Carlton House Heads Queen Elizabeth Stakes 2014 Field & Odds

Kiwi mare Silent Achiever is after her thrid Group 1 Sydney win on the trot in Saturday's Queen Elizabeth Stakes 2014. Photo: Steve Hart.

Gai Waterhouse saddles up two of the four Group 1 favourites on Sydney Cup Day this weekend including her progressive import Carlton House in the 2014 Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

While Sydney’s Queen of racing is represented in the Sydney Cup on Saturday by top fancy The Offer, she also has the punters’ pick in the day’s richest race – the $4 million Group 1 Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m).

Running as Royal Randwick Race 8 at 4:25pm (AEST), this year’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes field features 12 final acceptors including Street Cry six-year-old Carlton House.

An apt favourite for the race being owned by the Queen of England, Carlton House currently sits top of the Queen Elizabeth Stakes odds at Ladbrokes.com.au paying $3.50 as the early market mover.

Drawn in gate five with Tommy Berry to ride, the former European is looking for their maiden win down under at start number five on Aussie soil.

They came very close last time out at Rosehill on March 22 when McEvoy guided them to a nose away second behind Silent Achiever in the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes (2000m).

Now they get the chance to go one better over the same distance but at Randwick, how they handle the likely wet track key to their success.

It’s a red hot Queen Elizabeth Stakes line-up after the juicy $2.4 million first prize this year, and as such a very tight betting market.

There are four other single figure hopes aside from the favourite with:

#10 Silent Achiever ($4.60) – Roger James-trained Kiwi mare in blistering form having won both her starts in Sydney since coming across the Tasman on the back of her New Zealand Stakes Group 1 win at home, took out the Ranvet beating Carlton House by a nose before backing up to win The BMW on Golden Slipper Day in an impressive effort, she drops back from 2400m to 2000m here but the other option was a Sydney Cup start over the two miles in the wet, she needs to be at her sharpest to handle the decreased distance but it’s hard not to back a Group 1 winning mare while they’re in form and this one is doing everything right
#2 It’s A Dundeel ($6 – Murray Baker’s High Chaparral four-year-old is prepared is another New Zealand raider in the mix here who boasts five Group 1 Australian wins already, they haven’t won since the Underwood in Melbourne last September but have been top three in their trio of autumn runs this time in, first-up second in the Chipping Norton was followed by a Ranvet third where they didn’t have the finishing pace to match the winner, second again to Silent Achiever in The BMW and also drop back in distance here shooting for the major prize money
#1 Boban ($8.50) – Trainer Chris Waller trained first four over the line in last weekend’s Doncaster and is out in force again here numbers wise with five Queen Elizabeth chances, he’s won it wice in three years including Reliable Man last year so is again in with a chance with Boban is best fancied, winner of the Chipping Norton two back the Bernardini four-year-old comes via a George Ryder seventh from March 29 and will appreciate the extra distance here
#11 Royal Descent ($8.50) – Waller’s next best fancied to go back-to-back in the Queen Elizabeth, Redoute’s Choice mare Royal Descent comes off a Doncaster second from last weekend when a half length off her winning stablemate Sacred Falls (now a dual Doncaster champ), had gate 18 of 20 there so can handle drawing wide and also handles the wet tracks, likes Randwick too having also run second in the George Main last spring so one to watch for sure

Also in the mix just outside the top half of the market are then two more from the Waller stables in his reigning Queensland Derby champ Hawkspur ($11) and Sacred Falls ($12) who ran fourth and first respectively in the Doncaster last Saturday over the mile here.

The rest of the field can be found at $26 (Green Moon) and above.

Check out the full Queen Elizabeth Stakes 2014 field, jockeys and latest Fixed Win odds below.

The barrier draw for the Queen Elizabeth and the Sydney Cup will take place tonight from 6pm (AEST) and published right here at Races.com.au as soon as they’re officially announced so stay tuned.

In the meantime why not click on the Queen Elizabeth Stakes odds on your early selections and place your bets online at Ladbrokes.com.au who will be offering some juicy promotions this weekend for the Randwick races!