TOFANE WINS STRADBROKE HANDICAP

Tofane wins the Stradbroke

Tofane overcame the large Stradbroke field to take out the Group 1 feature by defeating Vega One in a head bobbing finish.

The Moroney runner was $12 in betting and from the off ran more positively taking a position forward near the leader Apache Chase. 

Round the bend it would be recent Group 1 winner Vega One and Tofane who would clear out from the pack and kick clear to fight it out. It looked like Tony Gollan trained Vega One was set to take home another Group 1 title before Tofane powered over the top to win.

It had only been 3 weeks prior where Tofane had been put up for sale only to be retained by the ownership group. Part-owner Rupert Legh revealed that many of the owners wanted to retain the horse with the sole focus of winning a G1.

“The (broodmare) sale was only three weeks ago and we had to make a decision on whether to sell her or not, fortunately I was outvoted by all the other owners and here she is today winning a Group 1,” he said.

“What I always do with the owners – they are all friends of mine, there are no outsiders – so I put it (selling) to them because a lot of them haven’t had Group 1 horses.

“They said it’s not about the money, they just wanted to win another Group 1 together. I said whatever you want to do, I am happy to do it.

“I wanted to do what they wanted to do and I thought it was great they wanted to be in it because some had been in racing for 20 or 30 years and never won a Group 1. They said they wanted to win another one and now she’s just done it so it’s a great outcome.”

Elsewhere Zaaki made it three from three in black type racing by winning the Group 2 Q22 and with it a large chunk of $1.2m in prize money.

More News