{"id":193641,"date":"2025-06-18T05:59:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T05:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/193641\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T05:59:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T05:59:27","slug":"melbourne-cup-champion-no-certainty-for-queensland-horse-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/193641\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Cup champion no certainty for Queensland Horse Of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland produced its first Melbourne Cup winner but there is a chance that not even the history-making feat of Knight’s Choice<\/a> will be enough to clinch Horse of the Year honours in his own state.<\/p>\n

When $91 bolter Knights’s Choice<\/a> stunned the world to become the first Queensland-trained Melbourne Cup winner last November, he would have been hot favourite to become the Queensland Horse of the Year.<\/p>\n

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The credentials of Knight’s Choice may still be impossible to ignore \u2013 it is the Melbourne Cup after all.<\/p>\n

But Antino<\/a> says hello.<\/p>\n

Given the Horse of the Year is for the 2024\/25 racing season, Antino’s astonishing 6\u00bd-length Group 1 Toorak Handicap romp last spring, with an out-of-the-box ride from Blake Shinn, counts towards voting.<\/p>\n

So too do Antino’s two Group 1 placings in the Melbourne spring.<\/p>\n

And recent in our minds is Antino’s devastating Group 1 Doomben Cup romp which was so authoritative that Tony Gollan’s star is now the $6 second pick for the Cox Plate and behind only Via Sistina in betting markets.<\/p>\n

\n

What did we just witness?! ????<\/p>\n

KNIGHT’S CHOICE holds on to win the 2024 Lexus Melbourne Cup!<\/p>\n

???? @wwos<\/a> | #MelbourneCup<\/a> | #MelbCupCarnival<\/a>pic.twitter.com\/Ok2GKUTm0I<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Victoria Racing Club (@FlemingtonVRC) November 5, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2022Melbourne Cup win a Qld fairytale 163 years in the making<\/b><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Antino also conjured an incredible Hollindale Stakes triumph on a bog track which didn’t seem to worry him or Shinn.<\/b><\/p>\n

The other horse to consider in the Queensland Horse of the Year race is the new kid on the block Cool Archie.<\/b><\/p>\n

It is entirely possible young colt Cool Archie<\/a> could win Australian 2YO Horse of the Year, yet finish third in the Queensland Horse of the Year title.<\/b><\/p>\n

Chris Munce was scratching his head to try to think of the last Australian two-year-old to win five races in a row, culminating in a Group 1 triumph.<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

Cool Archie WINS the G1 J.J. Atkins! ????@munceracing<\/a>pic.twitter.com\/X0oBUWkZB0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2022 \u2018He could be anything’: Munce hot on Cool Archie’s future<\/a><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

That’s exactly what his JJ Atkins champion did and he has been unbeaten this campaign on wet and dry tracks and a variety of distances from 1000m to stretching to the 1600m of the JJ.<\/b><\/p>\n

Clearly, he is a freak.<\/b><\/p>\n

Even if you believe the Melbourne Cup winner should win Queensland Horse of the Year, you must at least concede it’s at least a fascinating topic of conversation. <\/b><\/p>\n

The voting is done by a panel of about 25 industry stakeholders and they will have a nice problem on their hands when they sit down to vote in the coming months, with the award to be announced later this year.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Antino is an absolute star! The Queenslander dominates the Doomben Cup for @tonygollan<\/a> ???? @blake_shinn<\/a>pic.twitter.com\/3GtDfiSKFB<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 24, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In some previous years, it has been a barren wasteland for Queensland horses in terms of Group 1 wins.<\/b><\/p>\n

But this season has been an outstanding one for horses from the Sunshine State performing at the elite level.<\/b><\/p>\n

Sometimes, Horse of the Year honours nationally and in various states can be a one-horse race and largely a bit of a snore-fest.<\/b><\/p>\n

But not this year in Queensland.<\/b><\/p>\n