Three-year-old fillies have the Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes to themselves when they take to Rosehill for 2000 metres run under set weight conditions.
The registered name for the race is the Storm Queen Stakes. It is held in late March and in 2023, the race was worth $600,000 in prize money.
Vinery Stud Stakes Race Details
Date: 30-3-24
Time: TBA
Racecourse: Rosehill
Race Distance: 2000m
Conditions: TBA
Prize Money: $500,000
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When Is The Vinery Stud Stakes: 30-3-24
What Time Is The Vinery Stud Stakes: TBA
Where Is The Vinery Stud Stakes: Rosehill Racecourse
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More Details About The Vinery Stud Stakes
A New Zealand filly named Prowess displayed hers to take the top prize of $343,000 when she jumped favourite and left second favourite Pavitra over three lengths in arrears.
Prize money for the race was boosted by $100,000 from the 2022 level.
Along with a hefty pay day, the winner of the race receives a ballot exemption for the Group 1 Australian Oaks, a million dollar race at Randwick for three-year-old fillies over 2400 metres.
Racing schedules are subject to change and there was a time when the Vinery Stud was run at the Rosehill meeting that featured the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes and The BMW, amongst others. In 2023, the race jumped alongside the Group 1 H. E. Tancred Stakes, along with Group 2 races the Emancipation and Tulloch Stakes. Four Group 3 races make the meeting one of the main reasons to visit Rosehill during the autumn racing season.
History of the Vinery Stud Stakes
The race jumped for the first time in 1979 as the Storm Queen Stakes. That first year offered a trip of 1900 metres, very Queensland-like. Ever since, with the exception of 2022 when the race shifted to Newcastle Racecourse to allow for renovation work on Rosehill and was abbreviated to 1850 metres, the trip for the Vinery Stud Stakes has been 2000 metres.
The race was known as the Storm Queen Stakes from 1979 through 1991. It became the Ansett Australia Stakes in 1992, giving way to the Arrowfield Stud Stakes in 2002. The race became the Vinery Stud Storm Queen Stakes in 2009. That mouthful of syllables was shortened to the Vinery Stud Stakes in 2010.
The original race name, Storm Queen Stakes, was in honour of the 1966 Golden Slipper Stakes winner Storm Queen. She won eight consecutive races in her season as a two-year-old.
For her career, Storm Queen made 20 jumps for 13 wins and three placings, yet despite winning six races that are now Group 1 grade, she earned just over $100,000.
Storm Queen supplied eight named foals, but none were even mere shadows of their dam as racers.
The race grade was Principal for the first year, rising to Group 2 the next year and making it to Group 1 status in 1993.
Venue for the Vinery Stud Stakes
Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney is one of the top metro tracks in the entire country. We might say third behind Flemington and Randwick, although fans of The Heath might offer an argument for Caulfield in Melbourne.
Rosehill’s most famous race is the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes. They inaugurated a $10 million race for four-year-olds in 2019 that is called the Golden Eagle.
Over the course of a full year, Rosehill presents nine Group 1, 13 Group 2 and 14 Group 3 races. Eight of the Group 1 races at Rosehill jump in March or April. Only the Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes is held during spring racing.
Rosehill is 2048 metres in circumference, so the Vinery Stud Stakes uses almost the entire track. The jump is on the course proper and provides for a 450-metre run to the first turn, a big sweeper that leads onto the back straight, and then heads into the tighter of Rosehill’s turns. They then turn for home for the last 400 metres to finish at the end of the home straight in front of the stands on the west/northwest side of the course.
Racing History of the Vinery Stud Stakes
The Vinery Stud Stakes was an important race from the outset. Thirteen jumps as a Group 2 race meant that any of the top gallopers might use the race to prepare for the bigger races by using the Vinery to gauge the competition.
The first glance at the list of winners revealed names for which races are named and even though we like to joke that there are jurisdictions where placing in a barrier trial could result in a race name, Racing NSW, the ATC and Rosehill do not operate those jurisdictions.
We will be looking for fillies that were top echelon racers as two-year-olds, those that went on to illustrious careers subsequent to the Vinery Stud win, and especially those that turned into good broodmares or contributed a major notable runner.
We start with the 1979 winner, Impede.
This 1975 foaled filly won seven times. She won the Group 3 Surround Stakes in 1979. She won the Keith Mackay Handicap the previous year and she beat Choisir into second.
Her win in the Vinery Stud had a three-time Group 1 winner named Blue Denim running third.
Impede supplied seven named foals, three by Luskin Star, including the best – 1983’s Shackle that won about $180,000.
With the historical first winner of the race covered, we move on with the intention that any winners that did not produce good racing and/or good offspring will not be mentioned.
The familiar name of Sheraco appears as the winner of the Vinery Stud Stakes in 1982.
She used the ballot exemption efficiently by winning the 1982 Group 1 Australian Oaks. She won at Group 2 grade, including races that have since been lifted to Group 1.
She did not excel at stud, despite dropping three colts to the good Irish sire Sir Tristam.
Sheraco must have been the belle of the ball, the sweetheart of the rodeo, or the darling of the public for Rosehill to have the Group 3 Sheraco Stakes in her honour since 1998.
When English Wonder won the race in 1983, she beat Rom’s Stiletto, the winner of the Group 1 VATC Thousand Guineas and the Group 1 Oaks Stakes.
She won 10 races, but none, it seemed, major races, save the earlier win in the 198 Group 1 SAJC South Australian Derby.
English Wonder made her hay as a breeder. She supplied nine colts and three fillies. Unlike Sheraco, English Wonder made good use of Sir Tristam with the 1986 colt Dr. Grace that won above $2.7 million, beating Super Impose and Sydeston on occasion.
Tennessee Vain was the winner in 1988.
She was handy, with seven wins and six placings for $419,000. Her name reveals her connection to the champion racer Vain through her dam, Misty Vain. Tennessee Vain won at Group 2 level. Her win in the Vinery Stud was when the race was Group 2 grade and she won the 1987 Group 2 Magic Night Stakes and the 1988 Group 2 A. V. Kewney Stakes.
She was served four times by Bletchingly after she was done racing, once by Marscay and once by True Version without anything other than a couple of low six-figure earners.
The first true notable to turn up on the list of Vinery Stud Stakes winners was 1989’s Research.
She was the Australian Champion Racehorse of the year in 1989. Her unique place in history comes from her being the only filly in history to win the AJC Derby and the AJC Oaks double. Five of her wins were in races that were Group 1 grade, or in the case of the Vinery, would become Group 1.
There are some minor discrepancies in her form line – one site claiming she made 32 jumps while another claims it was 31 jumps. It is agreed that she won nine times and placed in seven races to earn above $1.3 million.
She was a successful breeder quantity-wise, with 10 foals, but none of Research’s offspring made any impact on racing.
Two-time Group 1 winner A Little Kiss won in 1990.
She was a New Zealand filly from the perspective of being born there, but her lines were strictly northern hemisphere, mostly U.S., and included a distant connection to the legendary Man O’ War. She was sent to the U.S. to race as a five-year-old, but she did not win from three jumps.
She stood stud in the U.S., where she supplied five fillies and one colt, but nothing exceptional by any measure.
When All Mine won in 1991, she beat Mannerism into third and she finished ahead of Triscay for second in the 1990 Group 2 Wakeful Stakes. She supplies the connection to Star Kingdom via her sire Marscay.
Our space for this article is dwindling, so we are jumping ahead to 1995, the year Northwood Plume won.
This good mare won half of her 18 starts with three additional placings.
Her form line reads 18 – 9:2:1 for $854,000 in prize money. The Vinery Stud was a Group 1 race by this time, so Northwood Plume won three in all, the others being the 1994 Crown Casino Oaks and the 1994 Thousand Guineas.
Northwood Plume supplied nine foals between 1996 and 2009. She was served by some of the better sires and six of her nine offspring made some money racing, although the top earner needed 41 jumps to cross the six-figure threshold.
The Group 3 Northwood Plume Stakes is raced at Caulfield in her honour since 2005.
The names of the Vinery Stud winners following Northwood Plume offer some tantilising names, but some of the latter winners of the race were true notables, so we are skipping ahead to 2007, the year the winner was Miss Finland.
This 2003 filly by Redoute’s Choice out of an American dam won over $4.6 million from the from line 26 – 11:5:1.
Her earnings received a big boost when she won the 2006 Golden Slipper Stakes, but she won four other Group 1 races by beating some better types, such as Haradasun, Casino Prince and Anamato.
She stood between 2009 and 2017 to deliver 10 foals to top sires including More Than Ready, Deep Impact, Street Cry and others of that renown, but while seven of the 10 earned money racing, only the 2012 filly Stay With Me by Street Cry was able to win just above $500,000.
Once again, we jump ahead to 2019 to find the remarkable Verry Elleegant as the winner of the Vinery Stud Stakes.
Now aged seven, soon to be eight, Verry Elleegant was exported after running fifth in the 2022 Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes, after her previous jump delivered a second in the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes and a win in the prior race when she took the post in the 2022 Chipping Norton Stakes at Randwick.
She posted third in the 2021 Cox Plate, only to win the Melbourne Cup in her next jump.
She last raced in September of 2022 in France after and has left a form line of 40 jumps for 16 wins and 12 placings and a staggering $14.8 million in prize money.
Verry Elleegant was a New Zealand product of Zed, with Zabeel in that line on that side. Danehill and Danzig were on the dam’s side, as was Imposing, Strawberry Road and Todman.
Her sole output thus far was a 2022 colt by Ireland’s Sea The Stars that might find the turf in 2024.
The 2020 winner was Shout The Bar, which along with Who Shot Thebarman are two of our all-time favourites for the names alone.
She made 19 jumps for five wins and two placings and was always aimed at passing along the DNA of her sire Not A Single Doubt and her dam Drinks All Round.
Her lines do extend to Star Kingdom, although we should admit that he was so many generations back that we cannot say with assurance that having him for an ancestor supplied any edge. Vain, Nijinsky, Northern Dancer, Canny Lad, Bletchingly and Baguette were all in the mix, so if anything, the question might be why Shout The Bar did not do better than her form line.
Her win in the Vinery Stud was over Probabeel. She jumped $15 to Probabeel’s $4.80 and the $1.75 favourite Funstar.
Shout The Bar can be seen winning the 2020 Vinery Stud Stakes with a superb front-running performance can be viewed at the following link.
Another top class filly won the race in 2021.
Now retired, Hungry Heart by Great Britain’s top sire Frankel was the winner. She beat a top winner in the 2021 Group 1 Australian Oaks when she crossed ahead of Duais for her other Group 1 win.
She made 21 jumps for four wins and five placings – good for above $1.7 million.
The better-than-handy filly Fangirl won in 2022.
She is listed as active and she works for Chris Waller, who has sent her out for 13 barrier trials, because as everyone knows, Waller likes to keep his horses fit, as opposed to trying to get them fit.
Fangirl last jumped in the 2023 Group 1 Doncaster, where she finished seventh after her two previous jumps supplied seconds to Anamoe in the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes and the Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes.
Her current form line is 18 – 5:4:2 and she has won more than $3.3 million.
Her win can be viewed at the following link.
Conclusion
The Vinery Stud Stakes would do well to work the Storm Queen name back into the race, but there is little else even mildly negative we could say about the quality of the race and the quality of the horses fielded.
We, along with everyone else, enjoys three-year-old races of any kind, more so when the field is restricted to fillies.
The Vinery Stud Stakes regularly sends out the best three-year-old fillies and the race often serves as a harbinger for the careers of the winners.
Vinery Stud Stakes Past Winners
Year | Winner |
2023 | Prowess |
2022 | Fan Girl |
2021 | Hungry Heart |
2020 | Shout The Bar |
2019 | Verry Elleegant |
2018 | Hiyaam |
2017 | Montoya's Secret |
2016 | Single Gaze |
2015 | Fenway |
2014 | Lucia Valentina |
2013 | Norzita |
2012 | Mosheen |
2011 | Mirjulisa Lass |
2010 | Faint Perfume |
2009 | Purple |
2008 | Heavenly Glow |
2007 | Miss Finland |
2006 | Serenade Rose |
2005 | Hollow Bullet |
2004 | Special Harmony |
2003 | Shower Of Roses |
2002 | Sixty Seconds |
2001 | Tempest Morn |
2000 | Hill Of Grace |
1999 | Savannah Success |
1998 | Champagne |
1997 | Danendri |
1996 | Saleous |
1995 | Northwood Plume |
1994 | Alcove |
1993 | Slight Chance |
1992 | Electrique |
1991 | All Mine |
1990 | A Little Kiss |
1989 | Research |
1988 | Tennessee Vain |
1987 | Appreciation |
1986 | English Mint |
1985 | Centaurea |
1984 | Lotka's Star |
1983 | English Wonder |
1982 | Sheraco |
1981 | Evening Mist |
1980 | Lady Capri |
1979 | Impede |