Queenslanders are reputedly stoic, but the odd tear might be wiped away at Doomben around the time of this Saturday’s Group 2 Spirit Of Boom Classic for two-year-olds.

The race is named after one of the Sunshine State’s great homegrown success stories, the dual Group 1 winner and Group 1-producing stallion who died suddenly last Tuesday week of a ruptured bowel at Eureka Stud on the Darling Downs.

The Australian calendar is riddled with races named after horses who never contested them (Makybe Diva Stakes, Durbridge Stakes, Schillaci Stakes, Naturalism Stakes …)

The Spirit Of Boom Classic isn’t one of those, because the honoree did tackle the race in question (then called the Champagne Classic). He didn’t win it, however, finishing second in 2010 to subsequent T.J. Smith (J.J. Atkins) Classic winner Pressday.

But then Spirit Of Boom, despite having won three of his first five starts, didn’t reach his ceiling until later in life.

His headline wins, in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes and Doomben 10,000, came in the autumn of 2014 at age six, at the 48th and 51st runs of a 52-start career that helped put future champion Queensland trainer Tony Gollan on the map.

Fifty-two starts across five racing seasons isn’t the orthodox recipe for an elite stallion, but Spirit Of Boom hit the ground running on return to his birthplace at Eureka, where the McAlpine family had bred him, his dam and his granddam.

His first crop yielded eight stakes winners including the Group 1 Manikato Stakes winner of 2021, Jonker.

Spirit Of Boom is now credited with 32 stakes winners including Prince Of Boom in the 2021 edition of the Spirit Of Boom Classic.

He has a son (Coastal Boom), a daughter (Esperanza) and a grandson (Boomtowns) in the race this Saturday.