Last start William Reid Stakes winner Silent Sedition has opened favourite in Queen Of The Turf Stakes 2017 betting to continue her Group 1 success in Sydney on Saturday.
William Reid Stakes winner Silent Sedition leads 2017 Queen Of The Turf Stakes betting to post a Sydney Group 1 this Saturday at Randwick. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.
Running as Royal Randwick Race 9 at 4:35pm (AEST) as the penultimate event on Day 2 of ‘The Championships’, this year’s Queen Of The Turf Stakes runs as the $1 million Group 1 Coolmore Legacy Stakes (1600m) and features a full field of eighteen.
Heading the line-up and drawn well in barrier seven is the Andrew Noblet-trained Silent Sedition who has run top three in all but one of her sixteen career starts to date.
The picture of consistency, the War Chant four-year-old’s only time out of the money was a Group 2 fourth over the Moonee Valley mile as a filly in 2015 and she has races in her fourth Group 1 race on the weekend.
Runner-up in Adelaide’s Schweppes Oaks last winter, two back Silent Sedition was a luckless second just nudged out of the Group 1 Coolmore Classic (1500m) at Rosehill.
She went back in distance and in a surprise to even Noblet, flew round the Valley circuit under the lights on March 24 to win the Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m).
As per the original program, the mare returns to Sydney for her autumn closer on the weekend in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes and she sits top of the markets at $4.50 through Ladbrokes.com.au to hand Noblet his second Group 1 win.
Close second elect in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes odds paying $6 to become the race’s first three-year-old winner since Forensics in 2008 is the Chris Waller-trained Foxplay.
Jockey Kerrin McEvoy has enjoyed two wins in the past four years aboard Appearance (2013) and Amanpour (2015) and will chase a third Queen Of The Turf Stakes victory on Saturday aboard Waller’s gun grey filly.
Foxplay has been to Randwick four times for two Group 2 wins and a second first-up in mid-February behind dual Group 1 winner Global Glamour in the Light Fingers Stakes.
She has subsequently posted a Group 2 Phar Lap Stakes win at Rosehill and comes off a close fourth to Montoya’s Secret when just two lengths off the winner on March 25 in the Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m).
The daughter of Foxwedge may be taking on the older mares on Saturday, but she should relish the drop back to a mile and the drop back from 56kg to 54.5kg at weight-for-age.
Two of the past three Queen Of The Turf Stakes results were notable upsets with Diamond Drille ($41 in 2014) and Amanpour ($21 in 2015) saluting at big prices before Azkadellia ($2.75 in 2016) got the job done for the punters last year.
Just two other mares are under double-figures in markets this year with Heavens Above and Dixie Blossoms currently paying $8 for the win.
The Tim Martin-trained Heavens Above was last seen narrowly beating home Saturday’s favourite in the Coolmore Classic and chases the double on Saturday last achieved by Appearance (2013).
Ron Quinton’s runner Dixie Blossoms meanwhile comes off a third in the Group 2 Emancipation Stakes (1500m) when under a length beaten in the lead-up.
Of the double-figure hopes standouts chasing an upset in 2017 include early market mover Danish Twist ($10), the Emancipation Stakes winner Zanbagh ($12) out wide in gate sixteen and the fellow John Thompson-trained First Seal ($16).
Check out the full Queen Of The Turf Stakes 2017 odds below heading to Ladbrokes.com.au for all the weekend’s best racing markets and offers.
