The Sunshine Coast Turf Club has received a healthy twenty-one nominations for the last ‘two miler’ of the current racing season on Saturday, the Listed $150,000 Pool Pro Queensland Cup (3200m).

Pop 'N' Scotch, above in black and orange colours, is among the nominations for the 2017 Queensland Cup at the Sunshine Coast. Photo by Daniel Costello.

Pop ‘N’ Scotch, above in black and orange colours, is among the nominations for the 2017 Queensland Cup at the Sunshine Coast. Photo by Daniel Costello.

The meeting will carry Metropolitan status after it was transferred to the Sunshine Coast after Eagle Farm was shut down for further refurbishment work to be carried out.

My Diamantine and War Baby finished second and third behind Supply And Demand in the Listed $175,000 The Pump House Caloundra Cup (2400m) at the Sunshine Coast on July 1 and are among the nominations for the Queensland Cup.

The Kelvin Hickmott trained War Baby is also an acceptor for the Listed $160,000 McKimms Real Estate Grafton Cup (2350m) at Grafton on Thursday.

War Baby is not far off a feature staying race win and prior to her third in the Caloundra Cup finished third, just ahead of My Diamantine, behind Rudy and More Energy in the Group 3 $200,000 Carlton Mid Tattersall’s Cup (2200m) at Doomben on June 24.

The 2014 Queensland Cup winner Iggy Pop is also among the nominations and proved to be the toughest stayer with a three and half lengths win at its traditional home at Eagle Farm that year.

The Liam Birchley trained Pop ‘N’ Scotch was runner up to Iggy Pop in 2014 and that was the first of his three consecutive Queensland Cup seconds.

Pop ‘N’ Scotch then ran second to Mister Impatience in the 2015 Queensland Cup run at the Sunshine Coast and was also in the runner’s up stall behind the Chris Waller trained Murphy’s Delight last year when it had returned to Eagle Farm.

Waller has two nominations the 2017 Queensland Cup, Richard Of Yorke and Soviet Courage.

Both geldings has been tested over 3200m with Richard Of Yorke finishing second to Plot Twist in the $100,000 Stayers Cup at Randwick on June 10 with Soviet Courage finishing further down the track in fifth place.

Nominations for the 2017 Queensland Cup (3200m)

# Last 10 Horse Sex Age Trainer Hcp Rating
1 53×0806055 ARALDO JUNIOR (GER) G 6 Michael Moroney 86
2 x760x79540 BACK TO ABILENE G 9 Robert Lyford 63
3 1114×96205 EMERALD CITY G 6 David Vandyke 88
4 9515306031 GODWOOD G 6 Andrew Cowell 62
5 1557561202 I FEEL GOOD G 8 John Symons & Sheila Laxon 71
6 63324×0806 IGGI POP (NZ) G 8 Peter Robl 87.5
7 9638254213 KHADIJA M 6 Olivia Cairns 57
8 x643393675 KOBI CREEK G 6 Stuart Kendrick 59
9 x898228443 MAGENTAZ G 4 Gerald Ryan 57
10 6179×90154 MCGILL (NZ) G 5 Maryann Brosnan 55
11 52×9525540 MONT DE LOIR M 6 Lindsay Gough 56
12 22×0250942 MY DIAMANTINE (NZ) M 6 Brian Smith 85
13 0582×64567 NEVERLAND M 5 Darren Weir 94
14 2872234944 PARAGON G 5 John Sargent 75
15 x7458380x8 POP ’N’ SCOTCH G 6 Liam Birchley 76.5
16 x781306635 QABLA G 7 Eric Singh 59
17 6023441716 QUARTERMASTER G 6 Paul Perry 73
18 4321216628 RICHARD OF YORKE (GB) G 5 Chris Waller 80
19 04120×9555 SHEZ EKTRAORDINARY (NZ) M 5 Richard Laming 58
20 1583×50354 SOVIET COURAGE (IRE) G 6 Chris Waller 87
21 2034183133 WAR BABY M 5 Kelvin Hickmott 80

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.