The first Doomben Cup was run two days after the first Doomben 10,000, the two features installed as part of the track's gala opening program in 1933.
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The total prize money for the race was £1000 with a gold cup for the winner valued at £100.
A seven year old stallion named Pentheus won by four lengths, staging a form reversal that was immediately deemed outrageous enough for an inquiry to be held.
It was deemed that Pentheus, who had won the Caulfield Guineas in his youth, would keep his place in the history books as a worthy inaugural Cup winner - but his trainer was disqualified for two years.
Pentheus was sired by the successful import Rossendale ( St Frusquin), third in the Derby at Epsom in 1915 to the great Pommern before arriving in NSW to stand at Kingsfield Stud at Aberdeen.
He was a half brother to the mare Yser, who would eventually leave her mark on the Australian thoroughbred by becoming the ancestress of the great racer and sire Rory's Jester.
The handsome black Rossendale was a prolific progenitor of his time - as well as Pentheus he got the 1928 Caulfield Cup winning mare and West Australian champion Maple (a half sister to the dam of Pentheus) and the forgotten champion Rampion, a great two year old and a dual Derby winner at three.
At stud Pentheus sired seven stakes winners but like Rampion, he was unable to carry Rossendale's line forward.
Twenty-two of the first twenty three Doomben Cups were taken out by Australian-bred stayers. The only “raider” to taste success was the legendary New Zealander Beaulivre in 1940.
There were some great names among those locals - Bernborough of course, who lit up the Doomben turf in 1946 with his historic victory - Dark Marne, beaten a nose in Rimfire's Melbourne Cup, won in 1947; Verdun (who, like Beaulivre placed in the Doomben 10,000 before winning the Cup) in 1936.
Winners of the 10,000 to place in the Cup were Bahtheon, the mighty Winfreux, Bourbon Beau, TJ Smith's champion Black Onyx and My Axeman.
Only Bernborough was great enough to do the double, and he did it by flying home from an impossible position to win the sprint under 66kg before sitting on speed and blowing them away with 68.5 in the Cup.
Winfreux was almost as remarkable when he took the Stradbroke, the 10,000 and was runner up in the Cup at three. He would go on to win many more stakes races and was twice second in the Cox Plate.
Earlwood became the first dual Doomben Cup winner in 1959/60. The son of the imported Boxwood was out of a full sister to the 1938 Caulfield Cup winner Buzalong and won the QLD Derby at three.
The 1967 winner Bore Head is best remembered for his slashing victory in the 1965 Caulfield Cup. The gifted son of Double Bore also won the Australian Cup in 1967 and this brave horse won those two majors after being brought down in a horrific fall which had marred Galilee’s famous Melbourne Cup the year before. That had been a shocking day for the Queenslanders, with the 1966 Doomben Cup winner River Seine coming to grief in the same incident.
The striking grey Hiraji became the only Melbourne Cup winner to place in both a Doomben 10,000 and Doomben Cup ( beaten by Dark Marne) in 1947.
The Kiwi-bred gelding was a son of the French-bred Nizami, who would also sire the 1948 Melbourne Cup winner Foxzami - but is seen today in the pedigrees of both sprinters and stayers - not surprising as he was a half brother to the dam of Nasrullah!
The beautiful chestnut Tails was a fan favourite from the time he strode onto the track. The son of champion Dalray collected sixteen stakes victories in all, beginning with the QLD Derby in 1968 and ending with the STC Tancred Cup in 1972. The powerful stallion lugged 58kg to win the Doomben Cup of 1971.
Along the way Tails also won two Metropolitans, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Hotham Hcp, two Rosehill Stakes, a Chelmsford Stakes and a Sydney Cup - and ran in three Melbourne Cups, placing third at his final attempt. He also placed in a Brisbane Cup!
In the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Tails famously went head to head with another legendary Queenslander Gunsynd in one of the most stirring turf battles of the era. Tails led them for home, and Gunsynd cruised up to pass him. The great son of Dalray would not be headed. To the roar of the Randwick crowd the two mighty stallions fought a bitter battle all the way to the post, and every time the grey looked to have his nose in front Tails found something extra - to prevail by the narrowest of margins!
His last race was the Doomben Cup of 1972. Fans packed out the venue and hung from every vantage point to farewell their beloved hero and cheer him home. Tails finished fourth to Knee High.
The great Queenslander left no stakes winners. One of his progeny Goldray became a champion Australian and international show jumper, ridden to fame by the legendary horsewoman Mariane Gilchrist.
The next years saw memorable performers like Cheyne Walk, Grey Affair, Marceau, Hussar’s Command, Dandy Andy and Lord Hybrow add their names to the honour roll.
The 1990s was a decade jam packed with great horses, and it was an unheralded Kiwi who would rule the Queensland turf with an iron hoof in the early years.
The Doomben Cup will be forever linked with the blaze-faced Kiwi Rough Habit, who collected three consecutive editions in 1991 /92/ 93, having also placed in 1990 - a feat which will probably never be equalled.
“Roughie"'s Doomben Cup three-peat was part of a stakes haul that included two Stradbrokes and a Queensland Derby during that time - and that was just in QLD!
The great competitors Juggler, Danewin and Durbridge thrilled the crowds in the mid-90s.
Then in 1998, pure excitement swept Brisbane when the Might And Power show steamrolled into town.
Racegoers packed out the Gold Coast and Doomben racecourses to see this freak of nature up close, and naturally “Mighty” didn't let anybody down.
Following a demolition job in the Hollindale, the son of Zabeel strode to the imperious victory everyone expected to see in the Cup, trouncing a great horse in Intergaze and smashing the course record in the process.
Intergaze was back to win the following year.
Imported gallopers have taken a fierce liking to the Doomben circuit!
Euro- breds have fairly dominated the last decade or so of the Doomben Cup. It kicked off with The German G3 winner Mawingo in 2012, followed by a Waller quinella of Beaten Up and Foreteller in 2013.
Two Irishmen, Life Less Ordinary and Sixties Groove just failed to catch the gallant mare Kenedna in 2019, then Zaaki triumphed in 2021 after a year of dormancy due to the pandemic.
Huetor's heroics saw him lead home two Doomben Cup trifectas in which only one horse was not an import - Chris Waller’s Ocean Park son Kovalica, who was third as a three year old in 2023 and contests his fourth consecutive Doomben Cup in 2026. The gritty NZ-bred was 6th to the lovely UK-bred grey Bois D'Argent in 2024 and third again last year to local hero Antino.
The sheer weight of history bodes rather well for our Euro contenders this year, each of whom is seeing Doomben for the first time - the Irish-bred Birdman, who chased Jenni hard in the Hollindale, and the rejuvenated Vauban, coming off a G1 third for Waterhouse / Bott in the Tancred and with that “FR” attached to his name.
What about the girls? Well, only six mares have emerged victorious in Doomben Cup history.
The first was Cooranga in 1939, followed by the Toowoomba-trained Qualeta in 1943.
Qualeta’s connections decided to tackle the Sydney Cup of 1945, but wartime travel restrictions meant their star mare had to go to Sydney by ship.
Horses were classified as “deck cargo” and attendants were not permitted to check on or care for them while at sea. Can you imagine?
The voyage was expected to be rough, so poor Qualeta and her equine companions were tied with heavy ropes to crates on the deck and left to fend for themselves as the ship ploughed south through a stormy ocean.
Naturally, by the time it docked in Sydney the panicked horses had cut themselves to ribbons trying to escape their bonds and Qualeta could barely walk ashore, let alone be readied for a two mile horse race.
Thank goodness our racehorses travel in safety and comfort these days.
Dream, the 1950 Doomben Cup heroine, was a daughter of Magpie’s dual Derby winner Talking out of Nightmare.
A long drought followed before 2005, when the top class Cinque Cento (Nothin’ Leica Dane) who had won the Doomben Roses and been runner-up Queensland Oaks for original trainer Tony Wildman, bolted in the Doomben Cup for Peter Moody at 20/1. At stud she produced six winners, and four of her daughters have bred on.
The legendary Warwick Farm trainer Guy Walter had taken out the 2004 Cup with his warhorse Defier, and in 2014 he did it again with his magnificent 4 x G1 winning, 5 x G1 placed mare Streama (Stratum).
Tragically, the beloved trainer passed away suddenly just over a week later.
Like Cinque Cento, Streama has produced no stakeswinners but she has daughters by Pierro, Lonhro, Spirit Of Boom and Tassort to represent her in due course. The great mare is still breeding - she was served by So You Think shortly before his passing - let's hope it's another filly!
Kenedna followed a similar path, winning the 2017 Doomben Roses and finishing fourth in the Queensland Oaks when prepared by Darren Weir. The daughter of Not A Single Doubt returned to take out the Doomben Cup of 2019 for the Maher / Eustace stable.
