Phillip Stokes and Neodium win back-to-back Birdsville Cups
Group 1-winning trainer Phillip Stokes went back-to-back in the iconic Birdsville Cup, but this victory was even sweeter than last year.
SA News
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It is a South Australian love story that a tiny outback town had adopted as its own.
In a cloud of red dust, Neodium has gone back-to-back in winning the Birdsville Cup – a feat achieved only four times in the race’s 142-year history – with travel companion Trumpsta in second place.
Owner and Birdsville Race Club president David Brook said he and wife Nell were “nervous” before Saturday’s race but excitement soon took over.
“We were happy to see him get to the lead – he loves leading and loves having a rail to run against,” Mr Brook said.
“Once he got into the straight, you could see that winning pace – and nothing was going to stop him.
“For the family, it’s good; for the town, it’s good, too.
“The people have adopted him from his win last year.”
When Neodium stormed to the finish line in 2023, he brought home the Cup for the Brook family for the first time in 23 years. Their last horse to accomplish it was produced at the same Adelaide Hills property, Listore Park, by the late George Dawson – the most successful Birdsville Cup-winning trainer of all time.
Neodium makes it back-to-back Birdsville Cup wins! 🆠pic.twitter.com/61vS6jHBor
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) September 7, 2024
It was also under Dawson that Neodium’s jockey, Justin Potter, last wore the Brook colours 18 years ago.
Vice-president Gary Brook was “a blubbering mess” in the aftermath of the win, saying “maybe a little bit of that George magic rubbed off today”.
“Words can’t describe it. To win any race is amazing, to win a Birdsville Cup is brilliant and to go back-to-back is just the icing on the cake,” he said.
“Neodium is a horse that we bred. We own the mum, we own the dad – we have the whole family.
“Over the moon” trainer Tommy Stokes, from Phillip Stokes Racing’s Morphettville stables, said Neodium and Trumpsta’s inseparable bond made them unstoppable.
“To get the quinella in the end was just special. We’re rapt, and it’ll be a good night tonight,” said Stokes, whose grandfather, Ron Stokes, owns Trumpsta.
“Neodium really struggles without Trumpsta so to have him come second on the day as well just means that extra bit.”
About 6400 punters travelled to the remote Queensland town for the two-day race meeting known as “the Melbourne Cup of the Outback”.
It was hard to miss Roxby Downs’ resident Tyson Qualmann, who was celebrating is 50th birthday, with his 25 friends andfamily in matching pineapple shirts.
Early on Saturday, Mr Qualmann was most excited about his brother-in-law, Vaughn Brooks, eating seven dippy dogs on day one – but by the time the final race was over, he was celebrating a $18,000 win on the Calcutta race raffle.
“The last one was as good as the first one – they’re a high- quality dog,” Mr Brooks, of Echunga, said.
Port Lincoln’s Michael Bertran swapped the kitchen for the catwalk in the Fashions in the Field finals, giving the crowd aspin as they shouted “Take it all off”.
On his 26th trip along the Birdsville Track, Mr Bertran claimed the men’s best-dressed title in a three-piece suit, with hiscolour choice motivated by “something that might cover a bit of dust”.
“It’s probably a bit hot for today’s weather but that’s part of getting dressed up,” he said.
“I look after all the sponsors, jockeys, volunteers – I cater for them. I’m the chef that works at the (Brook) house.
“I do about 1300 meals for the week in a home kitchen, so it’s been full on but I love it.”
Back on the track, jockey Alan Lai, from Andrew Gluyas’s Morphettville stables, said he had never seen the outback or been camping before the weekend.
The 24-year-old “didn’t like to go to school”, so when he saw a Hong Kong Jockey Club Facebook ad looking for apprentices, he jumped at the chance.
Now, he’s been training in SA for almost two years.
“I didn’t expect it to be so hot. Look at me, I’m sweating,” he said.
“The dust is terrible and the flies are annoying.”
As the racing came to an end, punters filled up the pub, campsites, and Fred Brophy’s famous boxing tent, which would be illegal almost anywhere else in the country.
Every night, Brophy’s travelling troupe draws punters out of the crowd to go up against his professional fighters – a practice banned in SA in the 1970s.
Brophy calls out for nominations, and Shannon Kunst, a cattle farmer from Williamstown, in the Barossa Valley, was among those who scrambled up the ladder to test his skills.
Pre-bout, a “slightly nervous” Kunst said she had just turned 50 and was ready to tick it off her bucket list.
Three bouts later, Brophy declared his star, “the Burnett Heads Jawbreaker”, as the winner. She raised a battered Kunst’sarm, saying: “She actually did really well, she was really strong.”
Sporting a shiner and with a beer in hand across the road at the pub afterwards, Kunst was grinning ear-to-ear.
“You only live once so give everything a crack,” she said.
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