Kingsford-Smith Cup

Race Overview

The Group 1 Kingsford-Smith Cup is a Weight-For-Age race run over 1300m at Eagle Farm in Brisbane.

With prizemoney of $700,000, the race is one of the biggest races during the Queensland Winter Racing Carnival.

The winner of the inaugural race in 1964 was Rashlore and the name of the race was the J.T. Delaney Quality Handicap.

Delaney was a former long-time committeeman of the Brisbane Turf Club.

The race name has changed several times over the years to various sponsors names before being renamed the Kingsford-Smith Cup after famous Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith.

Beginning as a Principal Race from 1964-1979, it became a Listed Race in 1980, a Group 3 race in 1983, a Group 2 race in 1987 before finally becoming a Group 1 race in 2006.

The race started out over a distance of 1400m and while the distance has changed several times over the years, it has been run over 1300m since 2019.

It was held at Doomben prior to 2013 before moving to Eagle Farm.

The most successful trainer has been Anthony Cummings who has 2 winners from 2009 and 2013 and is still the only trainer to have won the race more than once since 2006.

Damian Browne (2010, 2018) and Luke Nolen (2009, 2012) are the most successful jockeys since the race become a Group 1 with two wins apiece.

Nolen piloted the legendary Black Caviar to victory in 2011.

Along with Black Caviar, some of Australia’s greatest sprinters have saluted in the race over the race’s history including star sprinter Apache Cat (2008).

Other notable winners include Strawberry Road (1983), Buck’s Pride (1993, 1994), Falvelon (2000, 2003) and Sea Siren (2012).

The Tony Gollan-trained Vega One with golden girl Jamie Kah in the saddle won the race in 2021 while the Desleigh Forster-trained Apache Chase won the race in 2022.

Form Indicators

*Favourites backers have fared poorly in recent years with only 10 favourites saluting since 1983.

*Only one favourite Impending (2018) has won in the last 10 years.

*The Snowden-trained Hot Snitzel (2015) remains the longest-priced winner after saluting at the juicy odds of $26.

*Backing a last start winner is imperative with 5 of the 14 winners since 2006 coming off a win in their previous race.

*The Doomben 10,000 has proved to be the most successful lead-up race in recent years with the last three winners including Impending (2018), The Bostonian (2019) and Vega One (2021) coming out of that race.

*The 1400m All Aged Stakes has produced just 2 winners since 2006.

*The most successful barrier has been barrier 5 which has delivered 5 winners since 1983.

*During the same period, the least successful barriers have been barriers 3, 11 and 12 which have delivered just 1 winner each.

*Since 2006, the most successful age group as been 5YO geldings who have won 8 of 15 races including 2021 winner Vega One.

*Don’t back a filly with fillies having a poor record in the race. Sea Siren (2012) is the only filly to have saluted in the last 32 years.

*Mares have fared only slightly better than fillies with 2 mares saluting since 2006 including Black Caviar (2011) and Gee I Jane (2006).

Previous Winners:

2022 – Apache Chase

2021 – Vega One

2020 – race not held

2019 – The Bostonian

2018 – Impending

2017 – Clearly Innocent

2016 – Malaguerra

2015 – Hot Snitzel

2014 – Famous Seamous

2013 – Your Song

2012 – Sea Siren

2011 – Black Caviar 

2010 – Albert The Fat

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