3.10 favourite in the TL Cooney (1350m) at Ipswich, despite drawing barrier 17. 'He can't draw a barrier that horse, but he will be hard to beat if he can get even luck,' Bennett said. 'It looks a very winnable race for him, it's just the barrier that is going to hurt him.'
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Trainer Joe Pride's grand campaigner Private Eye is no longer sprinting towards prizemoney top 10
Trainer Joe Pride has made the honest appraisal that Private Eye's days of contesting The Everest are behind him. Private Eye, who is on the verge of breaking into the all-time top 10 prizemoney earners after his close third in the Stradbroke Handicap last Saturday, is a rising eight-year-old and Pride believes the gelding is looking for longer race distances now. 'I think his pure sprinting days are over, he is not as sharp as he used to be,'' Pride said. 'He's more of a 'miler' these days. It's funny because after he won the Queensland Guineas as a three-year-old Brenton Avdulla said we should push on to the Derby. 'But then he got faster and became a sprinter. It seems he's reverting to what he was as a younger horse.'' Private Eye won the Group 1 Epsom Handicap over the Randwick mile course as a four-year-old but then developed into one of the nation's best sprinters, contesting three successive The Everests for a second to Giga Kick in 2022, a third behind stablemate Think About It in 2023, then his close sixth to Bella Nipotina last year. But Pride's evergreen equine star continues to be competitive at the highest level with his Stradbroke placing taking his career earnings to $12,217,185 and 11th on the prizemoney rankings, moving above Think About It ($12,163,050). Private Eye will get his chance to break into the top 10 in spring with Pride looking at a possible return in the Group 1 $1 million Winx Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on August 23. 'He won't have long off and I will have a think about the Missile Stakes (August 9) but maybe we go straight to the Winx Stakes fresh,'' Pride said. 'If he gets into the top 10 prizemoney earners, it will be a great achievement for the horse but it probably doesn't mean what it used to with the exaggerated levels of prizemoney these days. 'But he's done a great job during his career, he's been racing at Group level for five seasons now and is still holding his own.'' Pride said a race like the Group 1 $5 million King Charles III Stakes (1600m) at Royal Randwick on Everest Day, October 18, was a more likely spring goal for Private Eye. This is also the target for stablemate Ceolwulf, who won the Epsom Handicap-King Charles Group 1 double over the famous Randwick mile course last spring. Ceolwulf won the Neville Sellwood Stakes then was spelled after finishing fifth to champion Via Sistina in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes during autumn but is back in work at Pride's Warwick Farm stables and is also being readied for a comeback in the Winx Stakes. Epsom winner Ceolwulf with a huge run wins the G1 King Charles III Stakes in front of a record crowd at Randwick! @PrideRacing | @SchofieldChad @aus_turf_club | @WorldPool — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) October 19, 2024 'I'm really happy with how Ceolwulf spelled, he looks great,'' Pride said. 'At this stage we have either the King Charles or the Cox Plate as his main goal, I don't think he can run in both being just a week apart. 'That is one of the holes in the program because you want to see the best horses clashing. 'When I was getting into racing in the late 1980s, you watched Vo Rogue, Super Impose and Better Loosen Up racing against each other all the time because they were the only weight-for-age races. 'But these days there is so many choices and so many races to choose from for these top horses.'' Pride said there were various options for Ceolwulf including going to Melbourne later in the spring or staying in Sydney for an extended campaign. 'If Ceolwulf runs in the King Charles, then we have the option of going to Melbourne for either the Champions Mile or Champions Stakes, or he stays home and could even go to the Five Diamonds,'' Pride said. Civic Stakes (1400m) with Accredited, Cool Jakey, Estadio Mestalla and Headley Grange.
News.com.au
4 days ago
- Automotive
- News.com.au
Stradbroke Handicap runner-up Yellow Brick will be set for another attempt at Epsom Handicap
A bout of travel sickness aborted Yellow Brick 's shot at the Group 1 Epsom Handicap last year, but it is full steam ahead this time for the plucky Stradbroke Handicap runner-up. The Queensland training team of Maddy Sears and her father Tony have circled the Epsom at Randwick in October as the goal for Yellow Brick in the remainder of 2025. • 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! An Epsom mission had been on the cards last year but plans changed when Yellow Brick spiked a temperature from travel sickness and had to be scratched from one of his lead-up runs. It totally altered the Sydney spring campaign for Yellow Brick who then targeted the $2m Five Diamonds in November where he finished a valiant third. Maddy Sears is convinced five-year-old Yellow Brick has never been going better and she was delighted when her opinion was franked when he turned in a huge run at $41 to finish Stradbroke runner-up behind War Machine last Saturday. After a short paddock break, it is onwards and upwards to a Sydney spring campaign which will culminate in the Epsom over the famous Randwick mile. War Machine WINS the G1 Stradbroke Handicap! ðŸ�† Tim Clark with a flawless performance in the saddle! — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 14, 2025 'He is so good over a mile and all the prominent form people we have spoken to say the Epsom would be an ideal race for him,' Maddy Sears said. 'He will have a couple of weeks off in a grassy paddock and then a couple of trials before we head to Sydney. 'He hasn't won an interstate race yet, but he has gone close, and we really want him to show what he can do on the big stage down south.' Yellow Brick finished three-quarters of a length off War Machine in the Stradbroke but on reflection, Maddy Sears believes he should have finished even closer. He not only suffered some interference from an incident that saw Rothfire's jockey Craig Williams suspended for 14 days, but he was also one of the few runners at Eagle Farm on Stradbroke day to make significant ground from near the back. 'He copped some interference and that probably put us a length or two back from where we really wanted to be in the run,' Sears said. 'But it really did feel like a win, Dad and I are part-owners of the horse and he owes us nothing. 'A lot of people knocked him from his prior run at Doomben, but he carried a big weight and he has never really loved Doomben. 'He seemed to get crucified on the back of one run and I thought his odds in the Stradbroke were ridiculous. 'He was the forgotten horse of the race for many people, but he certainly wasn't for us.' Yellow Brick earned $540,000 from his runner-up finish in the Stradbroke, taking his career prizemoney haul to almost $2.5m. Tony and Maddy Sears, who have moved from Toowoomba to the Gold Coast to train, are hunting their first Group 1 triumph and hope they can crack it in the Epsom.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Brisbane trainer Rob Heathcote eyes Melbourne spring targets for grand campaigner Rothfire
Having stabled the Stradbroke Handicap winner War Machine for the Hayes team, Brisbane trainer Rob Heathcote hopes the three brothers can return the favour this spring when he likely takes his old gladiator Rothfire to Melbourne to hunt Group 1 glory. The seven-year-old gelding had a horrible lead-up to the $3m Stradbroke over 1400m at Eagle Farm last Saturday. Firstly, the 2020 JJ Atkins champion suffered a stone bruise just 10 days before Queensland's premier race and battled to even make the field. He was forced to run on a firm track – his least favourite surface – and then champion jockey James McDonald was sick during the week and was unable to ride Rothfire at 55.5kg, meaning Craig Williams received a late call-up. Heathcote watched and heard a few horses galloping on the firm track early in the morning on Stradbroke Day and said he immediately thought 'oh, I'm in trouble here'. He contemplated scratching his stable star but opted to push on, with Rothfire running seventh, just three lengths behind the Ben, Will and JD Hayes -trained favourite War Machine. In another slice of bad luck, Williams copped a two-week suspension for careless riding in the Straddie. War Machine WINS the G1 Stradbroke Handicap! ðŸ�† Tim Clark with a flawless performance in the saddle! — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 14, 2025 • 'The good news is that Rothfire has pulled up fine and will go to the paddock now,' Heathcote said. 'He's done his job. I mean his run was huge and unfortunately for him, the track was just too firm. 'He was charging to the line and then he just feels that track. As Craig said, he could feel him wanting to let down but he just couldn't. 'He'll have a break now and I'll have a very close study of available races. 'I'm not really sure what races I'll target but obviously there are plenty of Group 1 s and he races well at Moonee Valley. 'I've now got to look at races with a bit of give in the ground.' • 'Some huge offers': Studs clamour for Cool Archie as owner dreams of Everest Heathcote could possibly send Rothfire to the $750,000 Group 1 Moir Stakes (1000m) and then into the $2m Manikato Stakes (1200m), both at The Valley in September. 'I'd like him to have a two or three-run prep, either in Sydney or Melbourne,' said Heathcote, who won the 2013 Manikato with his superstar Buffering. 'The advantage with me going to Melbourne is that I have a good relationship with the Hayes boys. 'Their Stradbroke winner (War Machine) stayed with me. He was stabled not far from Rothfire. 'The boys were pretty happy, Ben (Hayes) was at my stable on Sunday morning.' Too good J-Mac! He lifts Sunshine In Paris to victory in the Doomben 10,000 ðŸ'° @mcacajamez @ANeashamRacing — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 17, 2025 Heathcote believed that Rothfire would have 'gone close' to winning the Stradbroke if not for the untimely injury, which put the tough-as-nails gelding out of work for several days. 'He's been such a wonderful horse,' Heathcote said of the 'Thriller from Chinchilla', who fought back from a potentially career-ending sesamoid injury in 2020. 'If he didn't have that stone bruise he would've gone close (to winning the Stradbroke). 'I had even considered scratching Rothfire. But his run was huge and full of courage on a track too firm, plus he missed that bit of work.' Rothfire has shown his trademark grit in his three races this campaign - an impressive fourth in the Group 2 Victory Stakes, a tremendous runner-up finish to star mare Sunshine In Paris in the Doomben 10,000 major and finally his Stradbroke result when he had excuses.
