Yellow Brick, Cifrado emerge genuine Stradbroke Handicap contenders

A couple of quality gallopers ran very well at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday, pressing their claims for the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap.

Yellow Brick ran well.

A pair of exciting Queensland horses were beaten but only enhanced their credentials for the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap as they produced huge runs on the Sunshine Coast.

Resuming Tony and Maddysen Sears-trained Yellow Brick was wide for the duration of the Listed ATC Club Trophy (1200m) but showed he was back with a bang when he kept coming and only narrowly went down to surprise winner At Witz End ($15).

Already boasting a rating of 100, Yellow Brick is already on the fringe of snaring a spot in next month’s Stradbroke.

A win in the Group 3 BRC Sprint (1350m) later this month would guarantee it, with the winner of that $300,000 race to snare a golden ticket into the Stradbroke on June 15.

At Witz End wins the Listed Australian Turf Club Trophy at @SCTurfClub for @dannyb3685! pic.twitter.com/tHrD6UjoTh

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 11, 2024

Yellow Brick drifted from $5 to $6.50 on Saturday with punters unconvinced about how he would fare first-up on a heavy track, after last being seen being beaten a long way in last year’s $1m Silver Eagle in Sydney.

But Yellow Brick had even more fans after his narrow defeat and Tony Sears, who fleetingly considered scratching his stable star because of a heavy track, was delighted.

“I thought he ran enormous,” Sears said.

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Tony and Maddy Sears with Yellow Brick. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“He couldn’t have gone any better than what he went. Sitting three-deep the whole race with a big weight on a bottomless track, you would have to be more than happy with him going forward into the carnival.

“Our plan is to get him into the Straddie. If he doesn’t get in, he doesn’t get in. But that’s the goal at the moment. We think he is going better than he was last year.”

Only 40 minutes later, another Toowoomba trained horse ran a huge race with Cifrado only denied in the final stages by Corniche and a red-hot James McDonald in the Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas (1200m).

Corniche through the middle wins the G3 Gold Coast Guineas and that’s 4 for @mcacajamez and a double to @JamesCummings88!@[e-mail]/BCoQ8F5UVZ

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 11, 2024

The three-year-old Group 2 winner, owned by Cairns lotto winner Cliff Little, was ridden far closer to the speed than many expected and only the genius of McDonald on Corniche saw him beaten by half a length.

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Cifrado has some big fish to fry this campaign, with trainer Rex Lipp pinpointing the Stradbroke as a potential goal.

Cifrado would probably need to win the ballot exemption race, the Group 3 Fred Best Classic, to snare a Stradbroke slot.

But Saturday’s big run showed he is right on track.

“I’d love to get him to the Stradbroke,” Lipp said.

“He was ridden a bit differently today but nobody wanted to go forward, so we did.

“He got out into the middle of the track and got lost and had nothing to follow. He has never been in that position in a race in his life before.”

Originally published as Yellow Brick, Cifrado emerge genuine Stradbroke Handicap contenders