Stradbroke Handicap a Possibility for Rising Star Sweynesday (NZ)

The connections of $80,000 Ready to Run Sale purchase Sweynesday (NZ) (Sweynesse) are dreaming of the A$3m Group One Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) in Brisbane in June after victory in Saturday’s $250,000 Group Three Haunui Farm King’s Plate (1200m) at Ellerslie.

Sweynesday has now had 10 starts for six wins, four placings and $398,800 in stakes – almost five times his purchase price from Pertab Racing's 2022 Ready to Run draft. In his previous start before Saturday’s win, he had finished third in the Group One Sistema Railway (1200m) in January.

The Roger James and Robert Wellwood-trained Sweynesday pushed forward from his wide gate on Saturday and took up a position on the outside of the front-running Alabama Lass (Alabama Express). Those two went to war down the straight until Alabama Lass shied and crashed through the running rail around 100 metres from the finish. Fortunately both Alabama Lass and her jockey Sam Collett escaped injury.

Sweynesday easily had the rest of the field covered, and he and jockey Masa Hashizume swept to victory by three-quarters of a length over the Australian-trained Cote Atlantique (Kodiac).

“It’s not the way you want to win a race,” James said. “I was standing next to one of the owners of Alabama Lass, who I know very well, while I used to show jump many years ago with Ken and Bev Kelso. I feel for them, but we will take the win.

“He is a very good horse and wasn’t that well weighted today, he was giving weight to Alabama Lass, and he also started from the outside barrier.

“He is a very good horse and we do have a race called the Stradbroke in the back of our minds, which may now become a reality that he has a few more dollars in the bank.”