A look at the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap

STRADBROKE HANDICAP

Group One, 1400m handicap, Eagle Farm

HISTORY

* First run in 1890 (winner Pyrrhus)

* 1890-1953 run over six furlongs (1200m)

* Winners include Wiggle (1958), Persian Lyric (1961), Kilshery (1962), Winfreux (1965), Divide And Rule (1970), Triton (1972), Daybreak Lover (1984, 1986), Campaign King (1988), Rough Habit (1991-92), Dane Ripper (1997), Show A Heart (2002), Black Piranha (2009-10), Santa Ana Lane (2018)

* In 2015, 2017 and 2018 the race was run over 1350m at Doomben

TALKING POINTS

* One of only two Group One races to be run during this year’s revised Queensland winter carnival because of the impacts of coronavirus pandemic

* Prize money reduced this year from $1.5 million to $350,000

Banner error, could not find casino id "william-hill-sport"

* Trekking aiming to win his second-straight Stradbroke

* Trekking is also striving for back-to-back Group One wins having taken out The Goodwood in Adelaide at his most recent start last month

* In-form Sydney three-year-old Dawn Passage has the outside draw but is the pre-race favourite to give co-trainer Gai Waterhouse her first Stradbroke

* Last year’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Exhilarates aiming to become first three-year-old filly since La Montagna (2006) to win Stradbroke

* James Innes Jr (Dawn Passage) and Blake Spriggs (Hightail) are the only two interstate-based jockeys competing in this year’s race

* James Orman (Niconova), Justin Huxtable (Crack Me Up) and Jake Bayliss (Winter Bride) have permission to ride 0.5kg over their horse’s allocated weight. Sean Cormac (Graff) and Jag Guthmann-Chester (3rd em Bandipur) have permission to ride 1kg over

WHAT THE KEY PLAYERS ARE SAYING

“The top weight is somewhat balanced by having the services of an accomplished senior jockey, riding at full strength. Obviously he’s drawn wide in a big field and I’m not sure what to make of that. He won the race last year with 54kg and he’s won a Group Two and a Group One since then and his form line is excellent,” – Trekking’s trainer James Cummings

“She’s done a great job this preparation. She had her first run (of the preparation) in November and put in a career-best last start so she’s certainly not showing any signs of dipping in form either,” – Bam’s On Fire’s co-trainer David Eustace

“He’s won both his runs this time in and he drops to 50 kilos. He’s up a fair bit in grade but I think that pull in the weights and that good draw is going to take him a long way to give him his best chance,” – Hightail’s trainer Peter Snowden