It is a wide open edition of the 2017 Percy Sykes Stakes at Randwick Racecourse on Saturday with the lucrative sprint for two-year-olds running at Group 2 status for the first time this autumn.

Due to jump as Race 3 at 12:45pm (AEDT) on Day 2 of ‘The Championships’, a small field of just seven juvenile racehorses take to the track in this year’s $600,000 Group 2 Percy Sykes Stakes (1200m).

With a number of different form lines to follow into the set weights plus penalties event, the bookies are having a hard time separating the chances of the standout youngsters in the Percy Sykes Stakes odds.

Currently all but two of the final acceptors are under $10 in Percy Sykes Stakes betting at Ladbrokes.com.au, markets narrowly led by the John O’Shea-trained Lonhro filly Almanzora.

The nicely-bred Godolphin up-and-comer comes off a winning debut on a Heavy (8) Warwick Farm track from March 8 over 1100m.

Corey Brown comes aboard for her first black-type assignment where Almanzora is out to stay undefeated dropping back two and a half kilos to 53kg.

Next best in the Percy Sykes Stakes odds at $3.80 and drawn in barrier two with Victorian hoop Mark Zahra to ride for a second time on the trot is Shoals.

Lee & Anthony Freedman prepare the also undefeated filly, the daughter of Fastnet Rock having won her opening two career starts in fine style.

Her debut at Seymour in late February over 1100m saw her put four lengths on her closest rival, before she stepped up in grade for a Flemington run on March 18.

Shoals enjoyed a half-length win with Zahra aboard in the Group 3 Thoroughbred Breeders race down the straight over 1200m, a distance she sees again in her first Sydney run on Saturday.

Hot on her heels at $4 is fellow last start winner Serena Bay for Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott.

Tim Clark has the mount from gate four in the Percy Sykes Stakes field on the daughter of Sebring whose latest run produced a three and a half-length Kembla Grange win over 1200m on March 23.

Prior to that she was fourth past the post behind subsequent Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign in the Inglis Nursery run on a Heavy track, so she has form around the season’s best and ability in the wet as well.

The early Percy Sykes market mover backed into $6.50 is the rails-drawn Formality, a graduate out of the $3.5 million Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) from March 18.

Craig Williams is back aboard the Lindsay Park-trained Fastnet Rock filly for the first time since he rode her to victory at Caulfield in the Group 3 Chairman’s Stakes (1100m) back on February 4.

A third to stablemate Catchy in the Group 1 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) followed later that month before the wheels came undone when Formality came to Sydney.

She only managed to finish fourteenth of sixteen Golden Slipper runners in her first look at a track rated worse than Good, firmer going and a drop in class this weekend working in her favour as Formality looks to bounce back.

Also coming off an unplaced run in the Golden Slipper Stakes is the Michael Freedman-trained Snitzel filly Teaspoon who ran second last to She Will Reign in the world’s richest two-years-old race.

A Group 3 winner at Rosehill in January, Teaspoon did it tough in the Slipper but she has form in the wet when only a length beaten for third in Randwick’s Group 2 Sweet Embrace Stakes (1200m) in February.

Check out the full Percy Sykes Stakes 2017 field, barriers and betting odds below with markets provided by Ladbrokes.com.au.