Kicking off the hat-trick of Group 1 races at Royal Randwick in Sydney on Saturday is the 2016 Flight Stakes, tips and a full form guide for the three-year-old fillies’ feature found below.
Odds-on favourite Yankee Rose looks hard to beat in the 2016 Flight Stakes in Sydney on Saturday. Photo: Steve Hart.
Running as Epsom Handicap Day Race 6 at 3:20pm (AEST), two early scratchings including the former odds-on favourite Omei Sword has just six left in the mix for this season’s $500,000 Group 1 Sydney Airport Flight Stakes (1600m).
The top prize and Group 1 accolades looks to be Yankee Rose’s for the taking according to the updated Flight Stakes betting markets at Ladbrokes.com.au with the David Vandyke-trained daughter of All American paying a short $1.85 for the win.
Favourites have a gun Flight Stakes record over the past decade with six saluting for the punters including the past three on the trot.
It is up to the autumn’s Group 1 Inglis Sires’ (1400m) winner at the track Yankee Rose to continue the trend this Sydney Spring Racing Carnival and she backs up off a brave first-up sixth in the Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes (1400m), which produced last year’s Flight Stakes winner Speak Fondly (2nd in 2015).
So can Yankee Rose post her second Group 1 win or is there an upset Flight Stakes result pending from the likes of the rails-drawn Global Glamour ($4.40) for the race’s eight-time winning trainer Gai Waterhouse or the James Cummings-trained Tea Rose Stakes runner-up Skylight Glow ($6.50)?
1st
#1 Yankee Rose ($1.85)
Yankee Rose is the class filly with Omei Sword out and has Group 1 winning form at the track from the autumn. Her only loss from four starts as a two-year-old was the Golden Slipper second and first-up her Golden Rose run when 3.5 lengths off the winner Astern showed she had come back well. She’ll only improve off that, looks like she’ll enjoy the trip and has won a subsequent Warwick Farm trial from September 23 so is ticking all the boxes to keep the gun record of Flight Stakes favourites going on Saturday.
2nd
#7 Awoke ($6.50)
Chris Waller still has two runners in the field including this daughter of Rip Van Winkle who had nothing go right in a path-swapping run down the straight last time out in the Tea Rose. The Tea Rose Stakes has produced more Flight Stakes winners than any other lead-up, and Awoke gets the chance to atone here from a good barrier in a small field with jockey Brenton Avdulla after his second win following the 2010 Flight Stakes success on Secret Admirer.
3rd
#3 Skylight Glow ($6.50)
Plenty of upside in this progressive daughter of Northern Meteor who ran second only a quarter-length off the winner in the Tea Rose a fortnight back at the track. She has winning Randwick form from late May and her resuming run when only 0.6 lengths off the winner Swear up against the boys on a Heavy (9) Randwick course in the Group 3 Ming Dynasty (1400m) showed off her potential to go a mile.
Lock in your Sydney race selections across the card on Saturday at the best prices through Ladbrokes.com.au – home of Odds Boost (T&Cs apply) – and check out the full Flight Stakes 2016 form guide below.
