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Kingston Town Stakes News

Birdman Clear 2025 The Metropolitan Favourite After Kingston Town Stakes Win

• 2024 Epsom Handicap Winner Ceolwulf Enormous Late
• 2024 The Metropolitan Results: Land Legend Denies Zardozi in Photo Thriller
• Buckaroo Heads Betting on Turnbull Stakes 2024 Field
• Kingston Town Winner Eliyass Firms in 2024 The Metropolitan Betting
• The Metropolitan Winner 2023 Just Fine Just Wins Ahead of Melbourne Cup

The Kingston Town Stakes is a Group 3 staying event held at Randwick Racecourse in September each year during the Sydney Spring Racing Carnival.

2025 Kingston Town Stakes Results

Stay tuned for the official 2025 Kingston Town Stakes results and finishing order and to see what horse has raced their way into the Group 1 The Metropolitan field!

• 1st: #12 Birdman ($5.50)
• 2nd: #7 Adelaide River
• 3rd: #15e Etna Rosso

Chris Waller’s Free Eagle five-year-old Birdman ($5.50) celebrated his first win down under fighting hard to narrowly deny Adelaide River in the 2025 Kingston Town Stakes results on Saturday. The win saw him firm into outright favourite for the Group 1 The Metropolitan (2400m) on October 4 while the Caulfield Cup is also a likely target for the improving import.

Click here for the full story.

The Kingston Town Stakes runs on The Shorts Day. The event shares the program with three other Group status races including the now $1 million Group 2 The Shorts (1100m) for The Everest-bound sprinters and the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes for three-year-old fillies looking at a run in the Flight Stakes next-up.

Replacing the George Main Stakes – which now runs as the Group 1 $5 million King Charles III Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on The Everest Day in mid-October – on the card as of 2023 is the $1 million 7 Stakes (1600m) which offers an Epsom Handicap ballot exemption.

Held over 2000m, the Kingston Town Stakes is now run under set weights plus penalties conditions and presents an early staying challenge. Open to horses aged three years and older, the Kingston Town Stakes is a great race for form guidance in later features in Sydney over the spring. With a total purse of $250,000, the Kingston Town Stakes draws some very talented horses each year.

Those horses that perform well in the Kingston Town Stakes often seek to target the Group 1 The Metropolitan Handicap (2400m) at Royal Randwick a fortnight later with the winner of the Group 3 exempt from The Metropolitan ballot.

The latest gallopers to complete the Kingston Town Stakes – The Metropolitan double in the same season were Herculian Prince (2010) followed by Just Fine (2023).

In 2018 Brimham Rocks ran second in both the Kingston Town and The Metropolitan before returning to run third in the latter again two years later in 2020.

The race can also serve as a lead-up into the Melbourne majors including the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington that the 2019 Kingston Town Stakes winner Finche ran second in before a Caulfield Cup fifth and seventh in that year’s Melbourne Cup results.

Trainer Chris Waller has an outstanding record in the race preparing eight Kingston Town Stakes winners from 2007-25, most recently Birdman (2025).

Gai Waterhouse meanwhile has prepared eight winners since 1999 with her latest being Taikomochi (2020), Just Fine (2023), and Eliyass (2024) all in partnership with Adrian Bott.

The 2021 Kingston Town Stakes form was franked with the runner-up Montefilia winning The Metropolitan next start before a fourth in that year’s Caulfield Cup results. She also returned the following autumn and won the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes in 2022.

The 2022 Kingston Town Stakes third placegetter Knight’s Order went on to frank the form running third in the Caulfield Cup trifecta before a solid ninth in the Melbourne Cup. He also returned the following autumn and was third in the 2023 Sydney Cup results.

The Kingston Town Stakes is a good horses’ races and often produces subsequent Group 1 winners and placegetters as was the case in 2024 when the winner, Eliyass, ran a next-up third in that year’s Turnbull Stakes trifecta.

The runner-up Ceolwulf however was the real star out of the early spring event going on to claim that spring’s Group 1 Epsom Handicap – King Charles III Stakes double.

The 2025 Kingston Town Stakes took place on Saturday, September 20, 2025 at Randwick offering the winner, Chris Waller’s progressive import Birdman ($5.50), a The Metropolitan ballot exemption for the Group 1, 2400m event on October 4. 

2025 Kingston Town Stakes Betting Odds

The spring’s top Kingston Town Stakes 2025 betting odds and links to the markets at Ladbrokes.com.au will be provided for punters at Races.com.au the week of the race.

She’s Ideel ($2.80 in 2021) and Just Fine ($3.30 in 2023) are the latest favourites in Kingston Town Stakes betting to salute for the punters.

There was a notable upset in 2022 with Alegron winning at Kingston Town Stakes odds of $20.

2025 Kingston Town Stakes Form

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL 2025 KINGSTON TOWN STAKES FORM GUIDE

2025 Kingston Town Stakes Tips

Stay tuned for our insider Kingston Town Stakes 2025 Tips on The Metropolitan lead-up this spring.

• To Win: #11 Elamaz ($4.60 at time of publish) – BET NOW

No doubting dual Melbourne Cup performer VAUBAN presents as a hard to beat favourite but the emerging stayer in this field with consistency on his side is fellow Waterhouse/Bott import ELAMAZ (6). The lightly raced gelding has just his ninth start on Saturday and is already a five-time winner including his successful debut down under in the Listed McKell Cup back in June. A Group 2 runner-up back in France, he has been brought on with a couple of trials and I love that James McDonald is in the saddle. The 2000m fresh looks perfect and I think he’ll turn into a genuine Group 1 contender for something like The Metrop.

2025 Kingston Town Stakes Field

The 2025 Kingston Town Stakes field is announced by Racing NSW on the Wednesday leading-up to The Shorts Day and will be provided in full below along with the official Kingston Town Stakes Barriers & Weights.

The Kingston Town Stakes 2025 final field features a capacity line-up of stayers led in betting by two-time Melbourne Cup performer Vauban.

Table Credit: Racing Australia.

2025 Kingston Town Stakes Nominations

Nominations for the Kingston Town Stakes in 2025 close the Monday of race week and will be published for punters below as soon as announced.

Table Credit: Racing Australia.

Kingston Town Stakes History

Columnist won the inaugural edition of the Kingston Town Stakes in 1948. Since then, the race has enjoyed considerable spectator support and strong fields from great stables. Named in honour of champion racehorse Kingston Town (who won the race twice prior to its renaming), the Kingston Town Stakes is rich with history.

Known as the STC Cup between 1948 and 1983, the Kingston Town Stakes was not given its current name until the 1984 edition, a few years after Kingston Town’s wins in 1980 and 1981. Initially, the race was 1.5 miles in length, which is approximately 2400 metres. This was normalised to 2400 metres in 1972 and stayed that way until the 1991 edition ran over 1900 metres. Since 1992, however, the Kingston Town Stakes has remained 2000 metres in length.

Initially a Principal Race, the Kingston Town Stakes was given Group 3 status in 1979 and has remained at this grade since. Usually held at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse, in 1991 the Kingston Town Stakes was hosted by Canterbury Park for a year.

Notable Kingston Town Stakes winners include Monte Carlo (1958), Tails (1969), Kingston Town (1980, 81), Swiss Echo (2001), Lamasery (2011), Finche (2017), and Avilius (2018).

Kingston Town Stakes results since 2000 are listed below.

Kingston Town Stakes Results

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