Up and Comer Fillies Chasing G1 Guineas

Worth $1.5million, the Group I MRC Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield on Saturday is the last G1 of the spring for three year-olds and has drawn an intriguing field of 13 fillies and only one of them was a stakes-winner last season at two.

That was Geegee’s Mistruth, the talented Tasmanian who won four on the trot last season including two stakes races and has acquitted herself well this spring contesting four Group races in Melbourne and placing in three of them before a last start sixth in the Group III VRC The Vanity (1400m) behind Zeitung, Matisse and Dominetta, who have all accepted for the Guineas.

Zeitung has been up for a long time and hits this race at her seventh start this prep and is the only filly to come here via the Princess Series in Sydney having contested the first two legs of it following a maiden win at Canterbury at the start of August.

Too Darn Lizzie also comes out of The Vanity, but finished only eighth there after winning the Group III MRC Guineas Prelude (1400m) begging the question she may have gone over the top, while there are two more Group winning fillies engaged that bring different form lines into the race.

Race favourite Aeliana beat Dominetta to win the Group III ATC Reginald Allen (1400m) and then thrashed colts and fillies to win the Group III VRC Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) and given she had a six week break in the middle of her spring prep is essentially coming into this race as a third up run.

Her trainer Chris Waller won this race last year with Joliestar and will be looking for a repeat in a year when he’s had some exceptional fillies – Autumn Glow, Lady Shenandoah and Declichy Boulevard – with Aeliana putting her hand up as the one for a late spring target.

Double Market is the other Group winner having gone two for two in the Group II MVRC Fillies Classic, which looked a very weak race on form, so this will be a good test of that popular assumption.

The least experienced of all runners is the only Kiwi bred in the race and Stage ‘n’ Screen runs for Te Akau with Mark Walker sending her into her first G1 off a debut win and then a last start fourth to the colts in a Listed race at Flemington.

A $200,000 NZB Ready to Run purchase, she is a half-sister by Ace High to Japanese Emperor, who was placed in a G2 Australian Guineas and her dam is a sister to the dam of Group winning colt North Pacifi, who is standing at Newgate Farm.

Australian 3YO Group I Winners This Season