ear-olds, set weights
HISTORY
* First run over seven furlongs (1400m) in 1866 when won by Fishhook
* Held over 1600m since 1972
* The final leg of the two-year-old triple crown after the Golden Slipper Stakes and ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes
* Outstanding gallopers to have won the race include: Furious (1921), Heroic (1924), Manfred (1925), Hall Mark (1933), Ajax (1937), Todman (1957), Wiggle (1958), Noholme (1959), Sky High (1960), Time And Tide (1963), Storm Queen (1966), Vain (1969), Baguette (1970), Luskin Star (1977), Red Anchor (1984), Bounding Away (1986), Triscay (1990) and Pierro (2012)
* Youngsters who have claimed the juvenile triple crown: Pierro (2012), Dance Hero (2004), Burst (1992), Tierce (1991), Luskin Star (1977) and Baguette (1970).
TALKING POINTS
* Yankee Rose was runner up in the Slipper before winning the Sires’ Produce. She is $1.40 favourite for the Champagne.
* Other odds-on favourites to win the race include Pierro, Dance Hero, Encounter (1997) and Triscay (1990)
* Horses beaten who started odds-on include Manhattan Rain (2009), Sebring (2008), Camarilla (2007), Octagonal (1995) and Reganza (1989)
* If Yankee Rose wins, the $10,000 filly will have earned more than $1.8 million prize money
* Fernhill Stakes winner Prized Icon will attempt to be the first horse since Dracula in 1998 to win using that path
* 25 winners since 1983 have come through the Sires’ Produce
KEY COMMENTS
“Every indication is that she’ll be improved over the mile” – trainer David Vandyke on Yankee Rose
“He was going to be racing in two weeks time in Auckland going around in a mile race for $NZ50,000, so we thought why not?” – Sicario’s co-trainer Trent Busuttin
“My wife Rachael rang me and said there were only eight in the Champagne. She asked if we had anything and I thought our little 1500-metre last-start winner at Mornington would do” – Jaws Of Steel’s trainer Robbie Laing
