Kicking off the Group racing in Melbourne this weekend for Caulfield Guineas Day is the Schillaci Stakes 2015 over the 1100m for the weight-for-age sprinters, betting tips for which are found below.

Due to jump at 1:35pm (AEST) as Caulfield Race 2, this year’s $400,000 Group 2 Mitsubishi Electric Schillaci Stakes (1100m) features only six runners led by the odds-on favourite Lankan Rupee ($1.30).

He leads the markets at Ladbrokes.com.au, where you can enjoy an Extra 50% on your very first Fixed Odds winner in Races 1 – 5 on the card, shooting for his fifth first-up win from seven resuming runs at a track the Mick Price-trained champion has won four from seven on.

A five-time Group 1 winner with a tickle under $4 million in earnings on his record, Redoute’s Choice six-year-old Lankan Rupee has been working and trialling very sharply and is definitely the one to beat on paper and on the track.

The best fancied to stop the red hot Schillaci Stakes favourite from winning are Tony McEvoy’s ultra-consistent Zariz six-year-old Shiraz ($6) and early market mover Alpha Miss ($8) running for the first time in over 12 months.

So can Lankan Rupee be beaten home in the Schillaci Stakes result this season, and if so what beats him?

1^st

#1 Lankan Rupee ($1.30)

He might have bummed out in in his last two runs in the autumn including the TJ Smith ninth, but his class and consistency before that cannot be ignored. With five Group 1 wins and close to $4 million in the bank this six-year-old is a genuine turf star and has been working and looking like his old self of late including the tidy 800m trial win at Cranbourne last month. If he’s back to anywhere near his best he’ll win by a mile at a track he loves (7-4-0-0) as he is a first-up flyer (6-4-1-0).

2^nd

#2 Shiraz ($6)

Fitness is definitely on this fellow six-year-old’s side, Shiraz having won four on the trot including two Group 3 races at Flemington and then Randwick before his third on September 19 in Sydney’s Group 2 The Shorts (1100m) over this same distance when defeated under a length by Rebel Dane. He sees Caulfield for the first time but is at his pet distance (9-5-2-1) and ticks plenty of other boxes including a nice barrier four draw and Hugh Bowman back aboard after winning the Group 3 Concorde Stakes (1000m) on him two back.

3^rd

#6 I Love It ($19)

Value placegetter here can be the locally-trained Artie Schiller mare I Love It. She’s a progressive type with four wins from 11 starts to date, most recently a Group 3 at Hobart back in February. Two top three runs followed including to Miracles Of Life in the Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) in Adelaide, with a Group 3 second in Sydney sandwiched in between. She is well travelled then but hasn’t raced since an unplaced mid-May run. Like the favourite she will be at her best first-up boasting three wins from four previous resuming runs and gets the sweet run from the inside alley.

Back your favourites across the Caulfield Guineas Day program at a juicy Best Tote or SP + 20% offering only at Ladbrokes.com.au this weekend!