G1 Race history
VRC Champions Sprint (registered as the Victoria Racing Club Stakes)
- Track
- Flemington
- Distance
- 1200m
- Conditions
- Three-year-olds and up, weight for age, straight course
- First run
- 1960
The Race
The race was first run in 1960 as the Craven 'A' Stakes, and Karina was the first winner.
It is run down the Flemington straight over 1200m at weight for age.
Black Caviar won the race in 2010 and 2011.
Nature Strip won it twice, in 2019 and 2021, both for Chris Waller and James McDonald.
Imperatriz won in 2023 for trainer Mark Walker, the only winner of the last ten trained outside Australia according to OLBG.
Santa Ana Lane ran 1:08.66 in 2018, the fastest time among the ten winners from 2016 to 2025.
The race was run on Victoria Derby day until 2006 and is now on the final day of the carnival.
Winners
| Year | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Barrier | SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Giga Kick | Clayton Douglas | Mark Zahra | 3 | $5.00 |
| 2024 | Sunshine In Paris | Annabel Neasham & Rob Archibald | James McDonald | 9 | $5.00 |
| 2023 | Imperatriz | Mark Walker | Opie Bosson | 8 | $2.15 |
| 2022 | Roch 'N' Horse | Michael Moroney | Jamie Mott | 6 | $20.00 |
| 2021 | Nature Strip | Chris Waller | James McDonald | 2 | $1.29 |
| 2020 | Bivouac | James Cummings | Glen Boss | 6 | $3.20 |
| 2019 | Nature Strip | Chris Waller | James McDonald | 9 | $3.60 |
| 2018 | Santa Ana Lane | Anthony Freedman | Mark Zahra | 5 | $10.00 |
| 2017 | Redzel | Peter & Paul Snowden | Kerrin McEvoy | 9 | $4.00 |
| 2016 | Malaguerra | Peter Gelagotis | Ben Melham | 11 | $9.50 |
A blank cell means we could not confirm it from a source, so we left it blank rather than guess.
Patterns, Rated
- Interesting OLBG counts 6 of the last 10 winners as having run in The Everest within their last three starts; only Redzel (2017) and Nature Strip (2021) won the Everest as well, and no winner has come straight from the Everest since (n=10, 6 of 10)
- Interesting 9 of the last 10 winners started at $10 or shorter; the exception was Roch 'N' Horse at 19/1 in 2022 (n=10, 9 of 10)
- Pub stat 4 of the last 10 winners started favourite (2017, 2020, 2021, 2023) (n=10, 4 of 10)
- Pub stat James McDonald rode 3 of the last 10 winners (2019, 2021, 2024) and Mark Zahra 2 (2018, 2025) (n=10, 3 of 10)
- Pub stat OLBG counts 5 of the last 10 winners as having run at Randwick last start (n=10, 5 of 10)
Strong signal: enough runnings and a racing reason behind it. Interesting: worth knowing, not worth betting on alone. Pub stat: fun at the bar, useless at the window.
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