Chris Waller‘s outstanding mare Via Sistina is odds-on favourite in Queen Elizabeth Stakes 2025 betting in Sydney this weekend to continue her brilliant Group 1 record down under at Randwick.

The autumn action reaches its pinnacle with Day 2 of The Championships on Saturday headlined by another top edition of the lucrative Group 1 $5 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m).

Won by an emphatic margin by the front-running Pride Of Jenni last year, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes field features a quality line-up of the season’s best weight-for-age horses including the spring’s Ladbrokes Cox Plate hero Via Sistina.

The ultra-consistent Fastnet Rock mare chases a hat-trick having won the Group 1 Verry Elleegant Stakes and Group 1 Ranvet Stakes at her latest two.

UK raider Dubai Honour (2023) was the last horse to complete the Ranvet Stakes / Queen Elizabeth double, and the money is firmly on Via Sistina at $1.80 through Ladbrokes.com.au to be the next.

She was a distant 6.5 length runner-up to Pride Of Jenni in the event 12 months ago but has a full Australian campaign behind her now and is racing as good as ever.

Waller also has a great strike-rate in the feature having won the Queen Elizabeth five times previously, most recently with three-time champion Winx (2017-19).

Via Sistina has James McDonald in the saddle again and gets all the favours from barrier one in the 15-horse field.

Success will see her join Winx as the Australian racing record holder with seven Group 1s in a single season.

William Haggas‘s 2023 champion Dubai Honour returns as the danger occupying the second line of betting at $6 to salute in the race for a second time.

A seven-year-old son of Pride Of Dubai, he is unbeaten in the Sydney Group 1 races having returned to Australia to win the Tancred Stakes on April 1 in style.

Haggas also went back-to-back in the Queen Elizabeth in 2020-21 with Addeybb so chases his fourth win overall.

Dubai Honour was excellent last time out and is now looking to do the Tancred / Queen Elizabeth double in the same season for the first time since Eremein in 2006.

He jumps from wider out in gate 13 with Tom Marquand retaining the ride.

Ceolwulf is currently the other shortest priced in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes odds at $13 this year with Joe Pride‘s Tavistock four-year-old another last start winner.

He claimed the rescheduled Group 2 Neville Sellwood on a Heavy (8) narrowly at Rosehill ahead of his return to Randwick where he boasts a solid strike-rate (9:2-2-0).

The run prior he was third in the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes, the form of which was franked last weekend with the sixth placed mare out of that – Stefi Magnetica – winning the Group 1 Doncaster Mile.

Ceolwulf however suffered a blow drawing the far outside (barrier 15 of 15), and no horse has jumped from wider than barrier 10 to win in over 25 years.

Master horseman Chris Waller boasts five previous wins in the Queen Elizabeth but hasn’t trained a winner in the event since the Winx three-peat of 2017-19.

He will saddle-up five in the field this year with the best fancied in the latest markets from the stable being dual acceptor Fangirl who is also favourite for the Group 1 Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) on the same card.

Waller’s other acceptors are last year’s Caulfield Cup runner-up Buckaroo, in-form five-year-old Lindermann coming off four straight placings including a second in the Ranvet, and US import Full Count Felica who ran fourth in the Ranvet on debut in Australia.

Adding further international interest to the event are two Japanese trained raiders taking on the locals with Rousham Park and triple figure roughie Geoglyph.

The 2025 Queen Elizabeth Stakes is set to run as Randwick Race 8 at 3:55pm (AEST).

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