Huetor is unlikely to ever hold the exalted status of Rough Habit, but the import is on the cusp of matching a feat something only the former crowd favourite has achieved.
The Archipenko seven-year-old will this Saturday chase a third-straight win in the Group 1 Doomben Cup (2000m) in Brisbane.
Enduring Kiwi gelding Rough Habit made Queensland his own in the early 1990s, winning six Group 1s, including each Doomben Cup from 1991 to 1993.
He is the only horse to win any particular Queensland Group 1 race three times.
Rough Habit started favourite in each of his Doomben Cup wins, going around odds-on the first two, which is in contrast to Huetor.
His two wins have been at $16 and $10 respectively with Zaaki beaten as a short-priced favourite on each occasion.
Peter and Paul Snowden have followed an identical path to last year with Huetor, who won last year’s Doomben Cup off a second placing in the Group 2 Hollindale Stakes (1800m), which followed a third placing in the Group 3 JRA Plate (2000m) at Randwick.
This year he won the JRA Plate before finishing fifth in the Hollindale Stakes, which was this year run at the Sunshine Coast.
Huetor did not contest the JRA Plate in 2022, but again rounded out preparations in the Hollindale Stakes, finishing fourth.
Rough Habit ran in the Hollindale Stakes in 1991 and 1992 but went on to run in – and win – the Stradbroke Handicap before the Doomben Cup, but trainer John Wheeler used the Hollindale as a final lead-up in 1993.
Nineteen of the 29 subsequent Doomben Cup winners also had their previous start in the Hollindale Stakes, including the past six.
Of those six, only Zaaki, who won the 2021 Doomben Cup, has won both races and it is a horse who was beaten in this year’s Hollindale Stakes that is considered the horse to beat in this weekend’s $1 million event.
Kovalica, who finished third behind Doomben Cup rival Numerian at the Sunshine Coast, heads betting as he chases his first win since last year’s Queensland Derby.
Only five Queensland Derby winners have won the Doomben Cup, but none since Rough Habit, meaning two of this weekend’s leading fancies are charged with following in the footsteps of one of the Winter Carnival’s favourite sons.
