This Saturday’s Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) is a classic event for 3yo fillies that is steeped in history and prestige. It offers staying fillies a rare chance at Group 1 glory and the winner is exempt from a ballot into the Group 1 ATC Oaks (2400m) at Randwick on April 8.
Vinery Stud Stakes winners Verry Elleegant (2019) and Hungry Heart (2021) went on to complete the classic double at Randwick. The 2022 winner Fangirl is by Sebring, a Golden Slipper Stakes-winning son of Vinery sire More Than Ready (USA), and she was runner-up to Anamoe in last week’s Group 1 George Ryder Stakes.
Fangirl is trained by Chris Waller and she holds another Group 1 entry for the Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) at Rosehill next Saturday.
Waller also prepares Roots and the daughter of Vinery sire Press Statement can make a deserved black-type breakthrough in the Group 2 Emancipation Stakes (1500m) at the Vinery Stud Stakes meeting this Saturday. She won the $250,000 Inglis Bracelet (1600m) at Flemington in the spring and was placed in the Group 2 Millie Fox Stakes (1300m) first-up at Rosehill last month.
The Vinery Stud Stakes was first run in 1979 when it was named the Storm Queen Stakes after the first Golden Slipper winner, trainer by Bart Cummings. It was rebranded the Vinery Stud Stakes in 2010 when it was won by another Cummings-prepared filly in Faint Perfume.
“It is a great pleasure for Vinery Stud to support racing through our sponsorship of the Vinery Stud Stakes,” said Vinery’s General Manager Peter Orton. “It’s a time-honoured Group 1 race for three-year-old fillies who are the broodmares of the future and therefore, the lifeblood of our industry and the core of our business.
“Past winning graduates are a great testament to the class and ability it requires to win a race of this standing and since Vinery took over the race’s naming rights, six of the winners have gone on to be named Champions and nine have become millionaires.”
In keeping with its rising influence, Racing NSW has increased prizemoney from $500,000 to $600,000 for this year’s Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes.
