Santa Ana Lane scored his third Group 1 win and successive Group 1 wins with a stunning victory in the 2018 Group 1 $1.5m Stradbroke Handicap (1350m) at Doomben today.

The Anthony Freedman trained Santa Ana Lane was coming off a last start win in the Group 1 $1m Darley Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville three weeks ago and the stable is now hoping to gain a slot in the 2018 $13 The Everest (1200m) at Randwick in the Spring.

“We will be picking up the phone if somebody rings,” stable representative Sam Freedman said.

Sam Freedman said that it was always the plan to bring Santa Ana Lane to Brisbane for the Queensland Winter Racing Carnival after his near last to first win in the Goodwood.

“He has always shown that sort of ability,” Sam Freedman said.

“He is showing consistent form which he never really had in the past.”

“We left a little bit in the tank after the Goodwood with the intentions to come up here.”

“He is a well-travelled horse and he settled in very quickly and had a couple of strong gallops and we couldn’t be happier.”

Santa Ana Lane became the first horse in history to win the Goodwood – Stradbroke Handicap double in the same year with jockey Ben Melhan in the saddle on both occasions.

Melham was able to give Santa Ana Lane ($14) a sweet run just off the pace from an inside barrier and settled the five year old on the heels of the Stradbroke Handicap favourite Champagne Cuddles ($5 favourite).

Melham elected to stay towards the inside on the rain affected track and Santa Ana Lane ($14) relished the soft going to scoot away to record a one and three quarters lengths win over the unlucky Super Cash ($31) who was caught wide for the majority of the trip.

Bjorn Baker’s three year old filly Champagne Cuddles didn’t have to do any work from the inside gate but found the first two placegetter too good on the day and finished in third spot.

2018 Stradbroke Handicap Results

	Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight		Starting Price
	1	2	SANTA ANA LANE	Anthony Freedman	Ben Melham	–	3	55.5kg		$14
	2	13	SUPER CASH	Andrew Noblet	Jamie Kah	1.75L	10	51.5kg		$31
	3	16	CHAMPAGNE CUDDLES	Bjorn Baker	Corey Brown	1.95L	1	50kg (cd 51kg)		$5F
	4	3	CRACK ME UP (NZ)	Liam Birchley	Jim Byrne	2.15L	4	53.5kg		$21
	5	15	PERAST	Paul Perry	Jeff Lloyd	2.25L	9	50kg		$6.50
	6	10	SHILLELAGH (NZ)	Chris Waller	Michael Dee	3.25L	8	52.5kg		$16
	7	1	IMPENDING	James Cummings	Damian Browne	3.45L	7	57.5kg		$6.50
	8	6	SPIETH (NZ)	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Craig Williams	3.65L	16	53.5kg		$19
	9	14	INVINCIBLE GEM	Kris Lees	Brenton Avdulla	3.95L	13	51.5kg (cd 52kg)		$15
	10	4	ENDLESS DRAMA (IRE)	Chris Waller	Glyn Schofield	4.05L	15	53.5kg		$26
	11	8	MOST IMPORTANT	Tony Gollan	Mark Du Plessis	5.05L	2	53kg		$61
	12	7	FOXPLAY	Chris Waller	Kerrin McEvoy	6.8L	14	53kg		$21
	13	9	THE MONSTAR	Brett Cavanough	Skye Bogenhuber	7.55L	6	52.5kg		$21
	14	11	CARE TO THINK	Matthew Dunn	Tim Clark	7.95L	12	52.5kg		$12
	15	5	VOODOO LAD	Darren Weir	Chris Parnham	8.15L	5	53.5kg		$18
	16	12	BURNING PASSION	Mark Newnham	Michael Cahill	10.65L	11	52kg		$26