ALL AGED STAKES
1400m, $480,000, weight-for-age at Randwick
HISTORY
* Before 2004 run over 1600m
* First run in 1866 when won by Falcon
* Outstanding winners include: Tim Whiffler (1870-71), Carbine (1889-90), Wakeful (1902), Chatham (1934), Peter Pan (1935), Ajax (1938-39-40), Bernborough (1946), San Domenico (1952), Tulloch (1958), Lord (1959), Sky High (1961), Wenona Girl (1964), Tobin Bronze (1967), Emancipation (1984), Rough Habit (1992-93), Sunline (2000, 2002), Atlantic Jewel (2012), All Too Hard (2013), Trapeze Artist (2018)
TALKING POINTS
* Pierata is favourite to go back-to-back. The last horse to win the race twice was Sunline who claimed it in non-consecutive years – 2000 and 2002.
* Five three-year-olds will contest the race – Bivouac, Brandenburg, Standout, Super Seth and Cosmic Force. Trapeze Artist was the last three-year-old to win two years ago and his trainer, Gerald Ryan, has Standout this year.
* The last mare to win was English in 2016. Four mares line up on Saturday – White Moss, Tofane, Fasika and Sylvia’s Mother.
KEY COMMENTS
“I’m going into this race supremely confident. I was just over the moon with how the horse ran in the TJ. It hasn’t been talked about much because he was back in the field but he gave me an exceptional turn of foot” – jockey Hugh Bowman on Godolphin colt Bivouac.
“He’s won a lot of races but each preparation he’s just raised the bar that little bit and I thought it was well deserving to get the Group One under the hood” – trainer John Thompson on George Ryder Stakes winner Dreamforce.
“He doesn’t get in as well at the weights as he did in the Doncaster but he’s a good three-year-old” – trainer John Sargent on Brandenburg.
“She deserves a Group One on what she’s been doing” – trainer Mike Moroney on Tofane.
“It is probably the best I have had him” – Pierata’s trainer Greg Hickman.
