While Emperor Maximilian missed his chance for a rare metropolitan start from the bush, the Rockhampton Cup winning yard are no strangers to Brisbane raids.
Back in 2007, the stable took mare Craiglea Emma to town, winning at Eagle Farm before running in the money in her next four starts in city – including being beaten a nose in the Country Cup of that year.
Craiglea Emma also competed at metropolitan level in Sydney.
It has been an excellent year for Wrecking Ball, who started his career in Victoria, winning the Bundaberg Cup in the middle of July over 1380 metres before dropping back to win over the sprint trip on Melbourne Cup day.
“I thought the race might have been a bit short for my horses, Wrecking Ball has never sprinted since I had him,” Gardiner said.
“I just put him in there on Tuesday as he had not raced for a while and we had the local races so I thought I would put them all in that one race, off course.
“It was a good thrill to see him win again.
“He ran over trips like 1000, 1100 and 1200 metres in the mid-weeks down there but I could never get him to perform over those distances.
“Although he did not win many races down there, he ran a lot of good races.”
Of the stable mates, Gardiner says the roughest of the three in betting, Crisscross – who ran second – gave plenty of cheek while Dolci is just an honest mare.
Hoop Kelly Gates, who won on Wrecking Ball, collected a winning double at Bundaberg on Tuesday afternoon.
More Country Stampede qualifiers are set to be run this coming weekend at Chinchilla and Cooktown while Country Cups Challenge heats will be hosted at Moranbah and Cooktown.