The likely lads, Ben Dorries and Trenton Akers, have been up and about in Stradbroke Handicap week. The Brisbane-based scribes dig into their bag of tricks to try to find the winner of Queensland’s most prestigious race.
Trenton Akers: Ben, Stradbroke week is one of the best weeks of sport in Brisbane, but it must be somewhat sombre for you this year. I note it is 10 years since you fell out with News Corp’s legendary sports journo Robert ‘Crash’ Craddock after you talked him out of tipping (and backing) River Lad in the 2014 Stradbroke. Is it true the two of you haven’t talked since the $31 roughie arrived?
Ben Dorries: Crash is such a nice bloke, he doesn’t have a bad word to say about anyone. He even thinks Ned Kelly was misunderstood. It’s fair to say I haven’t been on his Christmas card list — we have only just got back on speaking terms, so thanks for bringing up old wounds.
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TA: It’s not a vintage Stradbroke this year, but it doesn’t lessen the intrigue. What are you putting your famous kiss of death on this year?
BD: Hang on. The Stradbroke is one of the few races I have actually got a reasonable record in finding the winner. Alligator Blood (2022) and Santa Ana Lane (2018) kept the wolves at bay for me. This year, I don’t think you have to be Sherlock Holmes to find Antino on top. Yes, he had drawn wide but at least he will get clear air from out there to power over the top of them. Tony Gollan has arguably never had a better chance to win Queensland’s greatest race, and the cards look to have fallen his way this year. Antino’s first-up win in the Victory Stakes was sensational and his Kingsford Smith Cup run was a good pipe opener for the Stradbroke. I have three-year-old filly Stefi Magnetica as a clear and present danger despite also drawing wide. She is loaded with ability, has a featherweight, was fabulous in the Doomben 10,000 and then stuck in the slow lane at Eagle Farm last start. What do you like?
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TA: I reckon Ciaron Maher holds the aces here. He won the race with Srikandi in 2015 and I reckon he has another mare to do it this year in Semana. It has been two months since we have seen her and most punters didn’t even realise she was in the field until this week. It has been a long-term plan to get her into the Stradbroke with no weight, she’s the one the market hasn’t latched onto yet. No knock on Antino, I think he can win.
BD: I’m giving the Tasmanians a knockout chance. The Inevitable is a rising nine-year-old and hasn’t won on the mainland since October 2019, but I thought his effort to surge home from last and not be beaten too far in the BRC Sprint was a flashing light run from a Stradbroke point of view. He won’t know himself with a fairly light weight on his back and must be included in all bets. Scott Brunton, who knows this horse like the back of his hand, couldn’t wipe the smile off his face in King George Square on Tuesday night when drawing barrier 8.
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TA: That will do me. I will swim to Tasmania if that horse wins, he has more wrinkles than you. I was taken by Vilana’s run in the Moreton Cup last Saturday. Winners of that race have a horrible record in the Straddy, but Vilana is virtually a new horse after being gelded. James McDonald doesn’t have a Stradbroke ride due to the light weights, but I think he is a moral to get to 98 Group 1s in the JJ Atkins after taking over the reins on Broadsiding.
BD: J-Mac hasn’t won a Group 1 this winter carnival, but they should present him with the JJ Atkins trophy already. I realise racing is a ruthless business, but I really feel for young jockey and father of two Adin Thompson getting the spear from exciting Queenslander Zouna in the JJ. It could have been the feel-good story of the winter. He was looking forward to his first Group 1 ride almost as much as I look forward to a sponsored lunch.
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STRADBROKE HANDICAP TIPS
BEN DORRIES
1 – ANTINO
2 – THE INEVITABLE
3- STEFI MAGNETICA
4 – AMENABLE
TRENTON AKERS
1 – SEMANA
2 – ANTINO
3 – VILANA
4 – PRINCE OF BOOM
Originally published as ‘Only just back on speaking terms’: Stradbroke capers with Ben Dorries and Trenton Akers