Two exciting juveniles are batting for favouritism in the Champagne Stakes 2015 betting markets for Saturday’s Randwick feature with the filly Pasadena Girl narrow top fancy over Odyssey Moon.
Pasadena Girl is narrow favourite after firming in the markets for Saturday’s 2015 Champagne Stakes at Randwick Racecourse. Photo Adrienen Bicknell.
Fillies have won the past two editions of the two-year-olds’ set weights classic, with the Peter Moody-trained Pasadena Girl tipped to continue the trend in this year’s $400,000 Group 1 Moet & Chandon Champagne Stakes (1600m).
A diminutive field of just nine youngsters face off in the All Aged Stakes Day showdown on Saturday, the lightly-raced favourite drawn a treat in barrier four for Hugh Bowman to ride.
Savabeel filly Pasadena Girl kicked off her career this autumn with back-to-back black type wins at Flemington including the Group 3 Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) in mid-March.
Moody then bought her to Sydney on April 6 where she ran a brave fourth beaten only one and a half lengths by Blue Diamond champ Pride Of Dubai in the Group 1 ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m), a race that has produced eight of the past 10 Champagne Stakes winners.
Now she pays $3.20 as the top pick and market mover at Ladbrokes.com.au to improve on that fourth and win her own Randwick Group 1 on Saturday.
Hot on her heels in the Champagne Stakes betting markets is $3.50 second elect Odyssey Moon drawn one wider in barrier five, the Rodney Northam-trained Snitzel colt to be ridden by Damien Oliver.
Oliver rode the Scone-based up-and-comer in the ATC Sires’ Produce last time out when Odyssey Moon thrived over the 1400m to finish three-quarters of a length away second.
More experienced than Pasadena Girl with six previous starts, Odyssey Moon has won just one of those when he took out Randwick’s Inglis Nursery (1000m) on debut last December.
There are then three other single figure hopes to score an upset in the Champagne Stakes, a race the favourites have saluted in three times in the past four years.
Occupying the third line of betting at $6 is the ultra-consistent Gary Moore-trained Stratum gelding Takedown ($6) in the outside barrier (9) shooting for his fourth win on the trot followed closely by Tarquin ($6.50).
Takedown won the Group 3 Black Opal Stakes (1200m) in Canberra two back before his lead-up win over Street Rapper in the Group 3 Bailleiu Handicap (1400m) at Rosehill on March 28.
Tarquin meanwhile has in-form Sydney hoop James McDonald in the saddle again after he rode the Hard Spun colt, winner of the Group 2 Pago Pago Stakes (1200m) on March 14, to a close fifth in the Sires’ Produce leading up to Saturday.
The Gai Waterhouse-trained Street Rapper in barrier two for jockey Blake Shinn then rounds out the hopes under $10 paying $9 to hand his trainer with her incredible sixth win in the race and her first since star colt Pierro (2012) saluted three years ago.
The value bet in the race is hands down the Jason Warren-trained The Barrister paying $13 to score his third on the trot and second on successive Saturdays following a tidy Listed Fernhill Handicap (1600m) victory at the track in the mud last weekend.
The last Fernhill Stakes winner to back up with a Champagne Stakes success, which The Barrister is looking to do in 2015, was the John Hawkes-trained Dracula (1998).
See below for the full Champagne Stakes 2015 betting odds, fixed win prices plus Best Tote or SP + 20% markets giving you the chance to win 20% more on the Sydney Group 1s on Saturday open now at Ladbrokes.com.au!
