Can history be re-written with Via Sistina to take out the $5m Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and be the equal with the great Winx with seven Group 1 wins for the season.
Priced as the hot $1.85 race favourite with waging agencies across Australia, the Queen Elizabeth on Saturday sees the final racetrack appearance for Via Sistina, the same as Winx in 2019.
In this her 7yo season, Via Sistina first won the apply named Winx Stakes on 24 August, first up from a 14 week spell when 6½ length second to Pride of Jenni in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Next it was the Turnbull Stakes 2000m at Flemington on 15 October, followed by an 8 length victory in the Cox Plate of 2040m, and then the Champion Stakes 2000m, formally the Mackinnon.
Returning from a 12 week spell she claimed the Very Elleegant Stakes second up over 1600m at Randwick on 1 March, formally the Chipping Norton, and then the Ranvet Stakes on 22 March.
Via Sistina is now looking to go one better on her 12 wins from 23 starts and $9.7m in stakes, while Winx followed a similar path before retiring with 37 wins from 43 starts and $26.4million.
Winx began her 7yo and final 2018-19 season by winning her own named Winx Stakes, first up from a spell to claim the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and then the George Main Stakes of 1600m.
Now named King Charles III Stakes, she followed the George Main by taking out the Turnbull Stakes, Cox Plate, Chipping Norton Stakes, George Ryder Stakes and her second Queen Elizabeth.
Via Sistina is now set to retire to her owners Yulong Stud, having been bred in Ireland, sired by Coolmore’s Australian Champion and shuttle sire Fastnet Rock from the Galileo dam Nigh.
Rated a high 117 as an older mare coming to Australia, she was a 2.7m Gns buy at the 2023 Tattersalls December Sale, having been just a 5,000 Gns Tattersalls 2019 December Sale Yearling.
As for Winx, she was a $230,000 2013 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling, with her Pierro filly first foal Quinceanera making a record $10m at the 2024 Australian Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
With the Queen Elizabeth Stakes being a Group 1 run over 2000m, and the principal event of The Championships, its James Mc Donald who jumps Via Sistina from Berrier 2 in a field of 15
As James McDonald won the Theo Marks Stakes on Winx, and Chis Waller who trained her throughout her outstanding career, its now Via Sistaina racing in the green and white silks of Yulong.
However, there’s no dismissing that Newmarket based William Haggis and who have Dubai Honour as the $6.50 second pick, with Ceolwulf at $14, and $15 for Rousham Park and Buckaroo.
Coming off a last start ¾ length victory over Duke De Sessa and Vauban in the Tancred Stakes of 2400m first-up from a 16 week spell, he drops to 2000m again with Tom Marquand, from Gate 11.
Now the winner of 9 races and $8.3m in stakes having won the $4m Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Ranvet Stakes in 2023, and last year won the Gran Prix de St Cloud and was twice Group 1 second.
Another example of the Australian shuttle sire success, and again from Coolmore, Dubai Honour is by Australian Leading Sire Pride of Dubai, being a 110,000 Gns Tattersalls October Yearling buy.
Again, its Sunday Racing of Japan who return to The Championships with two runners for the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the Sankei Sho winner Rousham Park at $15, and equal to Buckaroo.
To be ridden by French expatriate Christophe Lemaire from Gate 11 for trainer Hiroyasu Tanaka, he was second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar, and is by Highclere’s former raced Harbinger.
The last start Doncaster Mile runner Geoglyph is at $67 with betting sites for trainer Tetsuya Kimura and Japan based Australian jockey Damien Lane, starting from Gate 2 having also won the Japan 2000 Guineas.
