Chris Waller’s in-form filly Foxplay is one of the headline acceptances for the Thousand Guineas 2016 field running at Caulfield Racecourse this Saturday in Melbourne.
The in-form Chris Waller-trained Foxplay heads south for Saturday’s 2016 Thousand Guineas at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne. Photo: Steve Hart.
Four Group 1 races take place for Caulfield Guineas Day including the $500,000 Group 1 Schweppes Thousand Guineas (1600m) that has attracted a line-up of 15 three-year-old fillies.
Coming off back-to-back wins in Sydney having completed the Group 2 Furious Stakes (1200m) – Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) at Randwick is Waller’s daughter of Foxwedge Foxplay.
She byed last Saturday’s Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) in favour of this trip south, but the past three Thousand Guineas winners that came off a non-Melbourne lead-up ran in the Flight Stakes: Mnemosyne (34d in 2005), Yosei (6th in 2010) and Guelph (1st in 2013).
Waller chases his second Thousand Guineas victory after preparing Amicus (2014) for her victory two years ago.
This year Gai Waterhouse won her ninth Flight Stakes with Global Glamour who is accepted for the quick back-up chasing the Group 1 interstate double on Saturday.
The Star Witness filly beat home Yankee Rose by a half-length last Saturday and on Saturday jockey Kerrin McEvoy is booked for the ride after his second Flight Stakes victory.
The other last start winners in the Thousand Guineas field this spring are the Stuart Webb-trained Legless Veuve, Henry Dwyer’s local hope Leotie and the Lindsay Park-trained Harlow Glow who all come off back-to-back victories.
Pins filly Legless Veuve took out the Group 2 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m) a fortnight back and is looking for the double most recently achieved by Irish Lights (2009).
The past two Thousand Guineas winners were both Prelude graduates – Amicus (2nd in 2014) and Stay With Me (6th in 2015).
The other best out of the Prelude this season running in Saturday’s Group 1 are the New Zealand visitor La Luna Rossa (2nd) for Murray Baker & Andrew Forsman, New Approach filly Sword Of Light (3rd), the Shane Nichols-trained I Am A Star (4th), Sebring Dream (5th), Missrock (6th), Whispering Brook (7th) and Samara Dancer (8th).
Leotie rises in class here after winning successive Benchmark 78 races at Caulfield and Bendigo, while last year’s winning training duo of David Hayes & Tom Dabernig have accepted for both the aforementioned Harlow Gold who saluted over the Caulfield mile on September 17 and Sebring Dream.
Check out the full Thousand Guineas 2016 field of final acceptances below, the barrier draw set to take place at 10:45am (AEDT) this morning.
Before then make sure you’ve got an open and ready to go at Ladbrokes.com.au this weekend – home of Odds Boost (T&Cs apply).
2016 Thousand Guineas Final Field
Caulfield Racecourse – 08/10/2016
| # | Form (Last 10) | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Wgt. | H. Ratingm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1x1111x27 | WHISPERING BROOK | Simon A Miller | Nicholas Hall | 55.5kg | 85 |
| 2 | 139x1x66 | MISSROCK | Robbie Laing | Dwayne Dunn | 55.5kg | 81 |
| 3 | 1×361 | GLOBAL GLAMOUR | Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | Kerrin McEvoy | 55.5kg | 102 |
| 4 | 54x212x11 | FOXPLAY | Chris Waller | TBA | 55.5kg | 88 |
| 5 | 611×154 | I AM A STAR (NZ) | Shane Nichols | Steven King | 55.5kg | 81 |
| 6 | 23511×22 | LA LUNA ROSSA (NZ) | Murray Baker & Andrew Forsman | Damien Oliver | 55.5kg | 85 |
| 7 | 1x10x38 | SAMARA DANCER (NZ) | Phillip Stokes | Dom Tourneur | 55.5kg | 78 |
| 8 | 72×11 | LEGLESS VEUVE (NZ) | Stuart Webb | Mark Zahra | 55.5kg | 82 |
| 9 | 1108×2503 | SWORD OF LIGHT | Mathew Ellerton & Simon Zahra | Damian Lane | 55.5kg | 75 |
| 10 | 9×1211 | LEOTIE | Henry Dwyer | Chris Parnham | 55.5kg | 77 |
| 11 | 21×55 | SEBRING DREAM | David & B Hayes & T Dabernig | Michael Walker | 55.5kg | 69 |
| 12 | 3×611 | HARLOW GOLD (NZ) | David & B Hayes & T Dabernig | Regan Bayliss (a) | 55.5kg | 69 |
| 13 | 29×45 | SMART AMELIA | James Cummings | James McDonald | 55.5kg | 65 |
| 14 | 7x1x280 | PEEKING DUCK | Trent Pennuto | Craig Newitt | 55.5kg | 63 |
| 15 | 83×95475 | FROMPARIS WITHLOVE | Leon & Troy Corstens | Ben E Thompson (a) | 55.5kg | 62 |
