A winning line runs through Blake’s stable

By Jordan Gerrans

Oneliner has been a grand producer for Brooweena’s Graham Blake and the mare delivered another winner for the veteran trainer on Saturday at Gladstone.

The victory from Queens Lines on Saturday came more than a decade after Blake first landed a winner from his broodmare Oneliner.

Onlines, a progeny of Oneliner, handed Blake his maiden triumph as a trainer back in 2014 at Gympie.

All these years on, Oneliner is still delivering.

Queens Lines broke her maiden status at her sixth attempt at Gladstone on Saturday as hoop Gabrielle Semmens scored aboard the grey mare over 850 metres.

Blake, who is in his late 60s, was thrilled to see Queens Lines win and add to the legacy of his former race mare Oneliner.

Oneliner, now 24, has been retired from breeding.

“She'd been working really good,” Blake said about Queens Lines’ recent efforts in trackwork.

“Going into the race, I thought she should be right for that. But, she's like her brother, Mussel Lines, and is a long-distance horse.

“She is big for her age. This one's coming up the same, picking up heaps of distance later on.

“She is winding up speed, but they've come up really well. She's just gotten better and better after coming back in.

“I left her out for six months in the paddock and then when she's come back in, she's come back in twice as good.”

Blake owns Queens Lines himself.

He originally purchased Oneliner for his daughter to ride in equestrian, before the mare turned her attention to the breeding barn.

Oneliner started nine times for trainers Harold Norman and Bob Sutton in Queensland, before being retired without a victory to her name.

But, she has been able to produce multiple winners in the next phase of her life, including Queens Lines, Onlines and Mussel Lines.

“She has had lots of winners,” he said of Oneliner.

Queens Lines’ win on Saturday was Blake’s first as a trainer since the 2016-17 campaign.

Mussel Lines started his career with Blake before he was transferred to veteran Gympie mentor Malcolm Bailey, who prepared him to his sole career win at Wondai in July of 2023.

Blake previously trained out of the Beaudesert area before relocating to Brooweena, which is in the Fraser Coast region of Queensland.

After a few battles with his health, the trainer has been getting around on a mobility bike over the last few years.

He has been on the improve of late and was able to stand for the winning picture at Gladstone on Saturday, which he was thrilled about.

“I've broken bones in my foot, had operations, and had problems with my hip too,” he said.

“Then after five years of operations, I'm walking again since last year.

“I can walk but not long distances. It's getting better. 

"I'm walking, working and cleaning the stable, it takes me time.”

Leading heavyweight hoop Paul Hamblin rode Queens Lines at her previous start at Nanango earlier this month and suggested to the trainer that she was ready to win.

The Blake stable also had Sparkling Lines in the opening event on Saturday, with the grey filly finishing back in the field on debut.