THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - SUNNY COAST READY TO HOST TWO CARNIVAL RACE-DAYS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, April 17, 2016

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

The Queensland Winter Racing Carnival officially kicked off with the Weetwood / Toowoomba Cup meeting held at the top of the range yesterday.

As usual with the carnival, each sector of racing in South East Queensland will have its moment in the sun.

Brisbane, as the metropolitan centre, naturally has the cream of the crop in terms of prestige races with seven Group 1 races to be decided over five Saturdays ... but the Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, the Gold Coast and Ipswich have all been allocated major race-days which invites them to bring their own flavour and character to proceedings thus adding to overall attraction of the carnival.

Outside of Brisbane, who thankfully is scheduled to both Eagle Farm and Doomben available for this year’s carnival, the Sunshine Coast is the only venue to be allocated more than one carnival race-day with the Corbould Park track playing host to meetings on April 23 and July 2.

This is a real feather in the cap for the Sunshine Coast Turf Club.

The July 2 meeting, which hosts the Caloundra Cup, the Glasshouse and the Sunshine Coast Guineas, reverts to its original slot this year after being held earlier in the schedule in 2015.

Remember who won the Guineas last year?

That was no lesser equine identity than a horse called Winx whose acceleration in the home straight carried her from last to first in as breathtaking a display as any that has been seen at the track.

Still, little did punters know then that they had effectively seen the arrival of a superstar. Winx has run a further eight times since then and the mare has remained unbeaten during that time with that nine race winning sequence including successes in the Cox Plate, the Queensland Oaks, the Epsom,, the Chipping Norton, the George Ryder and the Doncaster ... all major Group 1 races.

Winx’s trainer Chris Waller, the country’s leading trainer, targeted this carnival more last year than he had in previous years, was also successful in last year’s Caloundra Cup which he won with Index Linked with local hero Damian Browne on board.

Waller and Browne are again likely to amongst those setting the bar pretty high this year.

As far as which horses will be doing the same is concerned, well it is too early to even line up the contenders.

Winx, in terms of the absolute quality of her performance at Caloundra last year and where she has taken her career since then is obviously a hard act to follow ... perhaps too hard to have any real expectations of a repeat scenario ... but what is not in doubt is that the 2016 edition of the Sunshine Coast’s participation in the carnival will add up to a significant contribution to in its own right for promoting the sport in Queensland.

What is also not in question is the way the local community supports the Sunshine Coast Turf Club, not just on feature race-days, but all year around. Having said that, the two big, upcoming race-days at Corbould Park will take things to another level.

Don’t forget those dates now ... April 23 and July 2.