Spring Champion Stakes Betting Sites, Odds, Tips & Information

2000m Spring Champion Stakes 

Date: Saturday 28th October  
Time: 16:00 
Prize Money: $2m AUD

The Spring Champion Stakes is also run prior to another well-known race, The Invitation, an invite-only race also with $2m of prize money as well as the Group 2 Callander-Presnell and the Group 3 Craven Plate, so we look forward to a fantastic day of racing. 

Some interesting facts about the Spring Champion Stakes: 

• Known as the Australasian Champion Stakes for the first 7 years of the race. 
• The Spring Champion Stakes has a long heritage of being a Group 1 race from 1979. 
• There was no race in 2007 due to an outbreak of equine influenza. 
• In 1983, for the one & only time, the race was not held at Randwick Racecourse but at Warwick Farm over 2100m. 
• From 1984 the race has been over 2000m except the Warwick Farm event and in 2001 when it was 1800m over the Kensington inner course at Randwick. 
• Due to the race only being for 3-year-olds, there have, of course, never been 2 times winners but there have been successful trainers, Gai Waterhouse has trained 4 winners, only beaten by her father with 5. 

The 2023 Spring Champion Stakes boasts a prize pool of $2 million Australian dollars, with over $1million for the winner alone and is sure to attract some great horses. The field for the race was announced, as expected, on the Tuesday before the race, Tuesday 24th October. 

The field is limited to 12 runners. 

An interesting fact is that 6 of the last 10 favourites for the race, have actually won the race. 

The race is almost upon us and when trying to pick a winner, here are horses currently in the frame to run, including some of their recent high profile races: 

Notice an interesting trend ?     

Here is a simple strategy for deciphering the complex world of picking a bookie. At the end of the day it comes down to 2 things: 

Firstly, which bookie is going to offer you the best value for betting with them on feature races such as the 2023 Spring Champion Stakes race, bonus bets may come into play here.  

Secondly, which are your preferred markets or bets, that you wish to place on the race. 

So you are trying to extract the most profit from your bets, if there are bonus bets on win odds for runners coming 2nd or 3rd or even 4th, then you have some additional cover that could be worth exploring with the compromise of possibly lower odds being available from those bookmakers. 

Compare the odds for your picks across as many available Australian bookmakers as you can be bothered with or are already a member. For reference, we have a Bookmaker Review page that includes a pros and cons list for every single Australian bookmaker that offers racing markets. Additionally, our betting sites in Australia include feature in-depth reviews of specific bookmakers that we care to highlight. Some of these bookmakers include PlayUp, Midasbet, PalmerBet, Unibet, and Winnersbet. All of which I have included a sneak peak of their pros and cons lists. Be sure to click on any of these tables to visit our full bookmaker reviews. 

Bet on whichever available Australian bookmaker offers you the best price for your preferred bets on races. The longer you take to find the best horse racing betting site and associated odds, the longer the process will take. 

Another option is to simply bet with whichever bookie you are used to, or rather, most comfortable with. They may or may not offer the best odds, but it is a bookmaker than you know well and you can easily navigate their webpages to place bets. 

Royal Randwick Racecourse is one of the most well-known racing venues around the world. The Spring Champion Stakes is a key race in the NSW Spring Carnival, being the final Group 1 race of the Carnival and seen as Sydney’s premier race for 3-year-olds, so it is only fitting that Royal Randwick plays host to this $2m race. 

Please visit our Royal Randwick Racecourse feature length review for important information on the track’s history, biggest races, and differentiating factors in comparison to other esteemed racing venues across Australia. 

The Spring Champion Stakes has over 50 years of history having first been run in 1971. 

Before moving on, since I think you will have noticed mention of the Gloaming Stakes, a Group 3 race run in September. The Group 3 Gloaming Stakes is seen as the lead up race and horses successful in this 1800m race usually look to enter the Spring Champion Stakes, in fact the winner of the Gloaming Stakes has exemption from the ballot for the Spring Champion Stakes.   

Profondo is famous for winning the Spring Champion Stakes in 2021 in only his third start, what is usually forgotten is that he came 2nd in his 2nd race, the Gloaming Stakes 2 weeks earlier. 

Almost every Spring Champion Stakes race has been run at Royal Randwick Racecourse albeit over varying distances. The 1971 race started with 10 furlongs (2011m), the next year, 1972 with the metric system, it was shortened to 2000m, increased to 2100m for the sole 1983 Warwick Farm event, then from 1984 onwards (except for 2001 and 1800m on the shorter Kensington inner course) it finally settled on 2000m. 

Both fillies and colts have won the race, the first filly being in 2016 with Yankee Rose. 

The famous Kingston Town won the 1979 Spring Champion Stakes and went on to win 3 consecutive Cox Plates in the following 3 years. 

In this millenium successful jockeys have included 2 times winners Hugh Bowman (2010 & 2022), Josh Parr (2014 & 2019), Corey Brown (2002 & 2008) and Jay Ford (2005 & 2009).  

If you are looking at successful trainers, although T J Smith trained 5 winners, his daughter Gai Waterhouse is not far behind on 4. 

In 2023, the real value of looking at past winners is the trainers and jockeys and the experience they bring by having run and won previously in such an important race.  

Jason Collett has a ride with Tutta La Vita, likewise Josh Parr is ridding Medatsu. Even another two-times winner, Jay Ford, has a ride on the outsider Ramble On.  

Gai Waterhouse as mentioned previously has 2 horses in the race, with Adrian Bott, in Raf Attack and Ganbare, but then Chris Waller trains Tutta La Vita and Cap Ferrat. 

It is a race with real history and endless winner possibilities. But for a final comment, which really does not help pick the winner, in 2018, Maid of Heaven was the first Group 1 win for both trainer AND jockey.  

Saturday 28th October 2023 will be an exciting time at Royal Randwick Racecourse with Group 2, Group 3, The Invitation and of course, the headline act, the Spring Champion Stakes adding up to a full race card. It is going to be a great day of racing.