The $750,000 Group I ATC Surround Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday brings together the best three year old fillies in Australia, so who are the top chances?
The Story of Surround - click here to find out more about the greatest 3YO filly of them all.
The G1 fillies race which proudly bears Surround's name was inaugurated in 1979 and won by the Showdown filly Impede, a half sister to the dam of the great filly Research - like Surround, an Australian HOTY at three.
It's the family of Phar Lap - and Impede's relative Trapeze Artist has his own Surround Stakes runner in 2026, Panova!
The race was run between Warwick Farm and Randwick until 2016 when it was moved to “headquarters” permanently.
The Surround Stakes is the only G1 for three year old fillies run at 1400m. In 2018 it was upgraded to G1 status, well overdue as it had actually been a race of that quality for years.
Since the year 2000 winners include On Type, Hosanna, Bollinger, Lotteria, Gold Edition, More Joyous, Streama, Dear Demi, First Seal, Probabeel and Sunshine In Paris (and that's leaving out some incredible names).
Chris Waller's champion Lady Shenandoah (Snitzel) took the prize in 2025 beating the Golden Slipper heroine Lady Of Camelot ( Written Tycoon) after they had finished in that order in the Light Fingers, with Lazzura (Snitzel) in third.
The 2025 edition of the Surround Stakes is seen as a three way battle between Tempted (Street Boss) , Apocalyptic ( Extreme Choice) and Ole Dancer ( Ole Kirk) who beat Apocalyptic in the G1 Thousand Guineas in the spring - but is it quite that cut and dried?
Ole Dancer goes the Sydney way the first time and has not won in two 1400m runs, she stays at that trip second up - I feel that others may be a little sharper this time.
Apocalyptic is a bona fide star and won the G2 Tea Rose this course /distance in the spring second up, as she is here - before claiming her first G1 in the Flight Stakes.
From the family of the great Randwick miler Emancipation, she may see a genuinely soft track for the first time on race day but her breeding says that shouldn't pose a problem.
Apocalyptic has never raced against Tempted, so this is truly a fascinating contest between two exceptional fillies.
Tempted was superb against highly rated colts on return. Apocalyptic has beaten up on her own age / sex, but that Everest run! - it marked Tempted out as something well out of the ordinary. I have to put her on top.
What about the G2 Light Fingers winner Savvy Hallie? For me the daughter of Hellbent is in this up to her ears, stepping up to 1400 on a soft track.
The remaining four runners Karinska (Spirit Of Boom),Sunrays (Hellbent), Panova (Trapeze Artist) and Queen Of Clubs (Maurice) are roughies here, but they are all highly talented fillies out of top stables - and sometimes a lot of improvement is made between spring and autumn for these three year olds!
Rain is expected and on Saturday a couple of showers so I've based this on a Soft 6/7 sort of track at the worst (but it is late summer in Sydney so who knows! )
Top Tip: TEMPTED
She is the wonder filly of the moment, and how can you go against her?
Tempted was in rarefied air, racing and placing against Ka Ying Rising in an Everest at the same time her peers were battling it out amongst their own age. She was honourable in attempting to summit the highest peak, they were (relatively speaking) on the lower slopes.
She also might have won the Golden Slipper if you swapped her run with that of Marhoona.
If ever a filly was due a G1 to her name it is this courageous and genuine daughter of Street Boss. Is this her moment?
Tempted made a brilliant return in the G3 Eskimo Prince over the highly rated Wootton Bassett colts Napoleonic (who then ran a great race when runner up to boom horse Ninja in the G2 Hobartville Stakes) and Wodeton. One thing we can say about Wodeton, from day one he has been a consistent measuring stick of class and the horses who have narrowly denied him major victories are Tentyris (Todman Stakes ) and Marhoona (Golden Slipper).
Tempted is bred on the remarkable Street Boss / Exceed And Excel cross whose latest G1 star is the amazing Tentyris. But it's not all about young horses - the G1 Winterbottom Stakes hero Elite Street won the race at four and was placed the following year.
The Street Bosses in general are a breed of racetrack longevity, and there's no reason to think Tempted has peaked.
What about 1400m? This is the question, because her only try at the trip was the G1 Golden Rose ( also second up) and she was a distant third to the rampaging Beiwacht. But that race was frankly, a head scratcher.
Beiwacht suddenly morphed into a champion - now he is a good colt I’m not bagging him - but he hasn’t flattered in his two Autumn runs, he was nowhere in the Slipper, nowhere in the Todman. Tempted had beaten him in the Run To The Rose. She is inarguably the better horse, but on Golden Rose day the galloper who got the closest to Bivouac ( four and a half lengths in arrears) was good old Wodeton.
So it was weird. Did she not run the 1400, was it a bit of second up syndrome, was it just an off day for Tempted because as we say they are not robots….her previous second up run was the Blue Diamond where she was again,unlucky - and ran an absolutely mighty race - but she did finish out of the placings.
So there's that. But I'm backing her to turn it around this time, particularly against her own sex - and a bit of rain will help her cause too.
The Godolphin owned and bred Tempted didn't lose anything when she was relocated to the Ciaron Maher operation, and I'm sure she wouldn't be here if the trainer wasn't convinced she'll run a strong 1400m - and her performance in the insane pressure of The Everest also backs up that theory.
Tempted's dam Calliope raced just four times at two years, winning the Gimcrack on debut and the G2 Magic Night at her third start.
Tempted was the fourth foal and is the second stakes winner from the gifted daughter of Exceed And Excel, with her first foal the gelded Kailos (Medaglia D'Oro) a dual G2 winning sprinter of $875,000.
In 2023 Calliope produced a Pinatubo - a colt who is now racing as Zambales. He placed in the Talindert Stakes at his second race start before running a great race for fourth in the G1 Blue Diamond last weekend, and his future looks bright.
Calliope slipped to Brazen Beau before producing a filly to Darley's superstar Anamoe - a three quarter sister to Tempted - and was returned to him.
Tempted's second dam Melpomene by the American bullet Elusive Quality won three races and was stakes placed. She has also been an excellent producer for Godolphin having produced 10 foals.
Calliope and her full brother Zethus ( G3 Canonbury / Listed Starlight Stakes) were her two stakes winners, but her unplaced daughter Thalia ( Medaglia D'Oro) produced two black type winners.
Each of Melmpomene's six breeding daughters are either retained by Godolphin or in homes where they are visiting the country's most commercial sires, so there will be plenty more good'uns to come from this family!
Melpomene's most recent foals are yet to race, filly Veneration ( Bivouac) and colt Iconography ( Victor Ludorum)
Tempted's third dam is the G1 VRC Oaks winner Bulla Borghese by Danzig's excellent son Belong To Me, and she also produced Melpomene's G2 Furious Stakes winning half sister Bound For Earth by Northern Meteor.
The Oaks heroine was the only stakes winner from her dam Fionnay by the grand old My Babu line stallion Crested Wave.
Tempted’s NZ damline from where so much of her toughness emanates goes back to the Foxbridge mare Volifox, out of Volimond (family 2-j)
This is the immediate family of the superstar three year old filly and stakes producer Samantha Miss.
The line goes back to the Hermit filly Rosamonde sent to Victoria in 1907 and on to NZ in 1910 - and through her it goes back to Queen Victoria's 1,000 Guineas / St Leger winning filly Imperieuse, the taproot mare of this tribe.
This female line is closely related to the family of the immortal NZ bred racer and sire Carbine.
Tempted is bred
Mr Prospector 4m x 5m
Northern Dancer x 5m,5m
Danzig x 4m,5m
Tempted's entire pedigree features many lines of La Troienne and her daughters - in particular Belong To Me has close family ties with the sire Francis S carried by Street Boss!
The ancestress of Street Boss is Dalama - by Djebel and from the family of Blenheim. Tempted's ancestress Vionnay was sired by Djebel's tail male descendant Crested Wave - his fourth dam was by Blenheim.
Blenheim sired Mahmoud, whose daughter Almahmoud, along with La Troienne forms the foundation of Tempted's pedigree.
Tempted and Chad Schofield race for G1 glory from barrier 2.
Next Best: SAVVY HALLIE
The G2 Light Fingers heroine beat Apocalyptic fair and square there, and is suited stepping up to 1400m now. She was a fine two year old but was always going to improve at three.
Savvy Hallie was a $150,000 MM Gold Coast National weanling buy for Belmont Bloodstock from Baramul Stud, and when re-offered as an Inglis Classic yearling by Riverstone Lodge she fetched $320,000 with the winning bid falling to B K Racing and Breeding.
Trained by Brad Widdup at Hawkesbury, Savvy Hallie was the most expensive yearling by Yarraman Park's Hellbent sold in 2024.
Her sire is having a stellar run with Hallie adding to the deeds of further stakes winners Magic Time, Zip Lock and Boston Rocks along with stakes placed Benedetta, Vivy Air, Fully Lit, Revengeance, Bauhinia, Warby, Lhasa, Maradona Falls and Hawea keeping his name to the fore this season in both Australia and New Zealand.
Hellbent’s G1 sprinting daughters are his shining stars.
Bred by Gerry Harvey, Savvy Hallie is the second foal from Rose of Savannah, a winner herself by the incomparable Fastnet Rock.
This regally bred matron has a Wootton Bassett filly named Katoto yet to race for her.
Her subsequent progeny are a colt by Home Affairs born in NZ, and a filly by Reliable Man. She is currently in foal to Hellbent's sire I Am Invincible.
Westbury Stud sold the colt by Home Affairs at Karaka Book 1 for $200,000 to Pike Racing.
Rose Of Savannah was one of nine named foals to date, all but three of them fillies, from the winning Encosta De Lago mare Savannah River, who is still breeding for Harvey with her latest being daughters by Trapeze Artist and Bivouac. She is dam of five winners.
Her daughters are young mares with exciting youngsters on the ground and her most recent foal to race is the talented three year old Snitzel filly Southern Heiress.
Savannah River is a half sister to mighty Savabeel from the dual G1 Ansett Australia Stakes / NZ Oaks heroine Savannah Success (Success Express) who won this very race in 1999.
Savvy Hallie is bred
Danzig 5m,5m x 4m
Green Desert 4m,4m x
Northern Dancer x 5m,5m
The standout here is the fact that both Savabeel and Hellbent descend from the German-bred Blue Hen White And Blue through the half sisters Somniloquist ( Hellbent) and Water Lily ( Savabeel). In addition their family lines of descent come through mares carrying Blue Peter ( son Blue Mickie in Savabeel, grandson Matrice in Hellbent), My Babu ( Better Boy in Savabeel, Crozier in Hellbent) and the great broodmare sire Without Fear.
Duplicating Without Fear for Savabeel is speed enhancing and has brought forth for example his precocious G1 winning son Cool Aza Beel, while duplication of My Babu male and female is key in his champion sprinter I Wish I Win.
Hellbent provides My Babu tail male via Crozier and Milesian, and daughter Stylish Pattern in Artaius by Round Table, the perfect match for Sir Tristram son Marauding carried by Fastnet Rock - and for the Round Table grandson Without Fear who has My Babu's relative Alycidon through his dam.
Success Express - what a sire he was, his influence will continue through the generations through his daughters daughters of his son Mossman and we can't forget Al Akbar, the damsire of Winx - the 4 x Cox Plate legend who descends from a daughter of Sovereign Edition.
Success Express died in 2015 at the ripe old age of 30. He is the damsire of three Cox Plate winners.
Bred in Kentucky, Success Express was by the Princequillo line sire Hold Your Peace out of the Dancing Champ (Nijinsky) mare Au Printemps, who also produced Canadian champion turf male Charlie Barley and GI winner Greenwood Lake.
Success Express arrived in Australia in 1989 to stand at Robert Holmes a Court’s Heytesbury Stud, but he was a journeyman - spending time at Trelawney Stud in NZ, Widden, Noble Park and Chartwood before he and his son Mossman were secured by Vinery in 2004.
Success Express never served big books of mares and declining fertility saw him withdrawn from service by Vinery in 2006, but he lived a long and happy retirement in his last home.
For Hellbent, the Princequillo tail male line of Success Express going back to Speak John is a key cross - that sire descends from the Illuminata daughter Vauxhall, while Hellbent's damlines are full of this family blood. Specifically his second damsire Arch Sculptor descends from a full sister to Vauxhall - but Without Fear's damsire Never Say Die descends from Illuminata's greatest daughter Chelandry - and his sire Baldric carries male relative Prince Palatine.
Hellbent's ancestress Pagan Queen was by Talking by Magpie - Chelandry's great Aussie grandson - and her dam carries Chelandry's half sister Gas. Chelandry is the ancestress of I Am Invincible, and this is why he and his son Hellbent sire such great fillies!
Savvy Hallie is extensively linebred to Blue Hen Somethingroyal (Princequillo again) and this is boosted by I Am Invincible who carries her male relative Cardinal - he has further close genetic links with Success Express.
Hallie is linebred to Blue Hen Lalun through sons Never Bend and Bold Reason, to sons of Turn-To, Star Kingdom and to the family of Alope ( Round Table, Aureole and Fastnet Rock himself ) - a fantastic pedigree.
Savvy Hallie likes to be on pace but she doesn't have to lead, and Nash Rawiller is the perfect jockey for her. They will jump from barrier 6.
Roughie: SUNRAYS
Sunrays is bred on the same cross as Savvy Hallie - by Hellbent out of a Fastnet Rock mare who carries Encosta De Lago and Success Express.
So rewind and replay on everything said above about these nicks.
Sunrays comes to this G1 having had nine race starts for Kelly Schweida which have netted her five wins in Queensland, two of them at Listed level on soft tracks, in the latter race defeating colts over 1500m - so this trip is ideal now. The filly was good when fourth in the Light Fingers, where she got out late and chased solidly.
Sunrays was not offered at auction and is retained by breeder Peter Moran who has had much success with her family . She is the first living foal from the unraced Hiccup ( Fastnet Rock) a daughter of the amazing Success Express mare Staging.
Hiccups produced a colt last spring by Written By.
Like Savvy Hallie's ancestress Savannah Success, Staging won this very race.
She was an elite performer winning eight stakes races, two of them now rated G1, the Surround Stakes and BTC Cup. She also placed in the Doomben Cup, Chipping Norton Stakes and Stradbroke Hcp.
Staging became a Blue Hen for the Morans with her G1 winning sons Duporth ( now a G1 broodmare sire) and Excites carrying their familiar green and white silks to success at the highest level. Another son Tickets was more than once G1 placed.
Staging’s daughter Succeeding by Flying Spur produced dual G1 winner and Champion 2YO Colt in South Africa, Delago Deluxe.
This family is a branch of 2e which goes back to Choke, by Magpie's Melbourne Cup winning son Windbag and linebred to Illuminata (sex balanced, see above) and is a branch of the famous tribe descending from the imported Teppo.
Choke became the fourth dam of the champion mare Mannerism ( Caulfield Cup, AJC Oaks, Futurity Stakes) - boy can this family get a good filly.
Sunrays is bred
Danzig 5m,5m x 4m
Green Desert 4m,4m x
Northern Dancer x 5m,5m
Her fifth dam Cinerama brings an important line to Bletchingly's fine son Best Western who carries two lines of Relic, Grey Sovereign and Better Boy, a brilliant cross for Hellbent.
She is on her way up this girl and could make her presence felt against these established stars, particularly with a bit of rain around!
Sunrays and Jason Collett should get a good run from barrier 3.
Blowout: QUEEN OF CLUBS
The progeny of her champion sire Maurice reveal oodles of class at their best. The Japanese HOTY was a great sprinter-miler.
A lot of them like to get their toe in a bit too, and thus I think the weather is a key factor as to how this talented Gary Portelli-trained filly performs.
The other thing about the Maurices- they’re backmarker types and prone to finding a bit of bad luck, and that has been true of Queen Of Clubs a couple of times.
Queen Of Clubs was purchased by Portelli Racing for $300,000 from Blue Gum Farm (AA) at the MM Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Though she was up and about early, winning a 1400m race at her final juvenile run in four starts at two, Queen Of Clubs is one of those you would expect to come on in leaps and bounds at three.
She got things off to a good start with her third to Savvy Hallie in the G2 Silver Shadow before a fourth in the Tea Rose.
Her form tapered then - though she ran a very creditable race in the G1 Spring Champion with some topliners behind her - she is up to this level.
Is she up to it at 1400m - that's where the rain comes in, just levelling the playing field a little for a filly like her that has plenty of quality but lacks the sheer brilliance of a Tempted or Apocalyptic on faster ground.
The athletic Queen Of Clubs is bred on Maurice's most successful Australian cross, Redoute's Choice - responsible for his freakish G1 Guineas / dual Derby champion Hitotsu among his five stakes winners bred this way.
She is the third foal from her dam, an unraced, French-foaled daughter of the Arrowfield legend named Libre A Vous, bred by Mme Allette Forien for Arrowfield.
She is a half sister to the French Champion Miler French Fifteen and two other black type winners from an Ashkalani mare who had eight to race, all winners.
Her third dam Zarzaya by Caro was an unraced stakes producer and hails from one of the Agha Khan's treasured families.
Libre A Vous is owned by Trilogy Racing, who purchased her for $340,000 at the 2022 MM National Broodmare from Yarraman Park as agent for Lofts Hall Stud UK.
Her colt born that year by Blue Point was a $260,000 Inglis,Premier buy for M De Kock when offered by Supreme Thoroughbreds
Libre A Vous foaled a Street Boss filly for Trilogy, offered by Caithness Breeding and purchased for $65,000 at 2025 Adelaide MM Yearling by Cumani Racing / McCeever Bloodstock
The mare's colt by Anamoe is a cracker and Portelli went to $460,000 to pluck him from the Blue Gum Farm draft at this year's Gold Coast MM Sale - which speaks volumes about his good opinion of Queen Of Clubs!
A filly by Toronado is the latest arrival for Libre A Vous and she is once again in foal to Maurice.
Queen Of Clubs is bred
Danzig 5f x 4m sex balanced
Northern Dancer 5m x 5m
Her damline goes back to the Agha Khan's great grey daughter of Petition Petite D'Etoile, Champion 3YO Filly and 4YO Mare of Europe who was a grand daughter of Mah Iran, half sister to Mahmoud. Mah Iran was also the ancestress of Nassipour, who pops up in the pedigrees of quite a few fast fillies.
So there's the obvious nick with Danzig, grandson of a Petition mare - and with Danehill / Sunday Silence and their lines lines to Almahmoud, plus Canny Lad's double of family member Dodoma etc etc.
Queen Of Clubs is linebred to Blue Hens Special ( sex balanced), Lalun, Friar's Daughter (sex balanced) and La Troienne - most importantly, Maurice's sire Screen Hero descends from her daughter Baby League through Grand League by Grand Slam ( Fair Play tail male) - and Redoute's Choice sex balances Baby League via her great son Mr Busher, by Fair Plays's greatest descendant War Admiral. Maurice's third damsire Mogami also traces to La Troienne.
Queen Of Clubs has a first time rider in Craig Williams aboard for this big G1 assignment. There is simply no one better than Willo with a young filly finding her feet at the top level, and from barrier 7 the rank outsider of the field can go a lot better than a 200/1 shot!
