Clearly Innocent faces tough task to win Stradbroke Handicap

KRIS Lees shrugged off a wide draw for Stradbroke favourite Clearly Innocent, who also needs to set a modern weight-carrying record after weights were raised for the Group 1 sprint.

KRIS Lees shrugged off a wide draw for Stradbroke favourite Clearly Innocent, who also needs to set a modern weight carrying record after weights were raised at acceptance time yesterday.

Bookmakers took exception to Clearly Innocent coming up with barrier 20, after Joyce Gollogly, a close friend of the Lees family, plucked it out at the official draw. He was eased from $4 to $4.80 after punters were taking as short as $3.40 within the last week.

BIG MOVER: MACKINTOSH FIRMS FOR STRADBROKE

“For him I would rather draw out there than in barrier one. He was always going to get back in the race and we will just have to get some cover,” Lees said.

The Stradbroke is one race where wide barriers have fared just as well as inside draws. There have been 14 winners from double-digit draws in the past 27 years, although that has been at Eagle Farm.

Stradbroke favourite Clearly Innocent had no luck at the barrier draw on Wednesday.

The lone year it was run at Doomben, winner Srikandi jumped from the inside gate. Runner-up Boban jumped from six, while third-placed Generalife was out of barrier 15 — the same one Clearly Innocent will jump from.

Punters may have taken that on board on Wednesday, as UBET’s Gerard Daffy reported a $4.80-$4.40 move as betting settled post draw.

But perhaps of more significance than the draw is the record of top weights in the famous sprint.

Clearly Innocent was originally handicapped with 55.5kg, but under the rules the minimum top weight has to cart 57kg, meaning weights for all runners went up 1.5kg on Wednesday.

It puts the Kingsford Smith Cup winner into a zone that few Stradbroke contenders have been able to overcome.

Queensland sprint star Buffering twice had to settle for second after carrying 58kg.

Buffering finished runner-up twice in the Stradbroke with 58kg. Picture: Jay Town

In 2010 Whobegotyou was considered clearly the best horse in the field, but failed to stretch out under his 57kg and laboured into 11th.

Black Heart Bart, now a five-time Group 1 winner, just failed to resist the challenge of Under The Louvre at Eagle Farm 12 months ago.

You have to go right back to carnival idol Rough Habit to find a horse capable of achieving the feat after he was gifted a genius ride by Jimmy Cassidy.

The beaten favourite that year was the grey marvel Schillaci, who returned three years later to finish the bravest of seconds behind Rouslan (51.5kg) under 58kg.

No	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight
1	CLEARLY INNOCENT	Kris Lees	Hugh Bowman	20	57kg
2	JUNGLE EDGE	Mick Bell	Kevin Forrester	7	55.5kg
3	BURNING FRONT	Darren Weir	Ben Allen (a)	12	54.5kg
4	COUNTERATTACK	Chris Waller	Opie Bosson	25	54.5kg
5	GOOD PROJECT	Chris Waller	Tommy Berry	9	54.5kg
6	HOOKED	Robert Smerdon	Noel Callow	16	54kg
7	IN HER TIME	Benjamin Smith	Dean Yendall	17	53.5kg
8	MACKINTOSH (NZ)	Chris Waller	Kerrin McEvoy	15	53.5kg
9	HOPFGARTEN	Robert Heathcote	Ronnie Stewart	5	53.5kg
10	ULMANN	Darren Weir	Luke Nolan	8	53.5kg
11	RAGEESE	Darren Weir	Damian Lane	19	53.5kg
12	KAEPERNICK	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes		15	53.5kg
13	EGYPTIAN SYMBOL	Bjorn Baker	Glyn Schofield	10	53.5kg
14	GOLD SYMPHONY	Peter & Paul Snowden	Jim Byrne	11	53.5kg
15	DERRYN	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Craig Williams	21	53kg
16	IMPENDING	Darren Beadman	Corey Brown	18	52.5kg
17	THE VIRGINIAN (e)	Toby Edmonds		14	53.5kg
18	BONNY O’REILLY (NZ) (e)	Bjorn Baker		6	53.5kg
19	YESTERDAY’S SONGS (e)	Michael Moroney	Patrick Maloney	4	53.5kg
20	TOO GOOD TO REFUSE (e)	Desleigh Forster	Robbie Fradd	13	53.5kg
21	OAK DOOR	Robert Smerdon		3	52kg

Originally published as Clearly Innocent faces tough task to win Stradbroke Handicap