The Champagne Stakes is a Gr 1 Australian horse race run over
1600m by two-year-old thoroughbreds assigned set weights at Randwick
Racecourse in Sydney. Held annually at the end of April, the race is
part of the Randwick Autumn Carnival. In 2008, its purse was just
over AUD$450,000.
The Randwick Autumn Carnival runs is usually contested on key days,
including Easter Saturday, Easter Monday and the two following
Saturdays. The final Saturday of the carnival is considered to be
the most important because it boasts the Sydney Cup, the Queen
Elizabeth Stakes, the Champagne Stakes and the All-Aged Stakes.
Inaugurated in 1863, the Champagne Stakes is something of a staple
in the Australian horseracing calendar, and a race that regularly
attracts many formidable two-year-old and trainers from Sydney and
beyond. One of the race's more notable winners was Sky High, who won
the coveted race in 1960.
Sky High also went on to win many other big Australian races
including the VRC Futurity Stakes in 1961, the VRC Lightning Stakes
in 1962 and the AJC Daily and Sunday Telegraph Stakes in 1962. A
more recent Champagne Stakes winner that went onto greater things is
1984 winner, Red Anchor.
In the same year he chalked up victories in such races as the MVRC
W.S. Cox Plate (Gr 1), the VATC Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1), the VRC
Victoria Derby (Gr 1), the MVRC Moonee Valley Stakes (Gr 2), the QTC
Sires' Produce Stakes (Gr 2) and the Tatt's NSW Roman Consul Stakes. |
