10/06/2026
Sweetheart, the 1899 Stradbroke Handicap winner whose weight-carrying record Fangirl needs to emulate in the Stradbroke renewal on Saturday, became a successful steeplechaser in England. This stranger-than-fiction sequel to that historic Stradbroke has been uncovered by Racing Museum researcher Steve Bermingham who was prompted by reports that the weight-carrying record by a filly or mare in the Stradbroke was the 8 stone 13 pounds carried by Sweetheart – the exact 56.5 kg Fangirl needs to carry on Saturday, 127 years later. Sweetheart was a two-year-old when she won the Stradbroke, then over six furlongs, one of only six two-year-olds to win the race with the last being Wiggle in 1958. None carried as much weight as Sweetheart, who Bermingham found had won four of her seven career starts before the Stradbroke. Sweetheart was owned by her breeder John Finnie, one of the founders of the breeding industry in Queensland. He also bred the 1911 Brisbane Cup winner Black Paint from Sweetheart’s dam. Finnie sold Sweetheart a few days after the Stradbroke and she raced in Sydney and Melbourne, winning the Moonee Valley Cup then run over seven furlongs in the spring and the Rous Handicap at Randwick the following autumn. Bermingham records that she was then exported to England where racing as Sweetheart III she won several hurdle and steeplechase races.
