Lauren Abbott not getting caught up in Stradbroke hype

By Jordan Gerrans

Extended interviews with Sky Racing and the TAB as well as featuring on the front page of The Courier Mail – it has not been a normal week or so for small-time Brisbane trainer Lauren Abbott.

“I can usually buy a tried horse and go about my business and no one cares about what I am doing,” the former jockey says with a smile.

“Thank you to everyone for having such an interest in my horse.”

The 44-year-old Abbott’s name has been up in lights this week.

She will be the definition of a fairy tale Stradbroke Handicap champion if her galloper Superstorm can upset the more-fancied runners in Saturday’s $3 million feature.

Abbott is spot on in her assessment of her horses.

She usually battles away with a few runners on the provincial and country circuits and will every now and again have one start in town.

Superstorm will be her maiden stakes runner on Saturday in the famous Queensland race.

The Bridgeman Downs-based horsewoman has prepared two winners over the last couple of months: a Class 1 race at the Sunshine Coast and a Benchmark 62 at Beaudesert.

Despite a chequered history with injuries and up-and-down recent form, Superstorm arrived with Abbott earlier this year with a Group 1 pedigree and almost $3 million in the bank from career stakes.

Bringing a horse with the resume Superstorm does into your stable brings plenty of extra eyeballs and attention.

For Abbott, she is treating the Stradbroke just as she would a Sunday race at Caloundra or a mid-week event at Beaudesert.

“I am just concentrating on the horse, making sure he gets enough work and his remedial attention to keep him happy,” she said.

“It is great to have a runner on a big day but for me it is no different to having a Class 1 runner somewhere – you are trying to get your horse to be at their best when they go to the races.

“That is all I have been trying to do with him.

“I really haven’t thought too much about this being the biggest race in Queensland."

Superstorm is a Group 1 winner – saluting in the Cantala Stakes at Flemington in 2021 - as well as finishing second in the $5m All-Star Mile the year before.

He has also placed in four other Group 1s across his career.

The now six-year-old gelding has only been to the races twice since his memorable Cantala Stakes triumph.

It was an online auction where a regular client of Abbott’s found the former star gelding.

The Tamborine-based John Taylor shelled out $70,000 for the injury-plagued galloper before finding a dozen others to take a share in him.

Superstorm has only raced once since November of 2021 and will head to Queensland’s most famous race first-up.

“I guess it gives you a boost because of the excitement of the types of races you can target with a horse like this, especially if we can get him right and enjoying his racing again,” she said.

“There is also pressure as well, as I can usually buy a tried-horse and go about my business and no one cares about what I am doing.

“I probably feel a bit of pressure because people are interested in him and what he is doing.”

Superstorm did not set the world on fire in his one public trial before the Stradbroke – running four lengths behind the winner in early May – and he has had a couple of jump-outs, as well.

Despite that, Abbott thinks she is on the right track with her stable superstar.

As of Thursday morning, the returning gelding is more than a $100 shot with the majority of bookmakers.

“I think he is really enjoying himself in Queensland, especially up here in winter for this time of year,” the trainer said.

“He is more than happy to be here. He has got some niggling injuries that I feel I am very on top of and he is a happy horse at the moment.

“He is a sound horse. We are looking forward to kicking off his new prep and who knows where he can go from here.”

Abbott is aiming to replicate what Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Danny O'Brien did with Superstorm earlier in his career.

O'Brien started him in the P.B. Lawrence Stakes over 1400 metres first-up in August of 2021, before building him up in distance.

That is how Abbott is thinking with Saturday’s Stradbroke Handicap at 1400 metres, before progressing to a mile event and beyond.

Brisbane’s reigning champion rider James Orman has been on-board in all of Superstorm’s fast work since he arrived in the Sunshine State and noted to Abbott that Tuesday’s course proper spin around Eagle Farm was his best piece of work yet.

“I do not think he could have worked any better ahead of Saturday,” the trainer said.

Superstorm’s Stradbroke Handicap tilt will get the headlines for Abbott but she has improved her results in each of her six seasons as a trainer.

The former hoop has regularly travelled horses to the north of the state for their carnivals, returning to where she rode in her apprentice days.

She has 14 winners to her name in the 2022-23 campaign, which is a career-best mark.

Abbott has mainly trained tried horses but has recently acquired five yearlings that she hopes can add another dimension to her training team.

“Hopefully next season we will have some young horses as well as the older tried horses with the great ownership groups that I have in my stable,” she said.

“We are going to target the higher classed tried horses like Superstorm. I am happy in that sense.

“It is good to have a higher quality of horses coming through and the young ones, but I want to ensure I can remain hands on with them, as well, and not have too big a team in work.”

After the heights of the Stradbroke on Saturday, Abbott will be on the road to Caloundra the following day with Calcareous tackling a Class 2 Handicap.