45 years since the birth of an Australian horse racing legend

He was bred to be special. He was a touch slow to come to hand, winning for the first time as a three-year-old. Once he started to win, he struggled to stop during 1983. He would close out his career with a total of 17 wins from 47 career starts.

Australian domination in 1983

10 of his 17 career wins would come during 1983. The autumn saw him as one of the top three-year-olds in the country and when he returned in the spring as a four-year-old, he would prove to be better still.

A Rosehill Guineas, an Australian Derby and the Queensland Derby were all won in the early months of 1983. It was his win in the Cox Plate late that same year that would really ensure that he would win the title of Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year for 1983.

Despite his success, 1984 got off to a slower start. His autumn form was not close to the same standard and so he ended up being sent to Europe to continue his career there. Things would start in Germany with trainer John Nicholls.

Move to Europe produces further wins

It did not take Strawberry Road long to establish himself as a smart type in Germany. A win in the Grosser Preis von Baden, a Group 1 contest over 2400m in 1984 was enough to see him crowned the top older horse in the country that year, another award for him.

Connections were not afraid to travel with him. Longchamp for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October of 1984 saw him finish fifth before he would race in the United States for the first time. Laurel Park and the Washington, D.C International Stakes saw him third before he would head to the inaugural Breeders’ Cup meeting to finish fourth.

Even though he had that smart form in the USA, he was back in Europe the following year starting out for another new trainer in France. Purchased by Daniel Wildenstein after his Prix d’Harcourt success, he would race in his famous colours in 1985, winning the Grand Prix de Saint Cloud.

Another trip to the Breeders’ Cup was on the radar where he would finish second to the European champion filly Pebbles. That was at Aqueduct where she would break the course record, beating Strawberry Road a neck.

Arcadia Handicap and a stud career

A further change of trainer saw Strawberry Road remain in the USA. It was here that he would produce his final big run when saluting in the 1986 Arcadia Handicap at Santa Anita. Ridden by (at that point) a relatively unknown jockey Gary Stevens, he would salute by two lengths, winning his first race in the US on his seventh start.

Retired to stud in Kentucky, he would have a solid record as a sire. More than 360 of his offspring would race, 233 of them passing the winning line in first place. They included three Breeders’ Cup winners, doing something that their sire had been unable to do. He was also the sire of a Santa Anita Derby winner. There was further Breeders’ Cup success as a broodsire before he passed away following a fall in 1995.

Inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2009, Strawberry Road is still fondly remembered for his exploits on the track. In the spring of 1983, he carried all before him in Australia. To then go on and replicate that success around the world made him a true great.