2020 Winx Stakes Day: Randwick Scratchings & Track Report

Winx Stakes Day 2020 steals the show in Sydney today, Saturday August 22, kicking off Group 1 racing for the spring and below we take a look at the Randwick race scratchings and latest track report ahead of the first.

Verry Elleegant Horse Form (Photo: Steve Hart) | Races.com.au

Verry Elleegant is one of four Chris Waller-trained runners in the 2020
Winx Stakes field today in Sydney. Photo: Steve Hart.

Randwick Track Report – 22/08/2020

Rail: True
Penetrometer: 5.7
Weather: Fine
Dual Track Meeting: N
Track Type: Turf
Track Rating: Soft 7
General Comment: Finalised 22/8 – 7:45am
Irrigation: Nil
Rainfall: Nil last 24hrs, 5.2mm last 7 days

It is a mostly fine day trackside and with the forecast only showing the chance of very light showers later in the day, the current Soft (7) Randwick track rating looks set to remain across the afternoon.

Randwick racing gets underway at 12:00pm and the nine-race card continues through until the last at 5:05pm.

There are four Group status features on the line-up starting with Race 4 at 1:45pm where nine three-year-old fillies remain in the mix for the Group 2 $200,000 Silver Shadow Stakes (1200m) after the withdrawal of the Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott-trained Kaakit Akit (10).

Updated Silver Shadow Stakes odds at Ladbrokes.com.au have the rails-drawn See You Soon as the $3.30 favourite to kick off her spring with a win when she meets the second-elect, the Peter & Paul Snowden-trained Group 2 winner Dame Giselle ($4.20) for the sixth time.

Next-up Race 5 is a top edition of the Group 3 $160,000 Show County Quality (1200m) where trainer Chris Waller has opted to run his Flight Stakes winner Funstar ($2.80 favourite) first-up after scratching her from the Group 1.

I Am Superman (11) has been scratched from the 2020 Show County Quality field, which also features the Kris Lees-trained duo of Special Reward ($4.80) and multiple Group 1 winner Le Romain ($26).

Leading-up to the big event, Race 6 sees a solid line-up of fillies and mares do battle in the Group 3 $160,000 Toy Show Quality (1100m) where Witherspoon (4) is the notable withdrawal in favour of a run at The Valley.

The marquee race on the program is then the Group 1 $500,000 Winx Stakes (1400m) jumping at 3:45pm and still featuring a capacity 16 runners as the two emergencies – Wolfe (9) and Zebrowski (7) – come in.

Along with the aforementioned Funstar the other scratching from the Winx Stakes 2020 field is last year’s beaten favourite Avilius who is being saved instead for a run in the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes in a fortnight.

The Bostonian ($5.50) is firming favourite in the latest Winx Stakes odds at Ladbrokes.com.au first-up having won six of his previous seven resuming runs to date.

See below for the full Randwick scratchings and jump times before heading to Ladbrokes.com.au for all the best Sydney racing odds and offers.