One of Australia’s Premier Sprints is contested on Saturday when the Doomben 10,000 is run over the ‘new’ distance of 1200m. Usually run over the unusual distance of 1350m, it was often thought of as an ‘in between’ race – not really a Sprint and not really a Middle Distance. History shows that both great Sprinters and great Milers have won the race. The race is seen as the 2nd most important Sprint Race in Queensland after The Stradbroke, and is often used as a lead up to that race.
First run in 1933 as the Doomben Newmarket Handicap, it had a name change in 1947 when re named the Doomben 10,000 which coincided with Prize Money being hoisted to £10,000. It was Australia’s richest Sprint Race at that time. It has had a few changes with Sponsors names etc but basically the name has remained the same. It has been run at 1200m (1934-1941) and then 1400m (1942-1972). Since 1973 it has been run at 1350m until the change this yyear back to 1200m. Prize Money for the 2017 race will be $750,000 and the race will be run at Weight For Age.
Champion jockey George Moore won the race 5 times and Tommy Smith trained the winner on 6 occasions.
Black Onyx was the first dual winner in 1969 and 1970 followed by Prince Trialia in 1990 and 1991, Chief De Beers in 1995 and 1998, Falvelon in 2001 and 2002 and crowd favourite Apache Cat in 2008 and 2009.
There was a smattering of good horses who won the race in the early years up to 1970 and one absolute Champion. Those ‘good horses’ include: Lough Neagh, Ungar, Aquanita and Winfreux…the absolute Champion was the immortal Bernborough in 1946. Since 1971 some terrific gallopers have won this race and lifted it’s profile in the Australian Racing Calendar. Maybe Mahal (1977), Sovereign Red (1981), Campaign King (1988), Bel Esprit (2003) and Hot Danish (2010) are all winners of the Doomben 10,000 who reached the top level in Australian Racing.
The Great Winners:
- Bernborough was an inaugural member of the Australian Hall Of Fame. What a horse and what a story was Bernborough…I will do a full length feature story on him at a later date…his win in the 1946 Doomben 10,000 beggars belief. Although favourite for the race, Bernborough blew in the betting mainly due to his massive weight of 10 stone 5 pounds (67kgs). Slow away like usual, he was in the back few at the 800m. A famous photo taken at the 200m mark shows 12 horses…Bernborough was not one of them! He was however starting to fly home and eventually won easily! He returned the following week in the 2000m Doomben Cup carrying 10 stone 11 pounds (68.5Kgs) and won even more easily…FREAK!
- Baguette was the next great winner in 1971. A superior 2yo, Baguette won all his 7 starts at 2. He would win 6 Gr 1’s in all including the Golden Slipper and Newmarket as well as the Doomben 10,000. He would become a leading Sire.
- Manikato in 1979 blew the field away in the Doomben 10,000. One of the great sprinters of all time, Manikato won 29 races of which a staggering 15 were Gr 1’s. He won Group One Races every year from 2 years to 6 years. He was the 2nd Australian Horse to break the Million Dollar mark.
- Takeover Target was an incredible story! Purchased as a tried horse for just $1250 he would win 21 races and over $6 Million in Prize Money. Trained by Taxi Driver Joe Janiak, he won big races in all 5 major Australian Cities and also won in England, Japan and Singapore. In fact he raced in England for 3 consecutive years at the highest level. He was the World Champion Sprinter and Global Sprint Winner in 2006.
- Apache Cat was a super racehorse first and cult figure second! Recognisable by his huge white face and 4 white socks, Apache Cat was a big strong gelding who won 19 of his 43 starts and over $4 Million. He won 8 Gr 1’s including the; Lightning, Guineas, TJ Smith and 2 running’s of the Doomben 10,000. He last raced in Hong Kong where he fractured a leg but was saved to live a happy retirement at Living Legends.
Until next week…good punting.
Leave a Comment