At the end of a week when the sporting spotlight has been trained on international contests both human and equine, the racing focus back home this Saturday will be reassuringly parochial.

After what happened at the MCG on Wednesday night*, the locals will be desperate to strike back/keep the ball rolling† as the Sunshine State’s carnival moves southwest to Ipswich.

Queenslanders always face an uphill battle fending off the raiders when the big bucks move north, though this season and last they’ve managed to hang on to two of their state’s eight Group 1 races.

In 2024/25 it was the Tony Gollan-trained Antino in the Doomben Cup and the Munces with Cool Archie in the J.J. Atkins.

This time around it’s been Maroons stalwart Rothfire in the Doomben 10,000 for Rob Heathcote and the Toby Edmonds-trained Spicy Martini in last Saturday’s Stradbroke.

Gerringong (the Munces) and Abounding (Heathcote) are given decent chances to make it three for the carnival in Saturday week’s Tatt’s Tiara.

Happily for fans of the locals, history suggests the Maroons should finish Saturday’s Ipswich meeting well ahead on the scoreboard.

Of 88 races across the past 10 Ipswich Cup days, Queensland stables have won 60, interstaters 27 (including those with Queensland satellite stables) and New Zealanders one.

The locals to follow have been Tony Gollan (10 wins), Chris and Corey Munce (5), Liam Birchley (4), Michael Nolan (3) and David Vandyke (3). Best of the interstaters are Matt Dunn (4) and Annabel and Rob Archibald (3).

Narrowing it down to the listed races (Ipswich Cup, Eye Liner and Gai Waterhouse Classic) the score is a nail-biter: Queensland 16, Visitors 14. Gollan again leads the way with three, from the Archibalds and the Munces on two apiece.

* Unknown at publication time
† Circle as applicable