John Thompson’s returning Group 1 winning mare First Seal is the top-rated and shortest-priced of the Golden Pendant 2016 nominations taken for the feature race in Sydney this weekend.

Group 1 winner First Seal is nominated for a first-up run in Rosehill’s 2016 Golden Pendant in Sydney on Saturday. Photo: Steve Hart.

Early all-in markets are now open at Ladbrokes.com.au for Saturday’s $400,000 Group 2 Ronald McDonald House Westmead Golden Pendant (1400m), the Rosehill Gardens’ showdown attracting 15 fillies and mares at nomination stage on Monday.

Leading those pre-field Golden Pendant odds at $4 is First Seal who carries the 58kg top weight under the set weights plus penalties condition of the race if accepted.

Winner of the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1400m) as a three-year-old back in 2014, the now five-year-old daughter of Fastnet Rock hasn’t raced since things went amiss for her 12^th to Winx in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) in early April.

She has trialled twice since including a September 5 win at Randwick over 1200m by three lengths, First Seal chasing her first win since a first-up Rosehill victory in the Group 2 Millie Fox Stakes (1300m) in February.

A first-up flyer (4-2-1-0), she also has a stellar record over the Golden Pendant distance (3-2-1-0) and is tipped as the one to beat.

Thompson has also nominated for Zanbagh, the Group 2 Emancipation Stakes (1500m) winner at the track during the autumn last seen running fifth to Azkadellia in the Group 1 Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) on April 9.

The other best fancied mare in the bookies’ eyes for the Golden Pendant prior to the release of final acceptances on Wednesday is Heavens Above ($6).

Tim Martin prepares the locally-trained Street Cry five-year-old who has had two runs since her second in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes during ‘The Championships’.

First-up she ran fourth to Pearls in the Group 3 Toy Show Quality (1300m) before positing her fourth career win in the Group 3 Sheraco Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill on September 10.

Also coming off the Sheraco Stakes and nominated for a rematch in the Golden Pendant for more prize money is the Peter & Paul Snowden-trained Ravi.

The four-year-old daughter of Redoute’s Choice carried 54kg in the Sheraco first-up and is up a kilo on the weekend in just her second black-type start.

She pays $7.50 to post her fifth career win at start number nine and break her stakes’ maiden status, with the only other mare shorter than her in the markets being the Ron Quinton-trained Dixie Blossoms ($7).

Dixie Blossoms ran second in the Toy Show before things went amiss for her 12^th in the Sheraco when still only beaten 3.4 lengths in a run she is out to atone for this weekend.

Team Snowden’s Tycoon Tara is also nominated for the Golden Pendant, but could instead be Melbourne-bound on Saturday for a shot at the $500,000 Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield Racecourse.

Other notable Golden Pendant Stakes entries include the John O’Shea-trained Toy Show winner Pearls out to improve on the eleventh in the Sheraco, Toowoomba visitor Sold For Song, Sheraco fourth-placed Denmagic and Legless Veuve who is the sole filly nominated to take on the older mares.

See below for the full Golden Pendant 2016 nominations, the field and barriers followed by updated odds at Ladbrokes.com.au due out on Wednesday.

2016 Golden Pendant Nominations

Rosehill Racecourse – 24/09/2016