Queenslanders Shine In AAMI Stradbroke Placings

THE fairytale AAMI Stradbroke swansong of Thorn Park overshadowed the terrific effort of the two Queenslanders – Consular and St Basil – that filled the minor placings.

Trainer Bill Baker was the unsung hero of the $1 million Eagle Farm classic after completing his transformation of $20,000 Victorian reject Consular into a Group 1 galloper.

Jockey Scott Seamer was adamant after St Basil bungled the start and ran third that the extremely unlucky Bevan Laming-trained galloper should have won the big race.

But all honours were with Thorn Park after the four-year-old entire bowed out of racing with success at the elite level.

The Stradbroke was as much a triumph for Sydney trainer Bob Thomsen and Victorian jockey Dan Nikolic.

It was Nikolic’s fifth G1 win for the season and rated second only to his Caulfield Cup triumph of Mummify last spring. He won the Stradbroke two years ago on Queenslander Show A Heart.

Thorn Park will now be retired to Windsor Park Stud in New Zealand after achieving that elusive G1 success on his final day of racing.

“I had a good run on the inside and he was closer than usual coming to the turn,” Nikolic said. “At the top of the straight I was confident of winning but he went so quickly to hit the front I knew his run would end before the line.”

Thorm Park, the $5.50 equal favourite, was able to hold out Consular ($51) to win by a long head with St Basil ($21) a length and a quarter away third after missing the start by five lengths.

After Nikolic weighed in he was greeted and hugged by former champion jockey, Darby McCarthy, who holds the Stradbroke riding record with three wins.

“I told Bobby (Thomsen) you’d win but don’t do it again because you’ll be level with me,” said McCarthy, who was at the track to autograph copies of his just-released book.

Thomsen left no one at Eagle Farm in any doubt of his admiration for Thorn Park. “All those critics who want to knock the horse are safe behind their desks but I know what he is capable of. He’s raced the best horses in the best races all his life and it’s a fitting result that he won.”

Thomsen, who won the Stradbroke in 1982 with Grey Receiver, also praised the endurance of Thorn Park. “I had him peaking for the Futurity in February and it says a lot for the horse that he was at his top again for the Stradbroke.”

Bill Baker, an Eagle Farm-based trainer for 30 years, went within a long head of bringing off one of the biggest upset in Stradbroke history with Consular.

Consular was bought for $20,000 by long-time Baker stable client, Bill Mumford, along with Tim Taylor, Lex Pritchard, ‘Scrubber’ Pershouse and Walter Lee. He has won close to $300,000 in stakes for them.

“We were on the lookout for a horse for the northern Cups,” Mr Mumford revealed after Consular won the Gold Coast Goldmarket last August.

“Consular was the one we were keen on but didn’t think we could but. We phoned up on the off chance and they sold him.”

Baker, who has had some good horses over the years, rates Consular (formerly trained at Ballarat by Peter Morgan) as the best horse he has trained in a long time.

Although he has been in Brisbane for more than 30 years, Baker hails from Rockhampton where his father, Artie, was a top jockey, then trainer.

“I took on training after we moved to Brisbane and had up to 20 horses in work at one stage,” he said.

St Basil continued to prove one of the most frustrating horses ever to be prepared by top mentor Bevan Laming.

Before his unlucky Stradbroke effort the grey had finished seconds in the Doomben Carnival Cup and Gold Coast Hollindale Cup.

Jockey Scott Seamer summed up the Stradbroke hard luck story. “When the barriers opened he just put his head in the air and missed four lengths. He got beaten two lengths so you’d have to think he would have been hard to beat.”

QUEENSLAND Racing carnival news: John Lingard - June 13

A fairytale farewell, Thorn Park (Dan Nikolic) holds on to beat Consular (Steven King) in the AAMI Stradbroke.

(Photos by Noel Pascoe)