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The Hill Stakes is a Group 2 weight-for-age race held at Sydney’s Randwick Racecourse in late September or early October as part of the bumper Epsom Handicap Day line-up. Epsom Handicap Day traditionally takes place the day before the NRL’s Grand Final of Football  – although not in 2020 due to COVID-19 – and is headlined by three Group 1 races: the Epsom Handicap (1600m), The Metropolitan (2400m) and the Flight Stakes (1600m) for three-year-old fillies.

Now contested over 2000m (having previously been an 1800m event), the $500,000 Hill Stakes is a nice race for spring staying types starting to warm-up towards a possible Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival bid and a target race like the Group 1 $5 million Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley at the end of October. Saintly (1996), however, was the last horse to do the Hill Stakes – Cox Plate double.

Horses may come into the Hill Stakes field via a lead-up run in the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes (1600m) at Randwick three weeks earlier, a double recently completed by Trusting (2011) and Hartnell (2016). Hartnell went on to run second to superstar mare Winx in the Cox Plate results of 2016 and third in that year’s Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m).

The Hill Stakes is also one of four lead-up races that offers a $500,000 bonus to any horse that can win it plus Rosehill’s $500,000 Rosehill Gold Cup (2000m) on Golden Eagle Day.

This year the Hill Stakes 2020 ran on Saturday October 3, 2020 and was dominated by the Cox Plate-bound Kolding.

2020 Hill Stakes
Date:	Saturday October 3, 2020
Track:	Randwick Racecourse
Distance:	2000m
Race Type:	Weight-for-age
Status:	Group 2
Prize Money:	$500,000

2020 Hill Stakes Results

• 1st: #2 Kolding
• 2nd: #3 Avilius
• 3rd: #1 Fierce Impact

Last year’s Epsom Handicap winner Kolding returned 12 months on to salute at the meeting again, this time dominating the 2020 Hill Stakes results with a big two length win over Avilius ($6.50) with the top elect Fierce Impact ($2.30F) running third.

Click here to read more on the barnstorming Hill Stakes 2020 win by Cox Plate-bound Kolding.

Colour	Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Penalty	Starting Price
	1	2	KOLDING (NZ)	Chris Waller	James McDonald		2	59kg		$3.60
	2	3	AVILIUS (GB)	James Cummings	Hugh Bowman	2L	5	59kg		$6.50
	3	1	FIERCE IMPACT (JPN)	Matthew Smith	Nash Rawiller	2.2L	6	59kg		$2.30F
	4	8	DADOOZDART (GB)	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Tommy Berry	5.9L	1	59kg		$14
	5	9	THINK IT OVER	Kerry Parker	Glen Boss	7.2L	7	59kg		$26
	6	6	LIFE LESS ORDINARY (IRE)	Chris Waller	Jason Collett	7.7L	3	59kg		$26
	7	10	JUST THINKIN’	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Tim Clark	9L	4	58kg		$9
	8	5	DANCETERIA (FR)	Kris Lees	Kerrin McEvoy	9.8L	8	59kg		$51
		11	VERRY ELLEEGANT (NZ)	Chris Waller			0
		7	SIR CHARLES ROAD	Lance O’Sullivan & Andrew Scott	Sam Clipperton		0
		4	FINCHE (GB)	Chris Waller			0

Table Credit: Racing Australia.

2020 Hill Stakes Betting

Hill Stakes betting is traditionally led by gallopers coming off an earlier Sydney run in a race like the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes or Group 1 George Main Stakes, both run over the Randwick mile.

The latest Hill Stakes 2020 odds and betting links to the markets at Ladbrokes.com.au will be available below as soon as released.

2020 Hill Stakes Field

The Hill Stakes field attracts a quality line-up of gallopers each spring, many of which head south later during the carnival to contest the Melbourne majors like the Cox Plate.

The official 2020 Hill Stakes field of final acceptances and barrier draw will be released on the Wednesday leading-up to Epsom Handicap Day and will be published in full below.

The Hill Stakes 2020 final field is down to nine after two scratchings from last year’s winning stable with the Chris Waller-trained duo of Verry Elleegant and Finche instead running in Flemington’s Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) on the same day.

Update: Just eight remain in the Hill Stakes with a third scratchings – Sir Charles Road – and odds firming on the well-backed favourite Fierce Impact.

No	Last 10	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight	Probable Weight	Penalty	Hcp Rating
1	11x2348x31	FIERCE IMPACT (JPN)	Matthew Smith	Nash Rawiller	6	59kg			114
2	x45778x021	KOLDING (NZ)	Chris Waller	James McDonald	2	59kg			114
3	7x54533x46	AVILIUS (GB)	James Cummings	Hugh Bowman	5	59kg			113
4	34x51257x3	FINCHE (GB)	Chris Waller		11	59kg			110
5	41x0x0680x	DANCETERIA (FR)	Kris Lees	Kerrin McEvoy	9	59kg			106
6	4x66461x00	LIFE LESS ORDINARY (IRE)	Chris Waller	Jason Collett	3	59kg			105
7	533499×000	SIR CHARLES ROAD	Lance O’Sullivan & Andrew Scott	Sam Clipperton	7	59kg			96
8	11x1x00x04	DADOOZDART (GB)	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Tommy Berry	1	59kg			86
9	241448×232	THINK IT OVER	Kerry Parker	Glen Boss	8	59kg			86
10	x11445x612	JUST THINKIN’	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Tim Clark	4	58kg			93
11	0x42212x14	VERRY ELLEEGANT (NZ)	Chris Waller		10	57kg			117

Table Credit: Racing Australia. 

Hill Stakes History

First held in 1921 and won by Beauford, the Hill Stakes was originally a 10 furlong race which was then changed to 1750m up until 1990 and again in 2001. In 2011, the race began to be run over 2000m. The race was not held in 2007 however there have been plenty of double winners in this event including Phar Lap.

Hill Stakes double winners: Desert War (2005-06), Toi Port (1963-64), Redcraze (1956-57), Hydrogen (1952-53), Yaralla (1942-43), Gold Rod (1938-39), Chatham (1933-34), Peter Pan III (1932, 35), Phar Lap (1930-31), Limerick (1927-28) and The Hawk (1923,25).

Recent Hill Stakes Winners

Year	Place	Horse	Time
2020 Hill Stakes	1st	Kolding	2 minutes 1.26 seconds
	2nd	Avilius
	3rd	Fierce Impact
2019 Hill Stakes	1st	Verry Elleegant	2 minutes 5.03 seconds
	2nd	Samadoubt
	3rd	Life Less Ordinary
2018 Hill Stakes	1st	Ace High	2 minute 2.57 seconds
	2nd	It’s Somewhat
	3rd	Egg Tart
2017 Hill Stakes	1st	Classic Uniform	1 minute 49.98 seconds (over 1800m)
	2nd	Embley
	3rd	Mackintosh
2016 Hill Stakes	1st	Hartnell	2 minutes 4.11 seconds
	2nd	Who Shot Thebarman
	3rd	Storm The Stars
2015 Hill Stakes	1st	Preferment	2 minutes 6.81 seconds
	2nd	Magic Hurricane
	3rd	Complacent
2014 Hill Stakes	1st	Junoob	2 minutes 6.12 seconds
	2nd	Criterion
	3rd	Bagman
2013 Hill Stakes	1st	Moriarty	2 minutes 3.62 seconds
	2nd	Glencadam Gold
	3rd	Masked Marvel
2012 Hill Stakes	1st	Lamasery	2 minutes 6.25 seconds
	2nd	Mourayan
	3rd	Lights Of Heaven
2011 Hill Stakes	1st	Trusting	2 minutes 2.93 seconds
	2nd	Hawk Island
	3rd	Tullamore
2010 Hill Stakes	1st	Descarado	1 minute 56.48 seconds
	2nd	Triple Honour
	3rd	Purple
2009 Hill Stakes	1st	Miss Marielle	1 minute 56.13 seconds
	2nd	Pacino
	3rd	Roman Emperor
2008 Hill Stakes	1st	Fiumicino	1 minute 57.38 seconds
	2nd	Dealer Principal
	3rd	Hurrah
2007 Hill Stakes	Race Not Held
2006 Hill Stakes	1st	Desert War	1 minute 56.28 seconds
	2nd	Eremein
	3rd	Grand Zulu
2005 Hill Stakes	1st	Desert War	1 minute 56.67 seconds
	2nd	Portland Singa
	3rd	Dizelle
2004 Hill Stakes	1st	Natural Blitz	1 minute 56.62 seconds
	2nd	Vouvray
	3rd	Just Polite
2003 Hill Stakes	1st	Excellerator	1 minute 56.84 seconds
	2nd	Platinum Scissors
	3rd	Carnegie Express
2002 Hill Stakes	1st	Dress Circle	1 minute 56.63 seconds
	2nd	Bedouin
	3rd	Republic Lass
2001 Hill Stakes	1st	Mulan Princess	1 minute 47.02 seconds
	2nd	Altiero
	3rd	Dottoressa
2000 Hill Stakes	1st	Pasta Express	1 minute 57.83 seconds
	2nd	Pravda
	3rd	Padfoot Charlie