Flight Stakes Tips, Betting, Odds, Horses & More 2024

The Flight Stakes is one of the biggest races to take place at Randwick Racecourse during the Spring Racing Carnival. Each year, we see some of the best 3YO fillies come out to play and fight for the right to call themselves a Group 1 winner. The race is held under set weights conditions.

On the same day as the Flight Stakes, we also see two other Group 1 races at Randwick, which include; the Epsom Handicap and The Metropolitan. With so much racing taking place at Randwick Racecourse, it’s no wonder many consider it one of the top tracks in the country. 

There is a long and rich history of the Flight Stakes, with the first race taking place back in 1947 when won by Nizam’s Ring. We will go into more detail about the history of the Flight Stakes later on this page, in our aptly named “History” section.

The Flight Stakes makes up one of four legs of the Princess Series, which was created specifically for 3YO fillies by Darley (one of the world’s most prestigious stallion organisations) and the Australian Turf Club. The three other races that make up the Princess Series include; the Silver Shadow Stakes, the Furious Stakes and the Tea Rose Stakes.

The three other races in the Princess Series are all Group 2s. The Princess Series rewards the owners and breeders of the runner that can win the race as they have access to some of the best bloodlines in the world, which helps to enhance the racing and breeding industry.

The runner who goes on to win the Flight Stakes will be exempt from the ballot for the Doncaster Mile, which will take place the following year. So, there’s plenty of incentive to give the Flight Stakes some serious thought and that’s not even touching on the fact there’s $750K in prize money on offer!

OnlyRacing.com.au covers all aspects of the Flight Stakes, so no matter what you want to find out about the race, we’ve got you sorted. We have information on tips, betting and odds details, along with general information on the field, form guide, results and more! We update this page multiple times a year, so you always have the most up-to-date information.

When it comes to the prize money of the Flight Stakes, the winner gets the lion’s share of the $750K that’s up for grabs. Check out the full breakdown of the prize money below:

We hope you love free racing tips because we’ve got some of the best going around! Our experts have been in and around the horse racing industry for decades now and they’ve certainly picked up a few things along the way. Our racing tips cover all the Group 1s on the calendar and we even have weekly tips as well.

Our Flight Stakes tips aren’t available just yet because our experts are waiting until race week when the final field is announced. When our experts know which runners will be lining up, they will conduct an in-depth analysis and provide three tips for the race, their best bet, next best and best roughie.

We’ve left our tips up from the Flight Stakes in 2023, so you can judge how well our experts performed below:

Flight Stakes Best Bet - Kimochi 

Look at me, not picking the favourite! I just think Kimochi has a lot more upside than the current $2.80 favourite, Tiz Invincible. Kimochi is currently on the third line of betting, listed at $6.00. Kimochi has been somewhat unlucky as of late and has been running well without winning since April.

She was beaten by less than a length in both the Silver Shadow Stakes and the Furious Stakes. While in the Tea Rose Stakes, she had to overcome a wide barrier and still finished in third place. I think the rise to the mile will suit her and while she does get another sticky barrier, she is ready to break through and get the W.

Flight Stakes Next Best - Tiz Invincible

While I think Kimochi may very well get the better of Tiz Invincible, I still think she is good enough to run the top three (at least). Tiz Invincible showed a lot of potential and promise as a 2YO, so many will be looking to see how she can continue to build on that as a 3YO. She broke her maiden finally in The Rosebud.

The floodgates then opened and she won the Furious Stakes and the Tea Rose Stakes. While she beat Kimochi in those races, I’m not 100% convinced with the mile here. I expect her to be right in the finish and potentially even win, but I think Kimochi has her number this time.

Flight Stake Best Roughie - Tropical Squall

Okay, so not A LOT of value, but still, $9.00 is nothing to be sneezed at for Tropical Squall! Tropical Squall finished third in the Tea Rose Stakes and I think she’ll eat up the mile in the Flight Stakes on Saturday. She has been on my watch list since June when winning on debut in Canterbury.

She looks to have come back in good form this prep, winning easily at BM72 level. Her breeding (by Prized Icon) suggests that she will continue to improve after each run, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she puts in a stellar race and gives the favourite something to think about. 

Don’t forget to come back to this section on our Flight Stakes pace during race week for all our latest and greatest tips.

Betting on the Flight Stakes should be an enjoyable experience. If you’re new to the world of betting, it’s a good idea to do some research and get some recommendations, so you know you are doing the right thing and improving your chances of success. If you want to get the most out of your Flight Stakes betting experience, this is the section for you!

There are many different horse racing betting sites out there in Australia. It seems as though new ones are popping up each and every month! It’s important to note that not all bookies are created equal and you should conduct extensive research before signing up.

One of the things you should do is check out our bookie reviews page. On that page, we have in-depth reviews of all the top bookies going around in Australia. This means you’ll have all the information you need to make the best decision for you about the best bookie to bet with.

Along with choosing a bookie to bet with come the Flight Stakes, you also need to choose which market you’re going to bet on. All the best horse racing betting apps will have heaps of markets for the Flight Stakes. If you want to stick with something simple, a Fixed Win or Place bet is the way to go!

There are more complex bet types available, if you’re interested in mixing things up. Other markets include things like Quaddies, Multis, Quinellas, Trifectas and First Fours. It is important to always bet within your knowledge. So, if you aren’t sure how a specific bet type works, make sure you research it before placing your bets!

It is also a good idea to look for things like racing promotions with different bookies. Each bookie will have a different set of promotions to take advantage of and this is why we recommend opening accounts with multiple bookies! As well as the promotions, bookies can sometimes offer different odds, so it can certainly pay to shop around!

If you’re looking for a starting point for some of the bookies we think you’ll love, you should check out PlayUp, JungleBet and Bet365. If three bookie recommendations aren’t enough, scroll up to our “Betting Sites” section above for over 20 more options.

The Flight Stakes field is yet to be confirmed as we have to wait until race week. Once race week rolls around, we will bring you all the field information you’ve been looking for. While we don’t know which fillies will be tackling the Flight Stakes, if history is anything to go by, it’s going to be a bumper field.

If you can’t wait until race week, you can check out the odds for the Flight Stakes. The odds usually come out before the field is confirmed and it will give you an indication of which runners are favoured in the market and therefore targeting the race. 

Seeing though you’re already here, why don’t you check out the Flight Stakes field that lined up for the race in 2023 below:

For the Flight Stakes in 2023, we saw a field of 13 confirmed and no emergencies were listed. Before the race, we saw one scratching, as Autumn Angel was pulled from the race. This meant that the final field was cut by one and only 12 runners contested the Flight Stakes.

When it comes to horse racing, scratchings are a fairly common occurrence. Scratchings can happen for any number of reasons and can sometimes come out of the blue. So, if you’ve placed a bet on the Flight Stakes, it is important to keep an eye on things as they unfold, you certainly don’t want to be blindsided!

The barrier draw is something else you should look into when checking out the final field. Before the race, each runner is randomly selected a barrier they will jump from. History suggests that some barriers are more successful than others and the barrier each runner jumps from can have a major impact on race tactics deployed.

A race like the Flight Stakes has a lot of history and this means there is plenty of data and stats to sift through. It’s important to check out the Flight Stakes form guide as all this data can present clear patterns that can help point you in the direction of a winner. 

We’re all about finding winners here at OnlyRacing, so we’ve done the heavy lifting to put together all the important key form indicators that can help you on your quest. There’s a lot of data to go through, but we’ve found the most important pieces. Check out all the details below!

The Flight Stakes is usually won by genuine Group 1 horses and while the winner may not have tasted victory in a Group 1 before, they will usually go on to win multiple Group One races or feature races in the future. The field is usually filled with NSW-based runners, but it isn’t uncommon to see interstate runners give the race a crack.

While interstate runners come to Sydney for Group 1 glory, they aren’t usually successful. We haven’t seen a Flight Stakes winner contest a non-Sydney lead-up race since 1987. So, it is probably best to avoid runners coming from out-of-state, or runners who haven’t been in Sydney for a while.

As always, it’s important to look into the most ideal lead-up races. For the Flight Stakes, the best lead-ups include the Tea Rose Stakes and the Furious Stakes, which are both Group 2s. The Tea Rose Stakes has produced more winners than any other race, as in the last 21 years, we’ve seen 18 winners from this race.

Favourites have a good record in the race, especially as of late. Since 2013, we have seen five favourites win the race. In the last six years, we’ve seen three winners jump with odds in the double-digits, so you can’t completely avoid the roughies either!

When it comes to non-NSW trained runners specifically, they don’t have a good record either. Oohood was the last non-NSW trained runner, who won in 2018, but before that, it was Sunline in 1998.

When it comes to the Flight Stakes horses, we’ve seen some of the best in the industry compete and win. These horses have gone on to bigger and better things, leaving a massive mark on the industry. We could make a case for several of the Flight Stakes horses that have gone on to win the race. 

But we only have room for a handful, so we’ve had to make some difficult decisions. If you’ve got a horse in mind that has won the Flight Stakes, we hope they have made our list! Check out all the Flight Stakes horses we’ve chosen below:

Wenona Girl - 1960

The chestnut mare, Wenona Girl, won the Flight Stakes in 1960. She has been inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame and has won some pretty big races in her time, including; the All Aged Stakes, the Rosehill Guineas, the CF Orr Stakes along with the George Main Stakes, just to name a few.

Sunline - 1998

Sunline finished her career with a very impressive record of 48:32-9-3 and she was inducted into both the Australian and New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame. Some of the more notable races that she won in her career included; the Cox Plate, the Doncaster Mile, the Manikato Stakes and the Coolmore Classic. 

Samantha Miss - 2008

Samantha Miss successfully won all four legs of the Princess Series, which obviously included her 2008 victory in the Flight Stakes. She made almost two million in prize money throughout her career and won races like the Champagne Stakes and the VRC Oaks. She was only lightly raced though, with a career record of 12:7-2-2.

More Joyous - 2009

More Joyous won eight Group 1 races throughout her career, including the 2009 Flight Stakes. In 2012 she was named the Australian Champion Middle Distance Racehorse and some of the races she won in her career included; the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the Doncaster Mile, the Queen of the Turf Stakes and the George Main Stakes.

Alizee - 2017

Alizee won over $3 million in prize money throughout her career and ended with a record of 29:10-3-3. Along with the Flight Stakes, some of the other key Group 1 races she won throughout her career included; the Queen of the Turf Stakes and the Futurity Stakes.

Before you place any bets on the Flight Stakes, you should check out the available odds. You’ll probably notice that the odds for the Flight Stakes will change multiple times a day, especially if it’s race week. 

As well as this, different bookies could have different odds for the same runner. So make sure you’re always shopping around if you want to get the most bang for your buck. As we get closer to race day, more horse racing markets will open up as well. Anything from a simple Fix Win bet to something more complex, like a Quaddie, will be available.

At this stage, our favourite bookie, PlayUp, hasn’t released their initial market for the Flight Stakes. While this is probably not the news you wanted to hear, stay tuned because we will list all the odds for the top runners when PlayUp’s market is released.

One of the things we recommend is betting when the market is listed as “Before Noms”. When you bet at this stage, you get an extra layer of protection because if the runner you chose doesn’t make the final field, you’ll get your stake back! If you notice the market is listed as “All-In” you won’t get this protection.

Don’t forget to check back again closer to race day, as we will list all the odds for the runners in the Flight Stakes below.

The Flight Stakes is one of the most exciting events on Sydney’s Spring Racing Carnival, which is one of the biggest horse racing carnivals of the year. The race was named after one of the most well-known and successful mares in history, Flight. The Australian Racing Hall of Famer won 24 races throughout her career, including the Cox Plate twice.

Currently a Group 1 race, the Flight Stakes started out as a Principal Race between 1947 and 1978. In 1979 it was upgraded to Group 2 status and then finally in 1985, the Flight Stakes gained Group 1 status. 

Over the years, we’ve seen two very successful trainers, which is interestingly, a father-daughter combination! TJ Smith trained 12 Flight Stakes winners, while his daughter later went on to win 12 Flight Stakes as well, some in combination with Adrain Bott. 

The Flight Stakes is the only Group 1 race that is held just for 3YO fillies during the Spring Racing Carnival in Spring. In 1983 and 2001 the Flight Stakes temporarily moved home and was run at Warwick Farm Racecourse.

There are plenty of other epic races that take place during Spring and also right throughout the year. We’ve got pages just like this on all the Group 1 races and key feature races if you want to learn more. You’ll be a Group 1 expert in no time!

If you weren’t able to catch the race live, or just looking to relive the action, we’ve got all the Flight Stakes results information you’ve been searching for. While we don’t know what went down in the race in 2024, we do have all the details about the race in 2023!

Tropical Squall produced a stellar ride to win the 2023 Flight Stakes. She settled perfectly and was first for the majority of the race. She ended up finishing 0.8L ahead of one of the more fancied runners in the market, Kimochi.

An $11 chance, Tutta La Vita, wrapped up the final minor placing, 2.1L off the leader. All in all, the race was run in a time of 1:33.91 and there was a total of 10.17L that separated the first and last runner across the finishing post.

Take a look below to see the finishing order of the entire Flight Stakes field:

Who doesn’t love a video? Check out the full race replay to relive all the action of the Flight Stakes below:

We’ve seen some great winners of the Flight Stakes in the past. If you want to know which fillies took out the Flight Stakes in recent years, you’ve come to the right place! Check out all the recent Flight Stakes winners below:

You’ve almost made it to the end of the Flight Stakes page! But before you go off into the real world, we’ve got one last section for you. Our Flight Stakes FAQs section covers all the most common questions people have about the race. Check out all the details below: