Last year’s upset Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance is nominated for his much awaited return at Morphettville Racecourse in the RA Lee Stakes 2016 this Saturday in Adelaide.

Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance returns to racing in the 2016 RA Lee Stakes in Adelaide on Saturday. Photo: Steve Hart.

The six-year-old son of Pentire is one of 17 gallopers entered for this year’s $150,000 Group 3 RA Lee Stakes (1600m) on The Goodwood Day and hasn’t raced since taking out the ‘race that stops a nation’ as a $101 roughie last November.

A two time winner from three runs over the mile, the star stayer will have a light autumn campaign with a return to Melbourne in the spring shooting for back-to-back wins in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) Weir’s number one priority.

The horse has proved his fitness ahead of his return in the RA Lee via some strong jump outs and exhibition runs by Weir.

Weir has a total of four RA Lee Stakes nominations this Adelaide Autumn Racing Carnival.

Along with Prince Of Penzance his other headline entry is veteran seven-year-old Elusive City mare Atlantis Dream.

She comes off a nice second behind Into The Mist at the track on May 7 in the Group 2 Queen Of The South Stakes (1600m) when overcoming a horror barrier 17 of 18 draw in the race she won the previous autumn.

Weir’s other entries are the returning Listed Werribee Cup (2635m) winner from December Tall Ship who also won the Stawell Cup, Terang Cup and Warrnambool Cup last season, and last start winner over the track / distance Tonopah.

Another highly-rated entry in the mix is the Tony McEvoy-trained High Chaparral stallion Alpine Eagle.

The four-year-old is a winner of four of his eight starts to date and ran second in last year’s Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m).

His last run was in September’s Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) when under a length off the winner crossing sixth to Fawkner at Flemington.

He cracked a pedal bone after that brave performance, but is back to full fitness and ready to return on the weekend before heading out again before a spring campaign.

“He’s ready for a race. He needs to go to the races,” McEvoy told AAP.

“He’ll just have this race and then I’ll sweeten him up for a few weeks and we’ll target the spring,”

Other notable RA Lee Stakes nominees include Lee & Anthony Freedman’s Group 1 performer Hi World, Phillip Stokes’s local galloper Tenere who is a four-time winner at the track and the flying Rocket Commander.

A four-year-old daughter of Court Command, Wayne Francis & Glen Kent’s classy mare Rocket Commander comes off a string of good Adelaide runs.

Two back she was runner-up to Zebulon in the Listed City Of Adelaide Stakes (1400m) after which she ran third in the Queen Of The South Stakes just one behind the second-placed Atlantis Dream who she could take on again on Saturday.

See below for the full RA Lee Stakes 2016 nominations, the final field and barriers out on Wednesday followed by the best markets at Ladbrokes.com.au – home of Odds Boost!

2016 RA Lee Stakes Nominations

Morphettville Racecourse – 21/05/2016