AD Hollindale Stakes 2024 Tips, Betting Odds, Past Winners & Results

The A D Hollindale Stakes is a Group 2 race with a trip of 1800 metres held at Gold Coast Racecourse in Surfers Paradise, Queensland during the Queensland Winter Racing Carnival. For 2023, the race is on 6 May.

The running conditions are weight-for-age and horses of all genders are eligible to race provided that they are at least three years of age.

 

 

AD Hollindale Stakes Race Details

Date: 11/5/24

Time: TBA

Racecourse: Gold Coast Racecourse

Race Distance: 1800

Conditions: TBA

Prize Money: $500,000

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AD Hollindale Stakes Betting Tips

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When Is The AD Hollindale Stakes: 11/5/24

What Time Is The AD Hollindale Stakes: TBA

Where Is The AD Hollindale Stakes: Gold Coast Racecourse

How To Live Stream The AD Hollindale Stakes

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More Details About The AD Hollindale Stakes

Current prizemoney for the race is $500,000. The top prize of $300,000 has gone to the impressive British import Zaaki in 2022 and 2021.

A replay of the 2022 jump of the A D Hollindale Stakes won by Zaaki can be viewed above. The All-Star mile winner jumped in front and stayed there. He slowed down over the final 200m so that the other horses would not feel bad.

History of the A D Hollindale Stakes

The race’s first jump was in 1989. It was known for the first four years as the Southport Cup. It became the A D Hollindale Stakes in 1993 as an homage to the owner of the Gold Coast Milk Company. Racing punters are not known for their milk-drinking prowess and it is equally possible that Hollindale was honoured for his service as the Chairman of the Gold Coast Turf Club. One of the spectator stands at the course is named for him as well.

There has never been any trip for the race other than 1800 metres. It seems almost foregone that at some point, the race would be trimmed to a mile.

The only change besides the one name has been on the date the race is held. It was traditionally held during the Queensland Winter Racing Carnival, but the race in 2023 will move to early May, which is smack dab in the middle, well, closer toward the end, of the big autumn races in the major racing venues of New South Wales and Victoria.

Late in the year, as was the early tradition of the race, or in May, the race mostly avoids the major races to the south and therefore has been able to attract the better types who want to close a spring or autumn campaign with a race offering lucrative prizemoney.

The race grade was Listed until 1993, when it was lifted to Group 3 before being lifted again to Group 2 in 1997.

Finally, the race was abandoned in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Race Venue for the A D Hollindale Stakes

Gold Course Racecourse in Surfers Paradise has always been the venue for the A D Hollindale Stakes.

The track dates back to the 1890s, but regular racing staged by the Gold Coast Turf Club did not start until 1946.

The track is often overlooked and overshadowed by Eagle Farm and Doomben, but it is the exclusive home of the major restricted races that are the exclusive domain of horses that have come through the Magic Millions auctions.

The course is tight at only 1,885 metres circumference. The 400-metre home straight evens out any advantage a good turner with an ideal barrier might otherwise enjoy. Inside barriers are considered valuable, though, as the short track features almost an entire circuit for the A D Hollindale Stakes. The gallopers start from a short chute on the north side of the track and begin turning almost immediately. The finish line is at the end of the home straight on the west side of the course.

There are no Group 1 races held at Gold Coast. The Group 2 Hollindale and the Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas are the only Group races, but the Magic Millions Carnival makes up with more than $10 million in prizemoney for alums of the Magic Millions Yearling Sales.

Racing History of the A D Hollindale Stakes

A good prizemoney purse and ideal dates on the calendar have meant that some truly great horses have taken part in and won the race.

Weight-for-age running conditions contribute to the quality of the field as well.

Rough Habit won the race in 1991 and 1992. Shogun Lodge was the winner in 2000 and 2001. Leebaz won the race twice in 2015 and 2016. Zaaki was a dual winner in 2021 and 2022.

Many one-time winners left lasting impressions on Australian Thoroughbred racing, with names such as Might And Power (1998), Danewin (1995), Coalesce (2007) and Streama (2014) grace the impressive list of winners of the A D Hollindale Stakes.

The first race in 1989 was won by Eye Of The Sky.

He was a New Zealand stallion, although all his Kiwi ties were on his mum’s side. All ancestors on his sire’s side were northern hemisphere sorts.

Eye Of The Sky made 71 jumps for 17 wins and 15 placings, falling just shy of $1 million in earnings, which meant something more back in the 80s. He won a Group 1 race in Queensland near the end of his career and he would have been aged eight years when he won the Hollindale Stakes. He did not leave a progeny record that we could locate, but it’s hard to imagine he had much left by the time he had made 71 jumps.

Hunter won the race in 1990.

Another Kiwi galloper, Hunter had 5 wins and 11 placings from 40 jumps. The year previous, he won the Group 1 Metropolitan Handicap.

The true notable Rough Habit came along to win the Hollindale Stakes in 1991 and 1992.

Rough Habit made 74 jumps for 29 wins and 23 placings on route to earning nearly $4 million. A brief list of his major Group 1 wins includes the Doomben Cup (three times), Caulfield Stakes, The Sydney Group 1 version of the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the All-Aged Stakes (twice), and the Stradbroke Handicap (twice). He died in 2014 as a member of the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame. He was the New Zealand Thoroughbred Horse of the Year in 1991 and 1995.

For those with the curiosity to ask which was the horse of year in those two seasons when the award went to a galloper outside of Rough Habit, the answer is Veandercross in 1992 and The Phantom in 1993. What about 1994? Racing seasons span parts of two calendar years, so The Phantom held the award for 1993 and 1994.

Were Veandercross and The Phantom better than Rough Habit?

We do not think so, but we often say ourselves and are told more frequently by others, it does not matter what we think.

We do know that Rough Habit beat Naturalism and Mannerism in the 1993 Group 1 All-Aged Stakes, but we did find several instances of Rough Habit being beaten by Veandercross, so we will leave the comparison to others.

Rough Habit ran second in the Hollindale Stakes in 1993 and came within half a length of providing us with a three-time winner of the race.

Our final comment concerning Rough Habit is his connection to champion stud Star Kingdom, his grandsire was Noholme and his sire was the U.S. horse Roughcast that was exported to New Zealand in 1986, making Rough Habit possible.

We next decided to look at 1995 winner Danewin.

He needed 31 jumps in order to win just above $2 million. These figures include 13 wins and 9 placings. We have him at five Group 1 wins in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

He went on to be a prolific server of mares. His best was a 1998 mare out of Wily Trick that turned out to be Elegant Fashion, winner of over $6 million. Theseo, a 2003 foal out of Ozone Sand won over $3.2 million.

The fact that leaps off the page with regard to Danewin’s stud career is that beyond the sheer quantity he supplied, the number of offspring that won money is simply astounding as is the number that won high six-figure prizemoney.

The 1996 Hollindale Stakes winner was Super Slew that receives mention here for having U.S. Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew for his grandsire. Other notable in that line were Bold Reasoning and Bold Ruler, while on the distaff side, there was a link to Biscay. Super Slew was gelded and he must have been rather fructuous for his connections to abandon such a line as his.

We need only skip forward to 1998 to find the redoubtable Might And Power.

He was one of the all-time greats in Australian turf racing history with a Cups Double from the Melbourne and Caulfield Cup Cups wins in 1997 and the Cox Plate in 1998. His sire was Zabeel, but Might And Power was gelded, so same question as that posed for the connections of Super Slew.

He won over $5.2 million from 33 jumps for 15 wins and 8 placings.

The first mare to win the race was 1999’s Melora.

The Hollindale was her highest graded win, but she was second in the Group 1 Queensland Derby by a neck to Dodge in the Derby and third to two other New Zealand gallopers, Zacheline and Midnight Babe in the Group 1 Queensland Oaks.

A 1994 New Zealand filly by Ireland’s Sir Tristam, out of New Zealand’s Te Akau Star, she was a better type, but not great. Her five foals did not distinguish themselves as racers.

The other four mares were Shez Sinsational (2012), Lights Of Heaven (2013), Streama (2014), and Oregon’s Day (2018). We will look at Streama and the others further on, but throw out 1999’s Melora and just as we would soon discover when we looked at the case for the three-year-old winners, the mares won in three consecutive years before waiting for Oregon’s Day in 2018.

Following Might And Power and Melora, it was once again a short leap to encounter the 2000 and 2001 winner of the Hollindale Stakes, a certain Shogun Lodge.

Shogun Lodge earned above $4.6 million from 58 jumps for 13 2ins and 20 placings. Some notables from his line were Danzig, Northern Dancer, Secretariat, Nearctic, Bletchingly and Biscay, and, wait for it, Star Kingdom five generations removed on his dam’s side.

Danewin, Super Slew and Shogun Lodge are three of the four gallopers to win the Hollindale Stakes as three-year-olds. The other was Summer Beau from 1997. An interesting element of this is that the three-year-old winners came in a cluster with Danewin (1995), Super Slew (1996), and Summer Beau (1997) coming in three consecutive years. Shogun Lodge came along three years later, 2001 and 2002.

A gelding, like Shogun Lodge and Might And Power, This Manshood was the winner of the race in 2004. He won nearly $1 million. The Hollindale Stakes was his best win. He won some Group 3, Listed races, and often finished well in some better quality races.

Leaping ahead to 2012, Shez Sinsational was better than many.

She was well placed in the Group 1 races the Queensland Derby and the Queensland Oaks. She made 27 jumps for 12 wins and 9 placings. She did most of her racing in New Zealand, where she won four Group 1 races.

She was served by the notable stallions Savabeel and Snitzel, but it was a filly by Darci Brahma and another by Alamosa that both won something in the vicinity of half a million dollars each.

Lights Of Heaven from 2013 was by Zabeel.

She won above $1.5 million from 25 jumps for eight wins and seven placings. He Group 1 win was the 2011 Australasian Oaks and she had a slew of high finishes in other top races, including thirds in the Caulfield Stakes and the Caulfield Cup.

Paired for breeding with Redoute’s Choice, Zoustar, Snitzel and a couple others, none of her five progeny earned above $100,000, not through lack of ability, but through lack of jumps.

Streama from 2014 was by far the best of the mares to win the A D Hollindale Stakes.

She won above $2.6 million from 34 jumps for 10 wins and 13 placings.

She won four Group 1 races, finished second in three others and third in two Group 1 races.

Her offspring did not amount to much.

The final dual winner of the race was Leebaz in 2015 and 2016.

This gelding by Zabeel out of Polish Princess won just over $1 million. The two Hollindale Stakes wins were his best and his jump in the Group 1 Doomben Cup in 2014 was a loss to Streama.

The U.S. import It’s Somewhat was the A D Hollindale Stakes winner in 2017. This gelding earned about $4 million combined in Australia and Great Britain. He won the Group 2 Ajax Stakes twice and the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap, beating Happy Clapper into second.

It's Somewhat was gelded, so no progeny.

Oregon’s Day was the final mare to win the race to date in 2018. She won just under $1 million, with the Hollindale representing her best win.

Finally, we have Life Less Ordinary from 2019.

Remember, the race was not run in 2020 due to COVID and Zaaki won in 2021 and 2022.

This Irish gelding by a U.S. sire won over $1.2 million from 51 jumps for 9 wins and 18 placings. The Hollindale was his highest graded stakes win.

Conclusion

Gold Course Racecourse does not offer more than a few Group graded races. It is better known for the Magic Millions Carnival.

Group 2 races are something of an odd duck it seems at times. Many, including the A D Hollindale Stakes, have Group 1 money, but fall short for other reasons.

The impressive list of winners is due mainly to having good prizemoney and a nice spot on the calendar for gallopers looking to pad their banks after campaigns in Victoria and New South Wales.

AD Hollindale Stakes Past Winners