Stuart Kendrick confident his stable can go to the next level

Sunshine Coast and Queensland provincial trainer Stuart Kendrick is confident his stable can dominate a major meet as he names his top Queensland Winter Carnival chances.

Leading Sunshine Coast and Queensland provincial trainer Stuart Kendrick is confident his stable can turn the tide and go to the next level as he names his two leading chances ahead of the Queensland Winter Carnival.

Kicking off on April 30 and lasting 10 weeks, the Winter Carnival will host eight Group 1 features and dish out more than $21m in prize money across Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich and Sunshine Coast race tracks.

With the Caloundra Cup race day on July 2 receiving a further boost in funding, more than $1m will be on offer across the entire card.

Kendrick said he hoped his three-year-old horses Bulloo and Menazzi could continue to impress.

“It’s always a great time of year and it’s hard to win races of course but we have some nice horses and hoping we can compete,” he said.

“Menazzi ran third in the Daybreak Lover at Eagle Farm last Saturday and he will go towards the Queensland Guineas.

“Bulloo who won the Toowoomba Guineas will go towards a couple of nice races and possibly the Winx Guineas so we’ve got some nice young ones coming through and hopefully they can make the step up.”

Bulloo storms to victory in the Toowoomba Guineas under jockey Andrew Mallyon. Picture: Grant Peters, Trackside Photography

Kendrick, who currently leads the provincial standings by six wins, has endured a tough run of late with just two winners but a whopping 20 placings coming from his past 42 runners.

He said results had been a mix of emotions for his younger stable.

“They’re not far off and obviously at this time of year it starts to get even harder and more difficult so you’ve got to place your horses where they can win,” he said.

“I think it’s also a reflection of how strong the racing is at the moment because there are $400,000 – $500,000 yearlings racing around on Sundays and even on Friday nights at the Coast.

“It becomes difficult to beat those horses consistently but you've just got to keep your horses in the best condition you can and with a bit of luck hopefully you can knock them off.”

After recording his fifth Sunshine Coast trainers’ premiership in a row last season, Kendrick was hoping his stable of predominantly two and three-year-olds could start to rise through the grades.

“They’ve been really consistent and we’ve got some young ones coming through that hopefully step up and get to that metropolitan level to boost up that side of things,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of provincial horses at the moment, that are good consistent horses and earning plenty of cheques but we want to try and get to that next level.”