Riff Rocket Heads 2024 Australian Guineas Field & Betting

More Group 1 glory could be in store for Chris Waller’s Victoria Derby winner Riff Rocket who is tipped to take out the Australian Guineas 2024 over the Flemington mile on Saturday.

Riff Rocket is out to keep the wins going up to a mile in the 2024 Australian Guineas second-up for Chris Waller. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.

The time-honoured Group 1 $1 million Australian Guineas (1600m) steals the show in Melbourne this weekend with the mile classic attracting a capacity field of outstanding three-year-olds.

Sitting top of the Australian Guineas field and betting markets at a current quote of $2.60 through Ladbrokes.com.au is the ultra-consistent and versatile American Pharoah gelding Riff Rocket from the Waller stable.

A winner of five of his eight starts to date the galloper is best known for his Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m) win at headquarters in the spring.

He surprised a few fresh over an unsuitably short 1400m when winning the Group 3 CS Hayes Stakes first-up last time out and is now short-priced to do the double.

Jockey Craig Williams continues associations second-up on Riff Rocket looking to hand Waller with the trainer’s first Australian Guineas victory.

Despite a full field only two other runners are currently under $10 for the win with the early Australian Guineas market mover Veight ($7 into $5.50) and the Ciaron Maher-trained King Colorado ($7).

Grunt colt Veight looks for his fifth win at start number 10 with the spring’s Group 1 Caulfield Guineas runner-up back up to a mile third-up and fit this prep.

He was a narrow first-up winner at The Valley in the Group 2 Australia Stakes (1200m) and lost few admirers last time out against the older horses when fourth only 1.3 lengths off superstar Mr Brightside in the Group 1 CF Orr (1400m).

King Colorado has also been good this prep with the Kingman colt coming off back-to-back Group 3 seconds in the Manfred and CS Hayes.

At longer Australian Guineas odds for punters chasing the value are the likes of Maher’s consistent Written Tycoon colt Southport Tycoon ($11) coming off a Group 2 Autumn Stakes second drawn well for the in-form Jamie Kah, close victor in that important Group 2 lead-up from February 10 Snow Patrol ($13), and hist lightly-raced stablemate Otago ($19) who ran fourth in the CS Hayes at just his third career start with improvement to come.

The Australian Guineas 2024 is scheduled as Flemington Race 8 at 4:15pm (AEDT) on Saturday’s 10-race card with full markets from Ladbrokes.com.au available by clicking here.

2024 Australian Guineas Final Field & Barrier Draw

No	Last 10	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight	Hcp Rating
1	17x12121x1	RIFF ROCKET	Chris Waller	Craig Williams	9	57kg	107
2	14x1525x14	VEIGHT	Tony & Calvin McEvoy	Damian Lane	6	57kg	105
3	11x9740x22	KING COLORADO	Ciaron Maher	Mark Zahra	12	57kg	96
4	42x128412x	APULIA	Ben, Will & JD Hayes	Luke Currie	15	57kg	100
5	43x11413x3	ZIPAWAY	Neville Parnham	Steven Parnham	10	57kg	100
6	335x9732x6	CAP FERRAT	Chris Waller	Joshua Parr	2	57kg	85
7	44×01112	THE PENDRAGON (NZ)	Michael Moroney	Jordan Childs	14	57kg	95
8	6111×9	RUN HARRY RUN	Michael Moroney	Daniel Stackhouse	16	57kg	88
9	x52512413x	SUNSETS	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	John Allen	13	57kg	90
10	12625×3	VERDAD	Robbie Griffiths & Mathew de Kock	Jye McNeil	3	57kg	81
11	134×1	SNOW PATROL (NZ)	Mick Price & Michael Kent (Jnr)	Blake Shinn	7	57kg	90
12	1129×22	SOUTHPORT TYCOON	Ciaron Maher	Ms Jamie Kah	4	57kg	90
13	114	OTAGO (NZ)	Mick Price & Michael Kent (Jnr)	Ben Melham	5	57kg	74
14	6086×11455	HEY FAT CAT	Robbie Laing	Ethan Brown	1	57kg	81
15	1x11x2214	QUINTESSA (NZ)	Mark Walker	Michael Dee	8	55kg	105
16	91908×3	VIESTE	Benjamin Smith	Brock Ryan	17	55kg	64
17e	x5167669x2	MAH ALI	Benjamin Smith	Fred Kersley	11	55kg	63