Gold Coast Turf Club crowns its champions at annual awards

The Gold Coast Turf Club has crowned its champions from the 2018-19 racing season, including their horse of the year and premiership winners.

GOLD COAST TURF CLUB AWARD WINNERS

Gold Coast Horse of Year

Criteria: Monthly winners selected by Judges based on number of wins and memorable performance (maiden races excluded). Most memorable performance selected from 12 monthly winners.

Winner: Tyzone. The Toby Edmonds-trained gelding won the monthly award for January by winning an open metropolitan class race in strong fashion. He went on to win Goldmarket and BRC Sprint and finished second in the Stradbroke. Unlucky not to be feature horse of year.

Jockey Blake Shinn rides Tyzone to victory in race 7, the Bernborough Ascot BRC Sprint, during the Doomben Cup race day at Doomben in Brisbane, Saturday, May 18, 2019. (AAP Image/Albert Perez)

Gold Coast Premiership Horse of Year

Criteria: Points awarded down to third place. Seven points for a win, four for second and 1 for third.

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Winner: Smart As Attack. The Les Kelly-trained gelding finished in a tie on 30 points with Scott Morrisey’s Wack’Em but won on a countback. Smart As Attack had three wins to go with two seconds and one third while Wack’Em failed to secure one victory.

Jockey Luke Dittman won four races at the Gold Coast Turf Club on Saturday, October 20, 2018. Pictured on the Les Kelly-trained Smart As Attack. Picture credit: Greg Irvine (Magic Millions).

Gold Coast Feature Horse of Year

Criteria: Selected from winners of feature races at the Gold Coast. Takes into account factors such as dominant performance, depth of race, track records and more.

Winner: Winning Ways. The Garry Newham-trained mare won the Gold Coast Bracelet, beating horses like Word for Word and Etana, who went on to win the Group 2 Roses and Baccarat Baby, who won the Group 3 Sunshine Coast Guineas, and Fred Best, who went on to win the Group 1 Queensland Oaks.

Winning Ways wins the Queensland Oaks at Doomben. Picture: Trackside Photography

Trainers premiership

Winner: Les Kelly. A second straight consecutive premiership for Kelly who has thrived since his return to training.

Kelly had 17 months off but was convinced to get back into training by horse owner Les Cowell in 2016.

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Kelly trained 38 winners to claim the title in the 2017-18 season and 28 winners was enough to get the job done again.

Premiership pair, Trainer Les Kelly, and jockey Ryan Plumb with Desmon's Pride at the Gold Coast Turf Club. Picture: Jerad Williams

Jockeys premiership

Winner: Dan Griffin. A stunning ninth premiership for the King of the Coast. This is the second time Griffin has resumed from a long injury lay off to win another premiership and he gave the other jockeys a three-month head start after returning from a broken neck last year.

Dan Griffin has won the 2018-19 Gold Coast jockeys premiership. He is pictured at Aquis Park. Photo by Richard Gosling

Apprentice premiership

Winner: Jag Guthmann-Chester. It’s the second time Guthmann-Chester has won the title and came despite the talented hoop spending the majority of the season focusing on riding at Brisbane. His first Gold Coast apprentice premiership came in the 2017-18 season while Jackson Murphy won last year’s title.

Jockey Jag Guthmann-Chester smiles after riding Manaya to victory in race 4, the Open Handicap, during the Astro Jump Teddy Bears' Picnic race day at Eagle Farm Racecourse in Brisbane, Saturday, July 27, 2019. (AAP Image/Albert Perez)