The 2023 Queensland carnival in review
With the feature race action wrapped up for the season in the Sunshine State, we look at the most successful horses, sires, jockeys, trainers and vendors from the 2023 Queensland winter carnival.
Bought locally, trained locally. That would be the very simple message from an analysis of the 60 stakes races run since April 15 as part of the Queensland Winter Carnival, which wrapped up at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday.
The ‘trained locally’ part has a bit of a caveat attached. The statistics compiled by By The Numbers resulted in 33 of the 60 winners of black type races run in that time having been trained from a base in Queensland. However, that list includes Chris Waller, who was by far the most successful trainer at the carnival, with eight black type victories.
New Zealand-born Waller primarily conducts his business out of his Rosehill stables in Sydney, but his Gold Coast training base has been used to engineer his dominance of this carnival over the past few years. Waller, with his eight stakes wins at this Queensland carnival, took his tally of black type wins in the state to 70 since 2015.
This year’s haul matches what he achieved in 2022 and 2021 and comprised seven different horses, with Kovalica (Ocean Park), Waller’s Queensland Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) and Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner, the only horse to claim multiple stakes races.
Interestingly, at a carnival where Australian-bred horses won 68 per cent of the stakes races, only one of Waller’s seven stakes winners, Rediener (Redoute’s Choice), was bred locally. None of his seven were purchased as yearlings in Australia.
Second on the leading trainers list were Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott with five stakes successes from five different horses. All those wins were either at Listed or Group 3 level and it represents their best Queensland winter since the partnership was formed in 2016.
Robert Heathcote and Tony Gollan shared the honours as the top trainers who are exclusively based in Queensland with four successes each. Heathcote prepares the most successful stakes-winning horse of the carnival, Prince Of Boom (Spirit Of Boom), who won the Ascot Handicap (Listed, 1000m), WJ Healy Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) and Morton Cup (Gr 2, 1200m), as well as Rothfire (Rothesay), the winner of the Victory Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) in April.
Gollan had dual stakes success from Comrade Rosa (Capitalist) and wins from emerging stars King Kapa (Capitalist) and Antino (Redwood).
Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, on track to claim their first Australian trainers’ premiership, also had four stakes wins, among them the JJ Atkins Plate (Gr 1, 1600m) hero King Colorado (Kingman).
All in all, there were 30 trainers to taste black type success during the Queensland carnival, 15 of them being based in the Sunshine State.
Leading stakes-winning trainers at the 2023 Queensland Winter Carnival
| Trainer | Stakes wins | Stakes winners |
| Chris Waller | 8 | 7 |
| Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott | 5 | 5 |
| Robert Heathcote | 4 | 2 |
| Tony Gollan | 4 | 3 |
| Ciaron Maher and David Eustace | 4 | 4 |
| Kris Lees | 3 | 2 |
| Annabel Neasham | 3 | 3 |
| James Cummings | 3 | 2 |
| Barry Lockwood | 2 | 2 |
| Anthony and Sam Freedman | 2 | 1 |
| Rex Lipp | 2 | 1 |
| Joseph Pride | 2 | 1 |
In terms of the most successful jockeys at stakes level, that honour was split between James McDonald and Tim Clark. Four of McDonald’s victories, including the Derby win on Kovalica, were for Waller, while he also won races for James Cummings and Annabel Neasham.
Clark benefited from his close alliances with Waterhouse and Bott as well as Kris Lees, for whom he rode two stakes winners apiece, while he also had two feature wins on the Heathcote-trained Prince Of Boom.
A quartet of Queensland-based jockeys all had four stakes wins apiece; James Orman, Damien Thornton, Ben Thompson and Ryan Maloney. Maloney was the only rider of that four to secure a Group 1 victory – on Huetor (Archipenko) in the Doomben Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) – while he combined with Comrade Rosa for two stakes wins.
Leading jockeys by stakes winners at the Queensland Winter carnival
| Jockey | Stakes wins | G1 wins |
| James McDonald | 6 | 1 |
| Tim Clark | 6 | 0 |
| Nash Rawiller | 4 | 0 |
| James Orman | 4 | 0 |
| Damien Thornton | 4 | 0 |
| Ben Thompson | 4 | 0 |
| Ryan Maloney | 4 | 1 |
| Mark Zahra | 3 | 0 |
| Larry Cassidy | 2 | 0 |
| Sam Clipperton | 2 | 2 |
| Josh Parr | 2 | 0 |
| Jason Collett | 2 | 0 |
| Andrew Mallyon | 2 | 0 |
The black type success among the different jockeys was evenly spread, with 28 individual riders having earned a stakes win. The only jockey to win multiple Group 1 races was Sam Clipperton, courtesy of his partnership with the major star to emerge from the carnival, the Joe Pride-trained Think About It (So You Think).
His sire, So You Think (High Chaparral), was one of three leading stallions at the carnival whose progeny won four stakes races. So You Think’s other Queensland stakes winners since April 15 were the Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) victrix Palaisipan and Listed winner Street Gossip.
Darley’s Teofilo (Galileo) enjoyed a successful Queensland winter with four black type wins. They arrived thanks to dual Group winner Without A Fight and two-time Listed winner Character, while Newgate Farm’s Capitalist (Written Tycoon) made a major mark, courtesy of two stakes wins from Comrade Rosa and one apiece from King Kapa and Appin Girl.
I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) had three individual stakes winners in Queensland over the past couple of months, as did Maurice (Screen Hero). That duo is joined on three total stakes wins by Prince Of Boom’s sire Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo).
Speaking to the diversity of that list of stakes winners, the 52 individual Queensland stakes winners through the carnival are by 40 individual sires.
Leading sire by stakes wins at Queensland carnival
| Sire | Stakes wins | Stakes winners |
| So You Think | 4 | 3 |
| Capitalist | 4 | 3 |
| Teofilo | 4 | 2 |
| I Am Invincible | 3 | 3 |
| Maurice | 3 | 3 |
| Spirit Of Boom | 3 | 1 |
| Redoute’s Choice | 2 | 2 |
| Reliable Man | 2 | 2 |
| Zoustar | 2 | 2 |
| Ocean Park | 2 | 1 |
| Encryption | 2 | 1 |