Loucasso after winning the 2025 Protostar
FANS will have to wait a bit longer for the clash of Australia’s two best three-year-olds.
While the unbeaten Hollywood Strip will head to next week’s Bathurst Gold Carnival, Victorian superstar Loucasso won’t be there.
They are yet to clash.
Managing owner Jamie Durnberger-Smith confirmed Loucasso was being deliberately held back to unleash on a string of major races in the back half of the year.
Loucasso boasts seven wins from nine starts, including the Group 2 Protostar and Group 2 Breeders Crown 2YO final.
He hasn’t raced since the Crown win at Melton on December 13.
In contrast, Hollywood Stride won all five starts last season and has returned to win all three runs this year.
He stamped his stardom with the most dominant of wins after doing all the work in a blazing 1min49.8sec mile in the Group 1 NSW Derby.
“He’s such a great horse and he has done job,” trainer-driver Brad Hewitt said. “He’s got a big future.
“Bathurst has been the plan and there’s where we go next.”
The heats of Bathurst are next Monday (March 23).
After bypassing the NSW Derby, it was expected Loucasso would head to Bathurst.
“No, we’re looking longer term,” Durnberger-Smith said. “This is the first time anyone has ever said to Emma (Stewart) and Clayton (Tonkin), ‘just take your time, he owes us nothing, so screw him down for the back end of the season and win everything.”
Loucasso’s first major targets are in Queensland in July.
“The Rising Sun and Queensland Derby,” Durnberger-Smith said. “Then we’ve got the Victoria Derby, NSW Breeders Challenge, Eureka, Breeders Crown again.”
Both Loucasso and Hollywood Strip are eligible for the TAB Eureka
The future of the race and how it looks has been the source of much discussion, but details are expected to be confirmed by the end of the month.
PHOTO: Dan Costello
