The Flight Stakes is a Gr 1 Australian horse race at set
weights contested by three-year-old fillies over a distance of 1600m
in October each year at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. It offers a
purse of AUD$400,000 and is part of Sydney's spring racing carnival.
The Flight Stakes is run on Epsom Handicap day and is well-attended
by Randwick punters. Inaugurated in 1947, the Flight Stakes was run
as a Principle Race until 1978. From 1979 until 1984 it was run as a
Gr 3 race and from then until now it evolved into a Gr 2 race and
finally a Gr 1 race.
One of the most important races for three-year-old fillies in
Sydney, many trainers aim their best fillies at the Flight Stakes.
En route in September, many enter their most promising contenders in
the 1400m Furious Stakes (Gr 2) and the 1500m Tea Rose Stakes (Gr 2)
as prep races.
Since its inception, the Flight Stakes has yielded many great
winners. One of the more recent is Sunline, sired by Desert Sun out
of Songline, an excellent New Zealand-bred filly owned by Trevor
McKee, Thayne Green and Helen Lusty, and trained by Trevor McKee.
After winning the 1998 Flight Stakes, Sunline went on to triumph in
the Cox Plate, the Doncaster Handicap, the All Aged Stakes, the
Coolmore Classic, the Hong Kong Mile and many more. She was later
inducted into both the Australian Racing Hall of Fame and later the
New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame. |
