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The Shorts is a quality Group 2 race held on George Main Stakes Day at Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse. Taking place in  mid-September each year, the sprint is featured on the same card as four other Group races including the Group 1 George Main Stakes (1600m).

The other key support acts on the race card are the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) and Group 3 Bill Ritchie Handicap (1400m).

The Shorts is a short-distance sprint race over 1100m for horses aged three-year-olds and up at set weights plus penalties and is now worth a lucrative $500,000 in prizemoney.

Many runners kick off their Sydney Spring Racing Carnival campaign in The Shorts so looking for the star fresh performers is a good tip, while the best out of The Shorts results may go all the way to Flemington during the Melbourne Cup Carnival for a shot at the Group 1 VRC Sprint Classic (1200m) in November.

It is now also a key lead-up for sprinters contesting the $15 million The Everest (1200m), a restricted weight-for-age feature held back at Randwick in mid-October. In 2017 The Shorts winner Redzel went on to complete The Everest – VRC Classic double.

In 2020 the previous year’s The Shorts runner-up Classique Legend won the race and went on to become the latest horse to do The Shorts – The Everest double.

The Shorts 2021 took place on Saturday September 18, 2021 and was won by the previous season’s runner-up Eduardo. 

2021 The Shorts
Date:	Saturday September 18, 2021
Track:	Royal Randwick Racecourse
Distance:	1100m
Conditions:	3YO & Up – Set Weights + Penalties
Status:	Group 2
Prize Money:	$500,000
Inaugurated:	1945

The Shorts Records
Race Record:	1:01.3 set by Redzel in 2017

2021 The Shorts Results

• 1st: #2 Eduardo
• 2nd: #1 Nature Strip
• 3rd: #3 Gytrash

Last year’s runner-up Eduardo ($5.50) improved fresh to take out The Shorts 2021 results in an upset over The Everest favourite Nature Strip ($2.10) and luckless third placegetter Gytrash ($10).

Click here to read more on the gripping narrow win by Eduardo in The Shorts 2021.

	Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Penalty	Starting Price
	1	2	EDUARDO	Joseph Pride	Nash Rawiller		8	58kg		$5.50
	2	1	NATURE STRIP	Chris Waller	James McDonald	0.44L	4	58kg		$2.10F
	3	3	GYTRASH	Gordon Richards & Damien Moyle	Jason Collett	1.49L	1	58kg		$10
	4	5	ROTHFIRE	Robert Heathcote	Tim Clark	3.4L	5	58kg		$14
	5	4	MASKED CRUSADER	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Joshua Parr	5.26L	2	58kg		$5.50
	6	9	ADELONG	Brad Widdup	Robbie Dolan	6.39L	6	53kg		$71
	7	8	HANDLE THE TRUTH	Keith Dryden	Ms Rachel King	6.67L	3	55kg		$101
	8	7	LOST AND RUNNING (NZ)	John O’Shea	Hugh Bowman	8.88L	7	55kg (cd 56kg)		$9
		6	WILD RULER	Peter & Paul Snowden	Kerrin McEvoy		0

Table Credit: Racing Australia. 

2021 The Shorts Odds

The top The Shorts 2021 betting odds and links to the markets at Ladbrokes.com.au will be available below the week of the race so stay tuned.

Pierata ($2.70 in 2019) followed by Classique Legend ($4.40 in 2020) are the latest favourites in The Shorts betting to salute for the punters.

2021 The Shorts Field

The Shorts 2021 field of final acceptances and barrier draw are released on the Wednesday of race week attracting the Sydney Spring Racing Carnival’s top sprinters. Many runners in The Shorts field contest the event first-up.

The official The Shorts 2021 Final Field & Barrier Draw will be published in full below once announced by Racing NSW.

A line-up of confirmed The Everest horses do battle in the 2021 The Shorts field including Chris Waller’s star sprinter Nature Strip and the returning Joe Pride-trained Eduardo.

• Scratched: #6 Wild Ruler (8)

Click here to read more on the key runners in The Shorts 2021 field and betting markets.

No	Last 10	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight	Probable Weight	Penalty	Hcp Rating
1	2472x121x1	NATURE STRIP	Chris Waller	James McDonald	4	58kg			121
2	1204x1131x	EDUARDO	Joseph Pride	Nash Rawiller	9	58kg			116
3	12x131x30x	GYTRASH	Gordon Richards & Damien Moyle	Jason Collett	1	58kg			115
4	38x13125x1	MASKED CRUSADER	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Joshua Parr	2	58kg			114
5	112x11x14x	ROTHFIRE	Robert Heathcote	Tim Clark	5	58kg			104
6	113x1619x2	WILD RULER	Peter & Paul Snowden	Kerrin McEvoy	8	57kg			106
7	11x11211x	LOST AND RUNNING (NZ)	John O’Shea	Hugh Bowman	7	55kg	56kg		100
8	43x31002x4	HANDLE THE TRUTH	Keith Dryden	Ms Rachel King	3	55kg			95
9	07x93311x5	ADELONG	Brad Widdup	Jay Ford	6	53kg			101

Table Credit: Racing Australia.

2021 The Shorts Nominations

Nominations for The Shorts race close the Monday leading-up to George Main Stakes Day.

The Shorts History

The Shorts is a time-honoured Sydney Spring Racing Carnival sprint race, first contested back in 1867. A number of standout short-distance gallopers have won The Shorts over history including most recently Hot Danish (2010), Terravista (2014) and Takedown (2016). For one year in 2011 the event was conducted at Rosehill over 1200m instead of the 1100m at Royal Randwick. It gained black-type (Listed) status in 1979 and was eventually upgraded to Group 3 and then Group 2 status, increasing the quality of contenders each season.

More recently the status of The Shorts race at Randwick was boosted by record-setting champ Redzel (2017) whose next run produced success in the inaugural running of The Everest. The Everest is the richest turf race in the world and Redzel went back-to-back in 2018.

The Shorts history on the 2018 winner Ball Of Muscle is also interesting with the sprint finishing runner-up in 2015, 2016 and 2017 before finally taking out the race at his fourth attempt.

In 2019 Pierata won The Shorts defeating Classique Legend and dual The Everest champion Redzel. He went on to run fifth in that year’s The Everest results, before taking out the Winners Stakes named that season in honour of the previous year’s The Everest champion Redzel (2018).

Classique Legend completed The Shorts – The Everest race double in 2020.

In 2021 the previous year’s runner-up Eduardo went one better winning The Shorts in an upset over Nature Strip.

Recent The Shorts Results

Year	Place	Horse	Time
2021 The Shorts	1st	Eduardo	1 minute 03.54 seconds
	2nd	Nature Strip
	3rd	Gytrash
2020 The Shorts	1st	Classique Legend	1 minute 2.23 seconds
	2nd	Eduardo
	3rd	Bivouac
2019 The Shorts	1st	Pierata	1 minute 3.93 seconds
	2nd	Classique Legend
	3rd	Redzel
2018 The Shorts	1st	Ball Of Muscle	1 minute 2.87 seconds
	2nd	Invincible Star
	3rd	Brave Smash
2017 The Shorts	1st	Redzel	1 minute 1.83 seconds (R)
	2nd	Ball Of Muscle
	3rd	Nieta
2016 The Shorts	1st	Takedown	1 minute 3.2 seconds
	2nd	Ball Of Muscle
	3rd	Kaepernick
2015 The Shorts	1st	Rebel Dane	1 minute 4.67 seconds
	2nd	Ball Of Muscle
	3rd	Shiraz
2014 The Shorts	1st	Terravista	1 minute 2.48 seconds
	2nd	I’m All The Talk
	3rd	Famous Seamus
2013 The Shorts	1st	Sessions	1 minute 3.26 seconds
	2nd	Aeronautical
	3rd	Spirit Of Boom
2012 The Shorts	1st	Pampelonne	1 minute 9.64 seconds
	2nd	Satin Shoes
	3rd	Appearance
2011 The Shorts	1st	Love Conquers All	1 minute 8.71 seconds
	2nd	Albert The Fat
	3rd	Winter King
2010 The Shorts	1st	Hot Danish	1 minute 9.51 seconds
	2nd	Whitefriars
	3rd	Shellscrape
2009 The Shorts	1st	Gold Trail	1 minute 4.82 seconds
	2nd	Fritz’s Princess
	3rd	Sniper’s Bullet
2008 The Shorts	1st	Fritz’s Princess	1 minute 4.03 seconds
	2nd	Hot Danish
	3rd	Keen Commander
2007 The Shorts	Race Not Held
2006 The Shorts	1st	Bentley Biscuit	1 minute 3.36 seconds
	2nd	Magnus
	3rd	Spark Of Life
2005 The Shorts	1st	Black Ink	1 minute 3.4 seconds
	2nd	Mustard
	3rd	Fumble
2004 The Shorts	1st	Dance The Waves	1 minute 4.61 seconds
	2nd	Secret Land (NZ)
	3rd	Legally Bay
2003 The Shorts	1st	Lucky Night	1 minute 4.84 seconds
	2nd	Fair Embrace
	3rd	Poetic Papal
2002 The Shorts	1st	Empire	1 minute 4.11 seconds
	2nd	Shags
	3rd	Fouardee
2001 The Shorts	1st	Oamaru Force	1 minute 3.47 seconds
	2nd	Pembleton
	3rd	Fair Embrace
2000 The Shorts	1st	Bradshaw	1 minute 3.78 seconds
	2nd	Guineas
	3rd	Upright