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Dundeel’s second attempt
Last year’s
It’s A Dundeel
just failed to create
history as the first Australian Derby winner to
win the Queen Elizabeth Stakes as a three-
year-old since the Derby was moved from the
spring to the autumn in 1979.
It’s A Dundeel, who had won the 3YO Triple
Crown, ran gamely for second behind French
Derby winner Reliable Man.
This year It’s A Dundeel goes into the Queen
Elizabeth Stakes at his fourth run in this
campaign and chasing his first win. Only
Eremein (2006) and the mare Tristarc (1986)
have won the Australian Derby and returned at
four to win the Queen Elizabeth.
Fourth time lucky for
Baker
The Queen Elizabeth Stakes is a race that It’s A
Dundeel’s trainer
Murray Baker
is extra keen to
win—he’s had three starters for three seconds.
Before It’s A Dundeel, Baker’s other Australian
Derby winner, Nom Du Jeu, backed up in the
2008 Queen Elizabeth Stakes to finish second
behind Sarrera.
Back in 1992, Baker’s My Eagle Eye finished
second behind Rough Habit in the Queen
Elizabeth before winning the Sydney Cup.
Silently achieving
Silent Achiever
is aiming for clean sweep of
the autumn’s big three weight-for-age middle
distance Group 1 features—the Ranvet, The
BMW and Queen Elizabeth.
The near black mare was dominant in the Ranvet
(2000m) and The BWM (2400m), both at Rosehill,
but it will be a test for trainer
Roger James
to
bring her back in distance to 2000 metres.
However, it’s been done before—Allan Denham
did it in 2006 with Eremein.
Tough for mares
Silent Achiever is aiming to be only the sixth
mare to win the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in its
60 years. The first was Jandell in 1975 and the
most recent More Joyous in 2012.
The 2013 Australian Oaks winner
Royal
Descent
and the runner-up
Dear Demi
, who
won the 2012 VRC Oaks, also are contenders
to be next mare to win the Queen Elizabeth.
The imports
Last year Reliable Man (GB) became the fourth
imported horse to win the Queen Elizabeth
Stakes after
My Kingdom Of Fife (GB)
in 2011,
Jeune (GB) in 1995 and Authaal (USA) in 1988.
Imports chasing a win this year include
Carlton
House (USA), Green Moon (IRE), Le Roi
(GER)
and
My Kingdom Of Fife (GB)
.
The Queen
Queen Elizabeth II has attended the running
of the race named in her honour three
times—1954 (inaugural race won by Blue
Ocean), 1970 (won by Panvale at 100/1) and
1992 (won by Rough Habit).
She won’t be at Randwick this year, but she
will have a runner, the Gai Waterhouse-trained
Carlton House
.
Chipping Norton
Despite the emphasis on the Ranvet Stakes
and The BMW being the key lead-up races
to the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, it is the
Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) at
Warwick Farm—run this year on March 8—that
historically is the most significant guide to
finding the winner.
Eleven winners of the Chipping Norton (won
this year by
Boban
) have gone on to win the
Queen Elizabeth in the same campaign—only
five Ranvet winners have completed the double,
while 10 The BMW winners have won it.
The jockeys
Damien Oliver
, with four Queen Elizabeth
winners, is chasing George Moore’s record of
six. Oliver has won on Road To Rock (2010),
Sarrera (2008), Desert War (2007) and Defier
(2002) and he sits equal second on the all-
time winning list with Peter Cook and Neville
Sellwood.
Oliver was booked for the now retired Fiorente,
however was quick to pick up the ride on
Doncaster runner-up
Royal Descent
.
It’s 22 years since
Jim Cassidy
won his only
Queen Elizabeth, on Rough Habit for trainer
John Wheeler. He will partner
Hawkspur
.
The trainers
Tommy Smith’s record 11 winners of the Queen
Elizabeth Stakes is an amazing statistic—he
won them in the space of 27 years from
Tulloch’s first of three in 1958 to Chiamare’s win
in 1984.
Smith’s daughter
Gai Waterhouse
(Carlton
House) is chasing her fifth winner;
Chris Waller
(Hawkspur, Boban, Royal Descent, Sacred
Falls and My Kingdom Of Fife) is after his third.
In Focus
Longines Queen
Elizabeth Stakes
