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Chipping Norton Stakes day: Group 1 previews and tips

Winx is going for a record at Randwick. (Photo: AAP)
Expert
28th February, 2018
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This weekend brings with it the first Saturday in autumn. In racing, the autumn carnival belongs to Sydney, so it is only fitting they kick off their first Group 1s of the year.

Royal Randwick hosts the Chipping Norton Stakes, and the return of wonder mare Winx will naturally overshadow everything else. But the Surround Stakes for three-year-old fillies is also being run as a Group 1 for the first time, having been a Group 2 for the last 30 years – it is a promotion exactly no-one was crying out for, but that’s another conversation for a different day.

Chipping Norton Stakes
The Chipping Norton, held over the famous Randwick 1600m under weight-for-age conditions, is a true champion’s race. The honour roll includes some of the most famous names in Australian racing history – Phar Lap, Bernborough, Tulloch, Rain Lover, Super Impose, Octagonal, Tie the Knot, Lohnro, and of course, Winx herself, who is shooting for three in a row.

The difference for Winx this time around is that she is first-up into the Chipping Norton, where previously she has won by an effortless couple of lengths hitting the race second-up. She has never been first-up at 1600m before, but there is reason to think she might be better suited than at 1400m these days.

With three Cox Plates on her mantelpiece, there’s not much more she can do, and she’ll certainly have nothing to prove shooting for her 23rd win on end in this race. She’ll look to equal Black Caviar’s streak of 25 this preparation.

Although it’s sometimes easy to forget, Winx will actually have opposition on Saturday. Whether they can provide a contest is something else altogether.

Chris Waller will often throw a handful of runners in to race their famous stablemate, hoping to pick up fitness and prize money (in that order) but this time there is only two. Who Shot Thebarman ran third in this first-up last year on a heavy track. Libran is sure to need the run.

Prized Icon and Stampede are the closest two to Winx in the market, both having credentials over a mile.

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Prized Icon is a dual Group 1 winner, both once reaching maximum distances at both two (Champagne Stakes, 1600m) and three (VRC Derby, 2500m). He could be set for the Doncaster, BMW or even Sydney Cup, so his options are open to him, and has shown good signs at his two runs back.

Stampede is a more limited galloper based on what we’ve seen so far and didn’t quite measure up to WFA racing first-up in the Apollo Stakes. Second-up and a step up in distance will help.

Classic Uniform has improved markedly in the last 12 months or so, culminating in wins in the Hill Stakes and Craven Plate to finish off his spring campaign. Any win over Happy Clapper is a good one.

Jemadar is improving and might have found a way to sneak a Group 1 WFA placing. He’s fit, in form and a specialist miler.

Lasqueti Spirit did run second in this last year, only two lengths behind Winx, but her two runs in spring were awful. Vinland is a three-year-old having a throw at the stumps, perhaps having a look at the track and distance before backing up in the Randwick Guineas next week.

Selections
1. Winx
2. Prized Icon
3. Jemadar
4. Vinland

winx-cox-plate-hugh-bowman-racing-horse-2016

(AAP Image/Joe Castro)

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Surround Stakes
Winx is the star mare of our time, but Alizee may be the star filly of this season. She produced two stunning winning efforts in the spring, taking out the Flight Stakes and the Tea Rose before running a bit flat in Melbourne.

She was still a credible third in the Thousand Guineas, though.

Alizee resumed with a professional win in the Light Fingers Stakes two weeks ago and will surely take great benefit from the run. She’s a big filly with an enormous stride and once she gets going it’s hard for many to match her.

Shumookh was a very good second behind Alizee in the Light Fingers and has to be considered a threat. Her second to D’argento in January was franked last week by that horse’s run in a star-laden Hobartville Stakes finish. Kementari form is as good as there is in the three-year-old division at the moment.

There were other runs of merit in the Light Fingers.

Torvill ran a bottler at a drifting 100-1 to run third in the race and had to find her way out in the straight, but we probably need to see it again before jumping in. It was a beautiful run though; if you take her run as read, then she’s over the odds.

Frolic was the obvious eye-catcher in fourth. It took her about 700m just to tack onto the field after not being able to keep up at all, but once she joined them she kept going past most into fourth. Hers was a strongly sustained gallop in the straight.

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Melody Belle didn’t shirk her task into fifth, but others were better. Yulong Xingsheng finished ninth but is capable of better.

Shoals, up from Melbourne, is the enigma. She won the Group 1 Myer Classic in the spring against the older mares, and was second in the Thousand Guineas too, beating home Alizee. But her first-up run in the Kevin Hayes was horrible. Yes, she copped a squeeze at the 200m but was going nowhere anyway, and she gave nothing in the run to the line.

If the spring version of Shoals turns up, she’s almost equal favourite. Do we forgive a good horse a bad run?

Rimraam has also made the trip north, after winning the Vanity Stakes first-up off the back of heavy market support. She has obviously come along after showing promise over middle distances in the spring and looks overs.

Unforgotten is trying to win the race first-up, but it looks a task. In Waller we trust, etc. Moss Trip is fit and has the ability. Touch of Mink is a maiden, and it’s unlikely backers of her will get to live up to the name.

There is a question of who leads here. One of the goats maybe? Shumookh has done it but was so good settling handy last start. Rimraam is in a similar boat. The early tactics will go a long way to deciding the race.

Horse Racing

(AAP Image/Craig Golding)

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Selections
1. Alizee
2. Shumookh
3. Rimraam
4. Shoals

The support races are highlighted by a couple of Group 2s for the two-year-olds. Last Saturday at Rosehill, Sunlight and Estijaab stamped themselves beyond doubt as the testing material from a Golden Slipper perspective, while at Caulfield Written By raced away with the Blue Diamond.

The Skyline Stakes and Sweet Embrace Stakes look like the B-graders by comparison, but Santos is currently on the fifth line of Slipper betting. Let’s see if he can go on with it after demolishing his rivals a fortnight ago.

In the Guy Walter Stakes for mares, Dixie Blossoms has a class edge on her rivals and looks pitched in at the weights, but she hasn’t won first-up since her debut run. That said, she’s never resumed over 1400m before, and it looks right up her alley. She’ll be hard to beat.

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