EMPIRE ROSE STAKES
* The Empire Rose Stakes is a Group One, $500,000 weight-for-age race
* It is run at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse over 1600m by fillies and mares only
HISTORY
* Formerly known as the Myer Classic, the race is named after champion mare Empire Rose who completed the 1988 Mackinnon Stakes and Melbourne Cup double
* First run as a Listed race in 1988 and won by the Colin Hayes-trained Concordance
* Had a stint as a Group Three (1995-6) before being elevated to a Group Two in 1997 and a Group One in 2004
* Three-year-old fillies became eligible in 2002 when the race went from set weights plus penalties to weight-for-age
NOTABLE WINNERS
* Lotteria (2005), Divine Madonna (2007), Forensics (2008), Typhoon Tracy (2009), Red Tracer (2013), Shoals (2017)
TALKING POINTS
* The favourite is the Darren Weir-trained filly Amphitrite
* The Empire Rose is the only Group One race out of the four on Derby Day with a sex restriction for fillies and mares only
* The 2016 winner I Am A Star – the first filly to score – will contest the race for a third time
* The fastest time recorded was 1:34.20 by Market Price in 2001
WHAT SOME OF THE KEY PLAYERS ARE SAYING
“Went out and matured into a nice big strong filly, trained well and continued to train well and stay sound” – Darren Weir on Amphitrite
“She has come right at the right time and she’s racing in superb form. I think she’ll be very competitive if not extremely hard to beat” – Gai Waterhouse on Shumookh
“If she can just have a soft run somewhere she’s going to be hard to beat” – Wayne Hawkes on Bella Martini
