Rain Affair is among the crack Canterbury Stakes entries, which also include Moment Of Change, Secret Admirer, Happy Trails and Mid Summer Music. Picture: Rohan Kelly Source: The Daily Telegraph
THIS might be Ladies Day but the Australian Turf Club should call it Super Saturday.
The sheer quality of entries for Saturday's traditional opening race day of the Sydney autumn carnival, the Coolmore Classic meeting at Rosehill, is extraordinary with a record 20 individual Group 1 winners set to race.
The nine-event program features three Group 1 races, the Coolmore Classic, Ranvet Stakes and Canterbury Stakes, plus two crucial Golden Slipper lead-ups, the Group 2 Todman Stakes and Reisling Stakes.
Most of the nation's elite gallopers will be competing and some of the match-ups are enthralling, including:
GAI Waterhouse's champions More Joyous and Pierro clash in the $350,000 Canterbury Stakes (1300m);
SYDNEY'S fastest sprinter, Rain Affair, is among the crack Canterbury Stakes entries which also includes Moment Of Change, Secret Admirer, Happy Trails and Mid Summer Music;
VICTORIA Oaks winner Dear Demi heads entries for the $600,000 Coolmore Classic where she will take on Norzita, Appearance, Streama, Steps In Time and Red Tracer;
VICTORIA Derby hero Fiveandahalfstar takes on Manighar, Mawingo, Niwot, Silent Achiever, Gatewood, Kelinni and Sangster in the $400,000 Ranvet Stakes; and
Rain Affair, ridden by jockey Corey Brown, wins the Challenge Stakes at Rosehill. Picture: Rohan Kelly Source: The Daily Telegraph
THE top three in early Golden Slipper betting are racing, with brilliant fillies Overreach and Villa Verde in the Group 2 $300,000 Reisling Stakes, and boom colt Charlie Boy in the Group 2 $300,000 Todman Stakes.
ATC officials lobbied hard for the Canterbury Stakes to be elevated to Group 1 status this year and it looks like a stroke of genius now given the quality of sprinters expected to contest the feature race.
Dear Demi ridden by Jim Cassidy wins the Surround Stakes at Warwick Farm. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: The Sunday Telegraph
More Joyous' bid to become the first to win three Canterbury Stakes since Holdfast in 1930-32, won't be a formality with Pierro, Moment Of Change and Rain Affair among her likely opponents.
"It's a high quality sprint, potentially one of the best we have had in Sydney for years,' ATC racing manager Colin Tuck said.
"There is plenty of depth in all the races, the Coolmore Classic and Ranvet Stakes look likely to be outstanding fields, and the two-year-old races will be real previews for the Golden Slipper."
Villa Verde, the flying Victorian filly, was too good for Sydney's best Overreach when they clashed in the Debutants Stakes at Caulfield last October and their return clash in the Reisling Stakes will be one of the highlights of Saturday's race day.
Shaun Dwyer, the astute trainer of Villa Verde, said his filly arrived in Sydney on Sunday and has settled in well.
Dwyer has stabled Villa Verde with Anthony Cummings at Royal Randwick and intends to give the filly a hit-out on the course proper this morning. "She doesn't need a lot, she's very fit already," Dwyer said.
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