Bill Stutt Stakes

Winners and Past Results for the Bill Stutt Stakes

The Bill Stutt Stakes is a Group 2 event hosted by Moonee Valley Racing Club as part of their Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival.

The event for horses aged three years and above is run under set weight conditions, with horses negotiating 1600 metres at Moonee Valley Racecourse. The race is usually hosted in late September on the same day as the Group 1 Manikato Stakes, with $ 200,000 in prize money.

Established in 1934, as a Principle Race known as Moonee Valley Stakes, it was upgraded to a Group 2 race in 1979, and renamed as “Bill Stutt Stakes” in 1990, in honour of Moonee Valley Racing Club's former chairman, Bill Stutt.

It is the first Group event of the Melbourne Spring Season run over 1600 meters. It is considered as a specialized lead up event to the $1,000,000, Group 1 Caulfield Guineas at Caulfield Racecourse, which is run under the same distance and conditions, except for the track, a fortnight later. Some of the top talent aiming for the Caulfield Guineas might go though the Caulfield Guineas Prelude. Horses who do mange to win the Caulfield Guineas, would have won a blue ribbon event.

Whobegotyou was the most recent double winner of the Bill Stutt Stakes, and the Caulfield Guineas. He achieved this in 2008, after which he went on to win the Group 2 AAMI Vase and place second in the Victoria Derby. Winners and placers from the Bill Stutt Stakes are known to often to go on and finish in the money at the same events as Whobegotyou. Sometimes, they can go even further, like in 2005, when Maybe Better who placed third in this event, went on to place third in the Melbourne Cup after placing in a host of Group 2 events and winning a couple of Group 3 events.

The 2010 winner Hollowlea, came thirteenth in the Caulfield Guineas, but recovered and came third in the AAMI Vase. The runner-up for 2010, Run for Levi, achieved the same result at the Caulfield Guineas later in the year. The 2010 third place, Bullbars, went on to come 8th in the Caulfield Guineas, and then went on to win the Group 3 C S Hayes Stakes, and then placed 2nd in the Group 1 Australian Guineas.

The inaugural race was won by Titanium, and some of the notable winners have been Zabeel in 1989, Canny Lad in 1990 and 1996 champion Encosta De Lago.

2012 Bill Stutt Stakes

Pierro, the hottest of favourites at $1.06, made winning look ridiculously easy as he strolled to victory in this Group 2 feature over 1600 metres. The unbeaten colt was always handy to the lead, settling in behind Carringbush Jack, who set the pace for the first 1200 metres. On the home turn, Pierro loped past Carringbush Jack and at the 200 metre mark, when jockey Nash Rawiller asked the star colt to up the tempo, he exploded away from the field, eventually winning by five lengths over a dogged Carringbush Jack, who stuck with it to finish second, with another big gap back to Jimando in third.

2012 Bill Stutt Stakes result

1. Pierro
2. Carringbush Jack
3. Jimando

Then came:

4. Road Trippin
5. Underestimation
6. Adjuster
7. Hey Big Bender