The Cox Plate winner was a globetrotter that won races in four different countries

Strawberry Road was former champion Australian racehorse who went on to race in a number of countries, including Germany, France, the United States, and Japan. Bred in New South Wales, he was by the superbly-bred Whiskey Road (Nijinsky-Bowl of Flowers) out of Giftisa (by Rich Gift - a grandson of Nasrullah and Abernant). He was a legitimate Aussie champion, winning two Derby's and the W.S Cox Plate over his career.

On Strawberry Road’s dams’ side there is mostly New Zealand and British blood. Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate winner Nightmarch of New Zealand is seen five generations back. Both sides of Strawberry Road’s pedigree had connections to Hyperion and the undefeated Italian, Nearco. The breeding was supreme. Trained by Doug Bougoure, Strawberry Road had two starts late in his two-year-old season before making a winning start to the new season in August 1982.

Following a spell, he progressed from an Improvers to a Graduation with four wins in a row. Taken to Sydney, and stepped up to stakes company, he finished second to Marscay (the previous year's Golden Slipper winner) in the Hobartville Stakes, and then recorded his first Group One wins in the Rosehill Guineas and the AJC Derby. The thoroughbred seemed to race with such ease and rarely looked under pressure.

Back in Queensland, following a brief let-up, Strawberry Road won three of his four starts, including the Gr.1 Queensland Derby. After recording 10 wins for the season, Strawberry Road was named Australia's champion racehorse for the 1982/1983 season. In the spring, Strawberry Road campaigned in Melbourne, and, interspersed with defeats at Caulfield, won the Freeway Stakes with consummate ease, the Centennial Stakes, and the Gr.1 Cox Plate, with a 3.5 length margin over U.S. horse Kiwi Slave. In the autumn, She had won four in a row including the George Main before coming to Melbourne and running 4th in the Caulfield Stakes and being primed for the Cox Plate.

While Strawberry Road certainly wasn’t the forgotten horse of the Cox Plate field starting at 11/2, his 6th place in the lead up run in the Caulfield Stakes behind Emancipation, left many thinking he would struggle to turn the tables. His form in his 3YO season was nothing short of sensational being crowned Australian Champion Racehorse, but this was by far his most serious test. It was a rough house affair, but as they cornered, Dittman had clear space and aided by a cushy run, he exploded on the turn to career away. Strawberry Road failed to find his best form later on after 26 starts in Australia, which produced 13 wins, three seconds, and three-thirds. A controlling interest was sold to Ray Stehr and John Singleton, who then subsequently exported him to France.

Trained by John Nicholls, Strawberry Road won the Grosser Preis von Baden in Germany in 1984, then had minor success in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in France, Washington DC Breeders Stakes and Breeders Cup Turf in the USA, and a seventh in the Japan Cup, ridden by the great English jockey Lester Piggott. The change of scenery definitely inspired a new found enthusiasm within the horse.

Strawberry Road returned to France in 1985 under new trainer Patrick Biancone and won the Prix d'Harcourt. He was then sold to prominent French horseman Daniel Wildenstein, for whom he won the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. Wildenstein then sent Strawberry Road to the United States, where he ran second to the champion Pebbles, by a neck, in the Breeders' Cup Turf. Sold to Allen Paulson and Bruce McNall, Strawberry Road remained in the United States, and was trained by Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham, racing through as a seven year-old with varying success.

Retired to stud at his Brookside Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, Strawberry Road was a highly successful sire. His 368 progeny included 233 winners, and among the most successful were, Dinard, Fraise, Escena and Ajina, also the damsire of Vindication and Affluent. Along with his 2009 induction in Australia’s Racing Hall of Fame, he was the German Champion Older Horse for 1984. He won close to $2 million in prize money from his five years of racing all around the world, making 45 starts, winning 17 and placing in another 14. 

RACE RECORD - 45: 17-7-7

EARNINGS - US$1,713,958

Rosehill Guineas (1983)

AJC Derby (1983)

Queensland Derby (1983)

Freeway Stakes (1983)

W S Cox Plate (1983)

Grosser Preis von Baden (1984)

Prix d'Harcourt (1985)

Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (1985)

Arcadia Handicap (1986)

Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year (1983)

German Champion Older Horse (1984)

Australian Racing Hall of Fame (2009)