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Stradbroke Handicap News

2025 Queensland Derby Day at Eagle Farm Postponed After Race 5

• Ladbrokes Doomben 10,000 2025 Winner Sunshine In Paris Beats Rothfire
• 2024 Stradbroke Handicap Results: Three-Year-Old Filly Stefi Magnetica Beats Bella Nipotina
• 2024 Stradbroke Handicap Tips & Best Bets
• 2024 Stradbroke Handicap Field, Barriers & Betting Update
• Stradbroke Calls For 2024 The Goodwood Winner Benedetta

The Stradbroke Handicap is the premier Group 1 race held in Queensland as part of the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival. Conducted annually in June, this $3 million open handicap event is traditionally raced over 1400m at Eagle Farm or 1350m when taking place at sister track Doomben Racecourse. The richest race of the carnival, it is run as the highlight event on Stradbroke Handicap Day at Eagle Farm Racecourse.

2025 Stradbroke Handicap Results

• 1st: #7 War Machine ($3.20F)
• 2nd: #5 Yellow Brick
• 3rd: #1 Private Eye

In a deeply poignant and powerful performance, War Machine ($3.20F) delivered a dominant victory in the 2025 Stradbroke Handicap results saluting for the punters at Eagle Farm on Saturday, June 14, when claiming his first Group 1 title.

Sent out as the top elect with jockey Tim Clark aboard, the Team Hayes trained four-year-old gelding settled in eighth position, three-wide with cover, as Front Page and Punch Lane set the pace. As the field rounded the home turn, Clark made his move, swooping five wide and unleashing War Machine’s explosive turn of foot.

The Harry Angel gelding burst to the front 250m from the finish, and despite strong challenges from Yellow Brick, Private Eye, and Desert Lightning, War Machine held on courageously to win by three-quarters of a length.

The victory was particularly meaningful for trainers Ben, Will, and JD Hayes, marking their first Stradbroke triumph and adding Group 1 success to the legacies of the late Mike Moroney, War Machine’s former trainer, and the Wallace family, who bred the horse.

Looking ahead, co-trainer Ben Hayes has indicated that the spring holds a “plethora of Group 1 sprint options” for War Machine, with possibilities including a potential tilt at The Everest and the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield.

For the 2020 Stradbroke Handicap the prize money was reduced to just $350,000 to help cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic before returning to $1.5 million 2021 and then doubled to $3 million ahead of the 2023 edition.

The race shares the day with other quality events including the Group 1 J.J. Atkins (1600m) for two-year-old milers and the Group 2 Brisbane Cup (3200m) for stayers. The latest addition to the Stradbroke Handicap Day card is the recently launched Group 2 $1.2 million The Q22 (2200m) -replacing the PJ O’Shea Stakes – running for the first time in 2021.

The key new lead-up race for runners in the Stradbroke Handicap is the Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup (1300m) – formerly known as the BTC Cup and conducted over 1200m – held a fortnight before at the Eagle Farm or Doomben track. Another good lead-up into both races is the weight-for-age Group 1 Doomben 10,000 (1200m) in mid-May.

Think About It (2023) was the last horse to complete the Stradbroke Handicap – Kingsford Smith Cup double.

Class sprinters that perform well in the Stradbroke Handicap may go on to contest some of the other high status Australian races held during the Sydney and Melbourne Spring Racing Carnivals later in the year.

When betting on the Stradbroke Handicap it is important to look at things like the age of the competitors, as six-year-olds have dominated the race over the past decade with six wins from 2008 – 2023 including most recently Tyzone (2020). Only one two-year-old has claimed victory in the race, Wiggle in 1958, while the last three-year-old Stradbroke Handicap winner was Impending in 2017.

Following a run in the Stradbroke Handicap the mares may opt to back-up a fortnight later in the Group 1 Tattersall’s Tiara (1400m) at the same track and distance with Tofane (2021) the last to do the double. Tofane further franked the Stradbroke Handicap form from 2021 going on to run top three in a host of interstate Group 1 races over the next 12 months including a win in Caulfield’s C.F. Orr Stakes in February of 2022.

The 2022 Stradbroke Handicap form was franked with the winner Alligator Blood going on to enjoy a huge spring that included Group 1 wins in the Underwood Stakes and VRC Champions Mile. He also returned in the autumn of 2023 and won the Group 1 Futurity Stakes first-up in Melbourne.

The 2022 Stradbroke runner-up Private Eye further franked the form with his second that spring in Sydney’s then $15 million The Everest before winning the $3 million Winners Stakes.

In 2023 the Stradbroke Handicap winner Think About It franked the form winning the $20 million The Everest race in Sydney that spring.

In 2024 Stefi Magnetica became the first filly to win the Stradbroke Handicap since La Montagna (2006).

Stefi Magnetica would go on to frank the Stradbroke form the following autumn winning the 2025 Group 1 Doncaster Mile in Sydney. The 2024 Stradbroke form was also franked by the runner-up, Bella Nipotina, who won the Group 1 Tattersall’s Tiara at her next start as well as the spring’s The Everest.

The 2025 Stradbroke Handicap ran on Saturday June 14, 2025 as the jewel of the Brisbane Winter Racing crown and was won in style by the Team Hayes trained favourite War Machine ($3.20F) who could be The Everest bound this spring.  

2025 Stradbroke Handicap Finishing Order

Table Credit: Racing Australia.

2025 Stradbroke Handicap Betting

The top Stradbroke Handicap 2025 betting odds and betting market links to Ladbrokes.com.au on the richest Group 1 race of the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival will be available here at Races.com.au leading up to the race.

Black Piranha ($4) for his first in 2009 followed by Think About It ($3.60 in 2023) and War Machine ($3.20 in 2025) are the last Stradbroke Handicap favourites to salute for the punters.

There was a notable upset in 2024 with the three-year-old filly Stefi Magnetica saluting at Stradbroke Handicap odds of $15.

2025 Stradbroke Handicap Form Guide

Stay tuned for our comprehensive Stradbroke Handicap 2025 Form Guide & Betting Preview with Ladbrokes.com.au also providing a detailed Stradbroke Handicap Form Guide the week of the event.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL 2025 STRADBROKE HANDICAP FORM GUIDE

2025 Stradbroke Handicap Tips

Stay tuned for our insider Stradbroke Handicap 2025 Tips on the $3 million Queensland winter feature this season.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR COMPLETE 2025 STRADBROKE HANDICAP TIPS & BEST BETS

• To Win: TBD

2025 Stradbroke Handicap Field

The Stradbroke Handicap field attracts a quality field of middle-distance sprinters each season from both local Queensland stables as well as interstate raiders. In recent years horses from Sydney and Melbourne have enjoyed plenty of success over the Brisbane sprinters in the Stradbroke Handicap field.

Horses come into the race via runs in lead-up events in Brisbane like the Doomben 10,000 and the new-look Kingsford Smith Cup (formerly the BTC Cup). The Goodwood over 1200m in Adelaide the month before is also a key lead-up into the Stradbroke Handicap field.

The official Stradbroke Handicap 2025 Final Field will be announced by Racing Queensland the Tuesday before race day and published in full below.

2025 Stradbroke Handicap First Acceptances

The Stradbroke Handicap 2025 first acceptances further narrow down the list of potential runners in the winter carnival feature race and close on Wednesday the 4th of June 2025.

2025 Stradbroke Handicap Nominations

Early Stradbroke Handicap 2025 nominations close on a Tuesday in early May and will be available below.

The 2025 Stradbroke Handicap nominations close on Tuesday the 6th of May 2025.

The Stradbroke Handicap 2025 nominations attracted 127 of the season’s best middle-distance sprinters led in all-in betting by Chris Waller’s Newmarket Handicap winning mare Joliestar.

Stradbroke Handicap History

First run in 1890, the Stradbroke Handicap is one of the oldest Queensland races. Pyrrhus won the inaugural event when it was a principal race run over six furlongs. During the war the race was not held from 1942 to 1945. In 1953 the race distance was increased to seven furlongs and was later converted to 1400m in 1973. In 1980 the event was given Group 1 status. The race is named after Lord Stradbroke one of the originators of the weight-for-age scale in thoroughbred racing.

The Stradbroke Handicap became Queensland’s most lucrative and anticipated race in 1996 when the prize purse was increased to $1 million, and it is now worth $3 million in total prize money.

Notable Stradbroke Handicap winners from the past few decades include Daybreak Lover (1984 & 1986), Rough Habit (1991-92), Dane Ripper (1997), Black Piranha (2009-10), and Under The Louvre (2016).

For the 2017 and 2018 editions, the Stradbroke Handicap was run at Doomben over a shorter distance of 1350m.

In 2022 co-trainer Gai Waterhouse celebrated her 150th career Group 1 win preparing the Stradbroke Handicap winner Alligator Blood in partnership with Adrian Bott.

In 2023 the Stradbroke Handicap winner Think About It – subsequent The Everest champion in Sydney that spring – became the first favourite since 2009 to win when posting his eighth straight victory and nine from 10 career starts.

Stefi Magnetica was the last three-year-old Stradbroke Handicap winning filly in 2024.

Recent Stradbroke Handicap Winners

This page and the written content within it were partially generated using AI or automated technology and edited and verified by our editorial team.