The prestigious Darley Princess Series reaches its crescendo this week with the 77th running of the $750,000 G1 ATC Flight Stakes (1600m) over Royal Randwick's famous mile.
So who was Flight and what made her so special? Click here to read her story.
Back to the present and what will unfold in the Flight Stakes of 2025 - Is greatness lurking?
Brilliant filly Apocalyptic (Extreme Choice) will start a dominant favourite after blitzing her rivals in the Furious and Tea Rose Stakes.
If she wins, Apocalyptic will join an elite list of fillies - it includes
Zougotcha, Funstar, Alizee, Guelph, Streama, More Joyous, Samantha Miss, Ha Ha, Unworldly,, Sunline, Assertive Lass and Angst - as fillies to take the Tea Rose /Flight double.
Only Samantha Miss and Angst completed a clean sweep of the series by also winning the first two legs, the Silver Shadow and Furious Stakes.
A few of the great Flight winners not mentioned above are Montefilia, Bounding Away,Secret Admirer, Lotteria, Fashions Afield, Triscay, Research and Wenona Girl!
Mention must be made of the inaugural Flight Stakes winner in 1947, the grey Nizami daughter Nizam's Ring who went on to take the VRC Oaks.
Last year there was drama when favourite Autumn Glow was scratched on race morning! Her stablemate Lady Shenandoah won easily and has since proved that was no case of “second best.” Meanwhile Autumn Glow will attempt to claim her first career G1 in the Epsom Hcp on Saturday.!
Oohood broke her maiden, in a G1 race no less, when she won the Flight by a nose in 2018.
This year Tupakara (Trapeze Artist) and Enviable (Frankel) will try to emulate that rare feat, which hasn't been done since.
Karinska (Spirit Of Boom) comes in with one win from six starts but like Enviable she is trained by Chris Waller - ‘nuff said!
Within The Law (Lucky Vega) doesn’t know how to run a bad race. She attempts to regain her outstanding juvenile form and draws a good gate this time.
The Michael Freedman trained Magenta Skies (Frankel) is an exciting talent on the rise and might give her stablemate Apocalyptic something to think about. Foaled in GB, Magenta Skies would be the first NH-bred filly to win the Flight were she to pull off the upset!
Like mighty Frankel, Snitzel's fine son Trapeze Artist has two daughters in the race, Tupakara and Artistic Venture. They were the first two home behind Apocalyptic in the Tea Rose and you know they'll be relishing the step up to a mile.
Queen Of Clubs (Maurice) ran the best last 200m in the Tea Rose for fourth, and looks another genuine threat going up in distance.
Reflect (So You Think) is an outsider - but her sire can never be underestimated and neither can her trainer Joe Pride!
Top Pick: TUPAKARA
Risky, tipping a filly to break her maiden in a G1 Flight and beat proven stars like Apocalyptic and Within The Law.
Oohood did it in 2018 - omenology, she also jumped from barrier 11 - but as Tupakara is well in the market, there must be plenty of us who think she has a great chance!
Of those here that raced at two, I reckon she is the one bred to make the most improvement.
Tupakara was a $150,000 buy from the Sledmere draft at MM Gold Coast for TF1 / Kia Ora Stud.
In the care of Annabel and Rob Neasham, Tupakara has always shown a stack of ability - fourth in the G3 Gimcrack and the G2 Riesling (that was the fillies form race of the season- Tempted and Marhoona beat her home)
She was third in the Bailleu on a heavy track to Nepotism and Savvy Hallie at 1400, second in the Fernhill and completed her juvenile season with an unlucky run in the G1 Champagne, narrowly going down to Nepotism and Within The Law.
That was her second go at 1600m at two - I just wonder what the result would have been if she'd had a little more gas in the tank!
Tupakara was only narrowly beaten by Apocalyptic first up and then solid in the Tea Rose. She looks primed to put her best foot forward now at this distance, and has been versatile in her races, able to settle on speed or come from behind.
Tupakara’s family is totally about girlpower.
Her winning dam Catchulata (by the superior filly sire Charge Forward) is a three quarter sister to brilliant racemare Response - the dam of Golden Slipper winning filly Estijaab and SW Remarque, both by Snitzel.
Tupakara is the first filly to race from her dam.
Response was an exceptional performer at the highest level and a dual G1 winner of the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, and SAJC Sportingbet Classic against her own sex.
She extended her great speed to win the G3 Matron Stakes 1600m as a 3YO.
Tupakara's second dam is the winning Royale Crown (Beautiful Crown) a multiple winner producer of extremely speedy juveniles andher third dam Live It Up (Match Winner) was second in the Flight Stakes.
This is the damline of Loyalty by Wilkes - a three quarter sister in blood to the great champion (and Flight Stakes heroine) Wenona Girl, being out of stakes winning filly Carrus by Nilo.
Wenona Girl and Carrus were daughters of the G1 1,000 Guineas winner Golden Chariot who also placed in a Flight Stakes.
This family goes back to Chand Beebee imported as a filly from the Royal Stud to Sydney in 1892, alongside her dam Missy Baba.
The taproot mare of this line (5) is Harriet and she is also the taproot mare of families 5-i and 5-j.
Tupakara's sire, the handsome Snitzel son Trapeze Artist was top class at two but went stratospheric at three and he really is bred to be a great filly sire.
It's heartwarming to have a young sire from this female line doing well, because Trapeze Artist's ancestress is the folkloric mare Entreaty, the dam of Phar Lap - and also ancestress of Flight Stakes winners and champions, Sunline and Surround!
Trapeze Artist boasts high powered linebreeding to the Best In Show family through his damsire, the excellent Domesday and Redoute's Choice, and to daughters of Storm Bird - with both Snitzel and Domesday duplicating this cross on their damlines.
Trapeze Artist was a breathtaking talent on the track, a stakes winner and G1 placed at two but excelling as an older horse with 4 G1 wins - including his 4.5 length Golden Rose demolition job.
He won the All Aged Stakes (in track record time), TJ Smith (smashing Black Caviar's race record) and also broke the track record in the G1 Canterbury Stakes!
A serious racehorse - he was also runner up in an Everest and placed in a Randwick Guineas.
Tupakara is bred
Danzig 5m x 5m
Red Ransom 4m x 3m
Bletchingly 4f x 4f x 6m sex balanced
The duplication of relatives Bletchingly and Danzig is especially attractive because the 5i and 5j families allied to Tupakara's damline are particularly strong in both of them (but especially Bletchingly)
The same blood is prominent in Storm Bird, Red Ransom, Nijinsky, The Minstrel and Best In Show - plus Charge Forward brings a key line to relative Intentionally via In Reality (three in all ) - so Tupakara's pedigree is absolutely primed to produce a star filly!
Trapeze Artist's damline goes back through Golden Slipper winner and Blue Hen Fairy Walk and her daughter Jubilee Walk won this race.
Beautiful Crown is a really interesting player in this pedigree - he is from the same family as At Talaq ( by Red Ransom's sire Roberto) who despite winning a Melbourne Cup left a legacy of daughters with G1 speed.
He's by the Danzig son Chief's Crown, a very influential broodmare sire.
He's one of those with the bloodlines to contribute something very special in the right mating - and he already has.
Beautiful Crown was the broodmare sire of G1 winner and Flight Stakes runner up Hallowell Belle and her half sisters G3 WA Champion Fillies victress Fuddle Dee Duddle by Red Ransom!, and Bella Orfana - the last being dam of the champion mare Bella Nipotina!
There is much affinity between the fifth dams of Trapeze Artist and Catchulata.
They are sired by a son and grandson of Court Martial, out of mares by Nearco who are linebred to his broodmare sire Abbotts Trace - and they bring together relatives unique to both of them.
Next best: APOCALYPTIC
The deserved hot favourite attempts to extend her brilliance to a mile and become a sixth G1 winner for her sire Extreme Choice.
Apocalyptic was the subject of a Crystal Ball story highlighting 3YO’s we thought had G1 potential this s eason, so on Saturday she gets her chance to deliver on potential, read the story here.
Apocalyptic is bred
Danzig 5m x 5m, 5m
Danehill x 4m x 4m
The Michael Freedman trained filly is drawn perfectly in 7 for Tommy Berry and if she doesn't win she will surely go close. We just won't know about the mile until the last 100m or so!
Roughie: MAGENTA SKIES (GB)
Amazing Frankel and his amazing fillies - names like Inspiral, Alpinista, Lake Victoria, Nashwa and Minnie Hauk will live long in the memory - and the studbook!
The great sire also has boom horse (Sir )Delius as a headline act this Australian spring. Can Magenta Skies add to this burst of glory for her sire and deliver him a G1 Flight Stakes?
This scopey and elegant filly comes into the Flight at her third lifetime start, off a very impressive two length maiden win at Warwick Farm.
This big striding girl should love it at Randwick. I just feel like she might have something a bit special to offer.
Frankel was so close in 2020 when Hungry Heart was just beaten by a filly who would go on to be an out and out champion in Montefilia, and they gapped the rest.
Hungry Heart went on to win the Phar Lap / Vinery / AJC Oaks in the autumn. Like Magenta Skies she was conceived in GB but foaled in Australia.
Amusingly named Frankel filly Miss Fabulass ( out of Flight Stakes heroine Samantha Miss) was a close up fourth in 2018 after winning the Tea Rose. Miss Fabulass was also conceived in GB and foaled here.
A homebred for Fairway Thoroughbreds, Magenta Skies was born in GB to the G3 winning Snitzel mare Fireworks, who was imported back to Australia in foal to Frankel again.
She foaled a colt to him last spring.
Fireworks has had four to race for four winners including SW QLD sprinter Millane by Zoustar.
She is a half sister to G1 winning NZ Champion Sprinter Miler mare Calveen by Canny Lad, to Kosi Bay (Spinning World) who won the G2 Emancipation Stakes, and to Striker (Van Nistelrooy) G1 placed in the Thorndon Mile - her daughter First Impressions won the WA Oaks.
Calveen's dam Calvinia was a daughter of the Mr Prospector son Varick who descends from the great American mare Dinner Partner, dam of noted broodmare sire Jim French and ancestress of Adjal, Serheed, Formidable, Joyeux Danseur, Arazi and Noverre.
Calvinia's half sister English Wonder (Twig Moss) won the SA Derby and became dam of champion 3YO stayer, the ill fated Dr Grace by Sir Tristram.
Magenta Skies is bred
Northern Dancer 4m,5m x
Mr Prospector 4m x 5m
Danehill 3f x 4m sex balanced
She also carries sex balanced duplications of Mossborough and Raise A Native. A really important nick in this pedigree is Frankel's fifth dam Rock Garden.
Her grandsire Buisson Ardent is distantly related to Varick and is tail male to War Relic.
A beautiful pedigree with the Frankel factor!
Could the stablemate upset the favourite?
Blowout: REFLECT
When the tracks dry out the So You Thinks prick up their ears and get going!
Talking about “X factor” stallions, when So You Think gets a good one they ooze class,and he's become a very consistent sire of elite performers of both sexes.
Right now the great son of High Chaparral continues to ride the wave of last season's success with a live Melbourne Cup hope in Revelare, Oh Diamond Lil taking the G3 Tibbie Stakes withTuileries in third and winners popping up everywhere this spring
Reflect is a promising and well bred filly, patiently handled in the stable of master trainer Joe Pride.
She broke her maiden last start at Kembla 1500m when getting to a suitable distance for the first time. That doesn't look flash in the form guide against these, but she's on the up!
Reflect was a $310,000 Magic Millions yearling purchase for DGR Thoroughbred Services Ltd from the Segenhoe draft.
Out of the stakes placed Fastnet Rock daughter Miss Foxwood, Reflect is the fifth winner from her dam and a half sister to stakes placed fillies Jenni The Fox (Too Darn Hot) who was runner up in the G2 Angus Armanasco.
Their dam Foxwood, by the mighty broodmare sire Centaine, was a dual G1 winner of the NZ 1,000 Guineas and WRC Captain Cook Stakes and her dam Delia's Choice by Sir Tristram was full sister to the following:
Caulfield/Melbourne Cup legend Gurner's Lane, Champion and successful sire Sovereign Red, and G1 winning mare Trichelle.
They were all foaled by Blue Hen Taiona and many fine gallopers descend from her including the amazing warhorse Mr Brightside and the world's best sprinter Ka Ying Rising!
This is a family that can produce anything.
Reflect is bred
Northern Dancer 4m,5m x 5m
Nijinsky 4m x 5m
This mating reproduces a favoured nick for So You Think in Fastnet Rock. He has three stakes winners from Fastnet Rock mares, two of them fillies - G1 Tatts Tiara heroine Palaispan, and G3 winner Banana Queen. Both those mares were from quality speed families and I'm really interested to see what he can do with this Classic line from the great Taiona.
Reflect jumps from barrier 8 for Adam Hyeronimus.
