Horse Racing

Peter Snowden’s Caulfield Guineas champion Helmet spearheads the Australian Guineas 2012 nominations this season, early entries for the Melbourne Autumn Racing Carnival classic taken by Racing Victoria this week.

Caulfield Guineas winner Helmet is the headline 2012 Australian Guineas nominee

A total of 113 three-year-olds were nominated for this year’s edition of the $750,000 Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m), the esteemed mile showdown set to run at Flemington Racecourse on Saturday March 3.

Snowden has nominated seven from his stable for the Australian Guineas 2012, the top-rated of which is the overseas-bound Exceed And Excel colt Helmet.

A winner of six of their 10 career starts to date, most notably the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) back in October, Helmet is set to resume racing in the $200,000 Group 3 CS Hayes Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on February 18 before his swansong Australian race appearance in the Australian Guineas.

Other Australian Guineas 2012 entries that came in behind Helmet in the Caulfield Guineas last spring include the Peter Moody-trained Huegill (3^rd), Anthony Freedman’s stakes winning grey Specter (4^th), Mick Price’s Starcraft gelding Secret Hills (6^th) and the Rick Hore-Lacy-trained Group 2 champ Chase The Rainbow (7^th).

Helmet’s Australian Guineas-nominated stablemates are then Commands colt Ambidexter, Group 2 winner Free Wheeling, Flemington winner over the mile on Derby Day Galah, brave Victoria Derby runner-up Induna, consistent Ad Valorem gelding Pied A Terre and Benfica.

Winner of the Group 1 TJ Smith (1600m) in Brisbane back in June, Lonhro colt Benfica is set to resume racing on Australia Day in the Listed Zeditave Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield.

Last year’s Australian Guineas winner was Shamrocker from the local Flemington stables of Danny O’Brien.

O’Brien has nominated four three-year-olds in his attempt to go back-to-back in the race, the most notable of which is the lightly-raced Encosta De Lago colt Decircles who resumed with a close first-up second to First Command in the Listed Kensington Stakes (1000m) at Flemington last Saturday.

The most notable filly among the 2012 Australian Guineas nominations who will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Shamrocker is the Robert Smerdon-trained daughter of Fastnet Rock Mosheen, the emphatic nine length winner of the Group 1 Crown Oaks (2500m) last time out at Flemington.

Also featured in the entries is another Melbourne Cup Carnival winning three-year-old, Victoria Derby hero Sangster from New Zealand.

First acceptances for the 2012 Australian Guineas close on February 21 followed by the final field released on February 29.

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2012 Australian Guineas Nominations

Flemington – 03/03/2012