Zac booked for mission to score consecutive Stradbroke Handicaps

Daily Telegraph

08-06-2025

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Young Sydney riding gun Zac Lloyd has a golden opportunity to become the first jockey since the great Jimmy Cassidy more than three decades ago to win back-to-back Stradbroke Handicaps.
But Lloyd, who scored his first Group 1 when pinching last year's Stradbroke on Stefi Magnetica, must help haul three-year-old colt Bosustow back to the imposing form which saw him be a six-length winner two starts ago.
Bosustow, the three-year-old colt who destroyed his opposition in the Gold Coast Guineas, was single figure odds in Stradbroke betting markets before he was well beaten in the rescheduled Group 3 Fred Best Classic at Doomben last Wednesday.
Bosustow started the $2.45 Fred Best favourite but finished sixth, 1-1/2 lengths behind the Toby Edmonds and Stephen McLean-trained filly Spicy Martini which qualified for the Stradbroke with the win.
Annabel and Rob Archibald are pushing on with Stradbroke plans for Bosustow which has now drifted to be a $15 chance in Queensland's greatest race next Saturday.
Managing owner Anthony Mithen points out that Bosustow was beaten about the same margin in the Fred Best as Stefi Magnetica was a year earlier, before that horse came out and won the Stradbroke with Lloyd on board.
Lloyd has been booked for Bosustow and now gets a chance to be the first jockey since Cassidy won the Stradbroke on the mighty Rough Habit in 1991 and 1992 to score consecutive Stradbroke triumphs.
Lloyd will link with Bosustow for the first time and Rob Archibald remains convinced the colt can be a major player in the Stradbroke.
'Maybe the Fred Best run was just a little bit below what we expected, but we weren't too disappointed,' Archibald said.
'He was a month between runs and the race was rescheduled and things were mucked around a little bit.
'He may have been just a touch underdone second-up, but he can certainly bounce back third-up in the Stradbroke.
'He gets into the Stradbroke with a nice weight (51.5kg) although it's all relative I suppose.
'Zac hasn't ridden him before, but he did win the Stradbroke last year and we are really happy to have him on.'
Bosustow wins the Gold Coast Guineas. Picture: Bethany Allday/Trackside Photography.
Lloyd will jet into Brisbane on Tuesday morning and give Bosustow a spin around Eagle Farm at the Stradbroke 'Breakfast With The Stars' trackwork session.
There is a week of fine weather forecast for Brisbane and the prospects of a rain-affected Eagle Farm track on Stradbroke day look slim.
Bosustow was dominant in the Gold Coast Guineas on a heavy (9) track but the camp say he is much more than just a wet tracker.
On the morning of the Guineas, they had even been considering scratching Bosustow because they weren't convinced he would handle the sloppy surface.
'He ended up handling the wet track on the Gold Coast really well,' Archibald said.
'But I don't think we can really say yet what his preferred track conditions are, because he is fairly lightly raced.'
Originally published as Zac Lloyd on rare quest to score consecutive Stradbroke Handicaps