Ladbrokes Tip: The ATC Sires’ Produce – Champagne Stakes double is often achieved by the season’s best three-year-old

The Champagne Stakes is one of two Group 1 races conducted at Royal Randwick Racecourse on the Saturday after two The Championships meetings during the Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival each April.

The major support act of All Aged Stakes, the elite level feature is run over 1600m and is open to two-years-old horses only. Offering $500,000 in total prize money the Champagne Stakes winner takes out $287,000 for connections and the event is run under set weights. The 2020 edition of the Champagne Stakes offered a reduced $400,000 due to COVID-19 before being elevated back to $500,000 in 2021. 

Colts and geldings carrying 56.5kg and fillies are allocated 54.5kg in the mile classic. The winner of the Fernhill Handicap is exempt from Champagne Stakes ballot but the traditional lead-up is the Group 1 ATC Inglis Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) run a fortnight earlier at the track. The Inglis Sires’ – Champagne Stakes double was last completed by King’s Legacy (2020), while Prized Icon completed the Fernhill Handicap – Champagne Stakes double in 2016.

The latest edition of the ATC Champagne Stakes took place on Saturday April 24, 2021 and was won by Captivant. 

Champagne Stakes Race Info

• Date: Saturday April 24, 2021
• Track: Royal Randwick Racecourse
• Distance: 1600m
• Conditions: 2YOs – Set Weights
• Status: Group 1
• Prize Money: $500,000 
• First Run: 1861

CHAMPAGNE STAKES PREVIEW

CHAMPAGNE STAKES BETTING ODDS

2021 Champagne Stakes Results

The 2021 ATC Champagne Stakes results and finishing order will be announced on Saturday April 24, 2021 and listed below as soon as the race results.

• 1st: #1 Captivant
• 2nd: #2 Hilal
• 3rd: #3 Converge

Captivant was too good off a gun ride from the inside alley by jockey James McDonald finishing strongly to defeat the beaten favourite Hilal by a half-length in the 2021 Champagne Stakes results turning the tables after they ran three-two respectively last start in the Inglis Sires’. 

Champagne Stakes Betting

Champagne Stakes betting odds are traditionally led by the best performing two-year-olds in the Group 1 Inglis Sires’ (1400m) held at Randwick over 200m shorter on Doncaster Mile Day two weeks earlier.

The Inglis Sires’ – Champagne Stakes betting double is a popular one and was achieved by three horses on the trot from 2011 – 2013 with Helmet, Pierro and Guelph respectively. In 2020 King’s Legacy became the latest two-year-old to do the Inglis Sires’ – Champagne Stakes double. 

All but three of the Champagne Stakes winners from 1999 – 2021 came out of the Inglis Sires’ Produce Stakes and the last winners to finish worse than fourth in their lead-up run were The Mission (Sires’ Produce 6th in 2017) and Seabrook (Sires’ Produce 9th in 2018).

Last start winners dominate the Champagne Stakes odds each year and of the winners from 2012 – 2021 six favourites saluted for the punters, most recently King’s Legacy ($2.70 in 2020). 

2021 Champagne Stakes Betting

The ATC Champagne Stakes 2021 betting odds will be found below once markets on the two-years-old Group 1 mile showdown are released in April.

Champagne Stakes Field

The largest Champagne Stakes field in the past 30 years was 15 runners in 2010 when Skilled won for trainer Peter Snowden.

The race has run with under 10 starters many times over the past three decades with the smallest line-up being just four starts when Dance Hero won in 2004. The season’s best two-year-old milers make up the Champagne Stakes field and favourites have a gun record in the race.

The Champagne Stakes nominations are taken on the Monday before the race with the final field of acceptances plus the Champagne Stakes barrier draw out on the Wednesday before All Aged Stakes Day.

Prized Icon (2016) saluted for the punters in the Randwick Group 1 race. Photo Credit: Steve Hart.

2021 Champagne Stakes Field

The ATC Champagne Stakes 2021 field and barrier draw will be released on the Wednesday leading-up to All Aged Stakes Day and announced below.

The 2021 Champagne Stakes final field features 14 two-year-olds led in betting by the Inglis Sires’ runner-up Hilal drawn gate four and leading markets in an open edition of the mile feature. 

Champagne Stakes Tips

Champagne Stakes tips favour the Inglis Sires’ Produce graduates as this lead-up race has produced more winners of the mile event than any other event.

The only other races to produce more than one Champagne Stakes champion in the past 30 years are the Magic Night Stakes run at Rosehill in March and the Fernhill Handicap a week out from the Group 1.

Fillies often dominate Champagne Stakes tips as all three winners from 2013 – 15 were female gallopers with Guelph (2013), Go Indy Go (2013) and Pasadena Girl (2015). Go Indy Go ($7) was the only non-favourite in Champagne Stakes betting of those to score an upset. The fillies were again on top in 2018 when Seabrook saluted.

2021 Champagne Stakes Tips

Our Ladbrokes’ best Champagne Stakes 2021 bets and betting tips will be detailed below the week of the race outlining the two-year-olds to back and sack in the last Group 1 mile race in Sydney for the autumn.

• To Win: #3 Converge ($6 at time of publish) 

With Anamoe in the paddock instead of Saturday’s field, it is a wide-open edition of the Champagne Stakes. The Ingls Sires’ form held last year with King’s Legacy doing the double, but going to go with the proven miler and fancy Gai Waterhouse to return to winning form in this race with last weekend’s Fernhill winner on the quick back-up. He chases a double last completed in 2016, but was very dominant last weekend, has pulled up well by all reports and will appreciate coming back down in weight. 

Champagne Stakes Form Guide

The Champagne Stakes form guide reveals all the crucial information including the jockeys, trainers, barriers and lead-up form of the runners in the field. Looking for two-year-olds coming off a top two run in the Inglis’ Sires is crucial when doing the Champagne Stakes form.

Peter Snowden is the dominate Champagne Stakes winning trainer in recent years with five winners from 2010 – 2021, most recently Guelph (2013) and King’s Legacy (2020) who both came off a lead-up win in the Inglis Sires’; followed by Captivant (2021).

Gai Waterhouse co-holds the overall record with five winners since 2000 most recently star colt Pierro (2012).

The most successful Champagne Stakes barrier since 1983 producing the most winners is gate six. Barrier six produced three of the nineChampagne Stakes winners from 2011 – 2021.

Champagne Stakes Form Facts

• The Mission (2017) was the first Champagne Stakes winner since Mentality (2006) to run worse than fourth in their lead-up run followed by Seabrook (2018) the following year
• Fillies dominated the Champagne Stakes results from 2013 – 2016 with three of the four wins in that time and Seabrook (2018) became the fourth filly in five years to win
• Favourites in Champagne Stakes betting have an excellent recent record with six from 2011 – 2021 
• Only one horse came off a run outside of Sydney to win the Champagne Stakes since 1983 – Go Indy Go (SA Sires’ Produce win in 2014)
• Barrier six produced five of the Champagne Stakes winners from 2011 – 2021

2021 Champagne Stakes Form Guide

A link to our comprehensive Champagne Stakes 2021 Form Guide will be provided for punters below the week of the race.

Champagne Stakes Results

Champagne Stakes results have been dominated by favourites in the past half a decade.

There has been only two double figure winners since 1997 with Carry On Cutie ($26 in 2005) and Onemorenomore ($12 in 2009). Notable recent Champagne Stakes winners include Pierro (2012), Helmet (2011) and Dance Hero (2004).

Champagne Stakes Winners