After the shock scratching of Omei Sword from the Flight Stakes 2016, the David Vandyke-trained Yankee Rose is the new odds-on favourite to win the fillies’ mile showdown at Randwick Racecourse on Saturday.

Yankee Rose is the new odds-on favourite in Flight Stakes 2016 betting on the Group 1 at Royal Randwick on Saturday. Photo: Steve Hart.
Chris Waller was forced to scratch his Golden Rose runner-up Omei Sword from the $500,000 Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) and send promising filly out for a spell after it was discovered she was suffering from a respiratory infection.
The Flight Stakes field is now down to six starters with Peter & Paul Snowden also withdrawing their runner, Quick Feet, from the Epsom Handicap Day feature.
Jumping from barrier five in the diminutive line-up is the new odds-on favourite in Flight Stakes betting at Ladbrokes.com.au, Yankee Rose at $1.80 for the win.
Jockey Blake Shinn won the race two years ago aboard First Seal (2014) and chases another success aboard a Flight Stakes top fancy as he replaces Zac Purton in the saddle.
Purton rode the daughter of All American first-up on September 10 at Rosehill Gardens for the sixth when unsuited to a front-running ride in the lead early behind eventual winner Astern in the Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m).
As a two-year-old Yankee Rose won three of her four opening career starts including the Group 1 ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Randwick during April’s ‘The Championships’.
That followed her second to Capitalist in the world’s richest race for juveniles, the $3.5 million Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m), which was her first loss.
Returning to Randwick this Saturday off a three week break, all the money in Flight Stakes markets is on Yankee Rose to return to winning form after she took out a Warwick Farm trial on September 23 over 1200m with Shinn in the saddle.
Occupying the second line of betting at $4.50 (in from $9) is the rails-drawn Global Glamour looking to hand Gai Waterhouse with back-to-back wins after the success of Speak Fondly 12 months ago.
The Star Witness filly, co-trained by Adrian Bott, comes off a sixth to Waller’s 2016 Thousand Guineas-bound Foxplay in the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m), the standout form race for the Flight Stakes over the past 30 years.
Speak Fondly (2015) was the eighth Flight Stakes winner prepared by Waterhouse and the first since More Joyous (2009) who saluted from barrier one that Global Glamour is drawn in this weekend.
The next best fancied fillies for the Group 1 mile win are the James Cummings-trained Skylight Glow ($6.50) and market mover Awoke ($7) drawn in barriers three and four respectively.
Northern Meteor filly Skylight Glow ran third first-up under a length off the winner Swear at Randwick on a Heavy (9) track when taking on the boys in the Group 3 Ming Dynasty Quality (1400m).
Her last run was a brave second just a quarter-length off Foxplay in the Tea Rose Stakes, form that could stack-up on Saturday.
Awoke meanwhile is one of two remaining chances for Waller along with Sezanne ($9.50).
Jockey Brenton Avdulla partners the Rip Van Winkle filly on the weekend after his second Flight Stakes success after riding Secret irer for her 2010 win six years ago.
Awoke is tipped to improve on a Tea Rose Stakes seventh where after a patchy run home she still managed to finish under two lengths off her winning stablemate, a performance she’ll improve on with a straighter run over more metres on Saturday.
See below for the latest Flight Stakes 2016 odds, betting updated after the scratchings and open at Ladbrokes.com.au.