Berriesandcherries takes marathon

The Our Overanova Trotters marathon, the race named to honour the greatest trotter to be trained in Queensland, was Saturday’s feature event at The Creek.

Stepping out for her first public appearance in Queensland, the Brendan Barnes trained and driven Berriesandcherries secured the ideal trip over the 3157-metre journey and when presented, had the closing speed to grab victory.

Cyclone Alfred delayed the arrival of Berriesandcherries into Brisbane, but that had little effect as she proved too strong with the first up victory.

“She run third in the Boort Cup before she come and had a real hard run and went straight to Sydney after that and got stuck in Sydney with the cyclone,” Barnes said.

Safely away from the front tape, the eight-year-old released to race favourite Hide And Seek which had begun well from the 10-metre impost to press forward between runners and take the front turning into the back straight on the first occasion.

With two laps to travel, Golden Sunset and Nathan Dawson moved around the field to face the breeze and for the next 1500 metres the field remained in that formation.

Approaching the 600, Hide And Seek was under pressure from Golden Sunset, allowing plenty of space for Barnes to angle away from the trail.

Stalking from the trail and appearing to have plenty still to offer, Barnes angled off and his mare responded in the stretch to run to the lead and claim victory over Golden Sunset, with Love Gun finishing hard out of the pack for third place.

Despite the eight-year-old being first up into the marathon, it was not the first time that Barnes had taken the reins behind the mare at the races.

“I won on here about three or four years ago.

“I was down in Melbourne for a junior series, and she was in at Bendigo, and I drove and won on her,” he said.

With the first up win of Berriesandcherries, the mare is now assessed as a Band 2 under the Queensland handicapping scale, and despite now being on a tight mark, the Inter Dominion Series looms as a target.

The owners, which includes Brendan’s grandfather Geoff, had been considering a Queensland campaign for some time but the 2025 calendar solidified the move.

“They wanted her to come up for ages and ages and had been talking about it and then when they locked in the Inter Dominion for Brisbane.”

Stopping the clock in a 2.01.5-mile rate, the win shaved 0.3 seconds off the 3157-metre track record which was held by Kingdom Come following his win in the race last year.

The win took Berriesandcherries beyond $150,000 in stake earnings and became the first winner that Brendan has trained for his grandfather.