Surround Stakes 2023 Tips, Betting Odds, Past Winners & Results

The Surround Stakes is a Group 1 middle-distance race of 1400 metres held at Randwick Racecourse near the end of February or the beginning of March. The race is for three-year-old fillies that compete under set weight conditions. 

Prizemoney for the race is $600,000 as of 2023 prior to the next jump of the race.

 

 

Surround Stakes Race Details

Date: 25/2/23

Time: 4.00pm

Racecourse: Randwick

Race Distance: 1400m

Conditions: Soft

Prize Money: $600,000

How To Bet On The Surround Stakes

Our Top 3 Recommended Online Bookmakers To Bet With For The Surround Stakes:

Ladbrokes

Palmerbet

Unibet

Surround Stakes Betting Tips

1. Fireburn

2. In Secret

3. Zougotcha

When Is The Surround Stakes: 25/2/23

What Time Is The Surround Stakes: 4.00pm

Where Is The Surround Stakes: Randwick Racecourse

How To Live Stream The Surround Stakes

To live stream the Surround Stakes, TAB Account Holders can watch the race live.

More Details About The Angst Stakes

The $1 million plus Hinged is a Chris Waller prepared galloper that has made 20 jumps for six wins and seven placings and almost $1.5 million in stakes. Waller has had Hinged in 10 barrier trials so far, as he is known to believe in keeping his runners in form.

The Surround Stakes was the first Group 1 win for Hinged, coming in her 11th jump, but she has placed in five other prestigious Group 1 races where the total space between her and the winners of those five races was just above four lengths.

She earned the $287,000 first prize for beating two of Waller’s other horses that were priced far below Hinged’s $10.

More Details about the Surround Stakes

The Surround Stakes is one of two Group 1 races held at this Randwick meeting. The other is the Chipping Norton Stakes. Three Group 2 races, the Guy Walter Stakes, the Skyline Stakes and the Sweet Embrace Stakes, so the better sprinters and middle distance horses typically save a slot on their calendar for this early autumn meeting.

Many horses use the race as a lead-up to the Group 1 races such as the Coolmore Stud Stakes, the Vinery Stud Stakes or the ATC Oaks.

History of the Surround Stakes

Surround was a New Zealand product that as best we could tell, has no Australian blood in her lines. In fact, once you get beyond the sire and dam, her lines are entirely northern hemisphere and she has a tie through her dam to the notable French sire of Big Philou, Le Filou.

Surround was the 1976 -77 Australian Champion Racehorse of the year and she is still the only three-year-old filly to win the Cox Plate.

The race made its debut in 1979 at Warwick Farm Racecourse and has bounced back and forth between Warwick and Randwick until 2016, when it found a more permanent home at Randwick over the past eight years.

As a race that started in 1979, the first year races started carrying the Group classifications introduced that year, the Surround Stakes was instantly a Group 3 grade race. It was promoted to Group 2 in 1986, where it languished until 2017, when it was finally lifted to Group 1 for the 2018 jump.

Venue for the Surround Stakes

Now that the race seems to have found a permanent slot at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, that is the venue we will describe.

Officially, the course is named Royal Randwick Racecourse after the Queen of England came to the colonies in 1992 to lend the royal stamp of approval to a new grandstand being dedicated at the course.

She granted her royal decree that henceforth and in perpetuity, the track could append Royal to the name. The Pope held Mass at Randwick back in the 70s, but he did not grant permission for the track to append Holy to the name, otherwise, we would have Holy Royal Randwick Racecourse.

Most of us simply say Randwick and the rest of us know about where we are talking.

The venue began staging races in 1833. It was much different then. Photos from the years around that time show a field with some banners, a makeshift fence and just one grandstand.

Suffice to say that Randwick has grown and improved over the years to the extent that they can boast that no other metro venue, not even Holy Flemington, stages more Group grade races.

The Everest is the race that gets all the attention, with its claim of being the world’s richest turf race. Other top Group1 races held at Randwick include the Australian Derby, the Doncaster Handicap and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

For 1400-metre races such as the Surround Stakes, the horses jump from a chute on the south side of the course, and then run two sweeping turns before hitting the home straight on their way to the finish line in front of the stands on the east side of the course.

Racing History of the Surround Stakes

A race for three-year-old fillies is an almost ideal scenario for those of us who journal the history of racing.

There are no geldings to muck up the account and no stallions making it necessary to check male pedigree records. The three-year age restriction eliminates the potential for multiple winners.

We fully expect to find the better three-year-old fillies, especially as the race grade was elevated over the course of the history of the Surround Stakes. The other thing we hope to discover is mares that have supplied notable offspring.

The winner of the first jump of the Surround Stakes in 1979 was Impede.

We learned that her other good win was the 1979 Storm Queen Stakes, the race now known as The Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes, although in was a Principal race in 1979.

She supplied three foals by Luskin Star and four others by other sires. One of the Luskin Star foals, a mare named Shackles won four races and placed in five, but the $181,000 in earnings suggests that she was not a Group 1 jumper.

As we continue through the list, we will skip over any fillies that did not have good racing results or good offspring.

We found a decent type when we made it to 1983 to discover that the Surround Stakes winner that year was Royal Regatta.

She made 47 jumps for 8 wins and 17 placings to reel in a bit above $458,000. She won as a two-year-old in a better race, the Group 2 Wakeful Stakes. After winning the Surround Stakes, she won the Group 1 Australasian Oaks. She shipped to the U.S. and placed well in five good races. She raced as a seven-year-old and supplied a colt named Mushtak to Zabeel that won over $400,000.

La Caissiere was by Luskin Star and won the Group 2 Wakeful Stakes, the now Group 2 Surround Stakes and the Group 2 Flight Stakes.

She supplied seven foals, all fillies. She was served by Bletchingly, but her best was the 1993 filly Dashing Eagle by Danehill that won almost $600,000 from 21 jumps. Dashing Eagle had Group 1 wins in the Flight Stakes and the 1000 Guineas. Her win in the Surround Stakes came at the expense of the good galloper Assertive Lass.

The 1985 winner, Avon Angel, made just 16 jumps for 10 wins. One of those wins was the Group 1 Rosemount Wines Classic (now the Coolmore Classic). None of her babies was anything notable.

Khaptivaan was the winner in 1987. She was average at best as a racer, but at stud, she delivered Khaptingly by Bletchingly that won above half a million dollars.

Judyann from 1988 was a good racer with Group 1 wins in the Flight Stakes and the Western Australian Oaks. She had multiple placings in major races.

She supplied 16 foals, which is possibly the record for the mares we have examined over the years, but none was notable, despite the fact that Judyann was served by such as Marscay, Last Tycoon and Octagonal.

We found a good one in the 1993 winner, Skating.

She dropped in 1989 by At Talaq, a U.S. sire that we see fairly often in pedigree lines. Skating won nearly $1.2 million from 22 jumps for seven wins and four placings. It was a good year for her in 1993, as she won another Group 2 race in addition to the Surround Stakes. She had Group 1 wins in the Doncaster Handicap and the Winfield Classic. She was Australia’s Champion Sprinter for 1992 – 93.

She supplied 11 foals, with Bradbury’s Luck by Redoute’s Choice and Murtajill by Rock Of Gibraltar, both of which won over $600,000. A couple of her other offspring won above $100,000, but only one of the 11 failed to win any prizemoney.

A two-time Group 1 winner appears in 1996, when the filly named Shame won the Surround Stakes. She won the Queensland version of the Sires’ Produce Stakes and the 1000 Guineas at Caulfield. Her winnings total was just a bit short of $900,000.

She supplied Demerit by Lonhro and Evander by Octagonal, both of which earned almost $300,000.

The Surround Stakes was the final win for the 1997 winner, Dashing Eagle. She was another of those that won the Flight Stakes and the 1000 Guineas.

Her best offspring was a 2011 colt by High Chaparral named Embley that won nearly $500,000.

Staging, the 1998 winner, was a million dollar stakes earner that won 10 races and placed in 8 from 41 jumps. She never won at Group 1 level, but she amassed nice prizemoney by picking the richer races in which to do well. That strategy produced a Group 2 win in the Carlton Cup at Doomben.

Six of her eight foals earned money, including Tickets by Redoute’s Choice and Excites by Danewin, both of which earned over $500,000. Her best though, was the 2005 colt Duporth by Red Ransom that won over $1 million, most of which came from winning the Group 2 Golden Rose at Rosehill and the Group 1 BTC Cup at Doomben

Savannah Success was the 1999 winner.

Her racing supplied Group 1 wins in the Australia Stakes and the New Zealand Oaks.

She supplied 11 foals, eight of which earned prizemoney, but none better than a 2001 colt by Zabeel named Savabell that won over $2.7 million.

Another Group 1 winner won the Surround Stakes in 2000.

She was Ad Alta and she was another of the fillies to win the Group 1 Thousand Guineas.

Lotteria won in 2005.

She earned almost $1.5 million from just 17 jumps for eight wins and four placings. She was by Redoute’s Choice, so we would expect her to be a better type. She won the Group 1 Flight Stakes ahead of her Surround Stakes win. Her other Group 1 win was the 2005 Myer Classic at Flemington. What caught our attention though, is that she lost the Cox Plate to Makybe Diva, while beating Field Of Omagh in that race.

Regal Cheer won the race in 2006.

She deserves mention for winning the Group 1 Cool at Rosehill in her next jump following the Surround Stakes.

She supplied Knoydart by More Than Ready in 2009 that won almost $750,000.

Gold Edition, the winner in 2007, was a good one.

She won over $3 million from 37 jumps for 17 wins and 13 placings. Her Group 1 wins were the Ascot Vale Stakes at Flemington and the Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley. Apparently, she like racing against the clock better than with it.

We may be skipping some better ones, but we had to reserve space for the 2010 winner of the Surround Stakes, More Joyous.

She took in more than $4.5 million from 33 jumps for 21 wins and 3 placings. The Flight Stakes was her first Group 1 win. Her next Group 1 win was the George Main Stakes, followed by the Toorak Handicap.

In 2011, she won the Group 1 Futurity Stakes. She had one patch of racing that supplied four consecutive wins in the Canterbury Stakes (Group 2 at the time), followed by Group 1 wins in the Queen of the Turf Stakes, the Doncaster Mile and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick. Her offspring were disappointing by the standards she established.

We have to skip ahead once again, this time to the 2018 winner, Shoals.

The Surround Stakes was Group 1 grade by this time. She won the Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes that same year. She won above $2.5 million from 15 jumps for seven wins and five placings. Her other Group 1 win was the 2017 Myer Classic.

Nakeeta Jane was the 2019 winner.

Retired after eight jumps, she won over $600,000. Her other Group 1 win was the 2019 Light Fingers Stakes.

The 2020 winner was Probabeel.

The daughter of the great racer Savabeel, she won over $4.3 million from 29 jumps for 13 wins and 8 placings. Three better Group 1 wins by Probabeel were the Epsom Handicap in 2020, the Caulfield Stakes in 2021 and the Futurity Stakes in 2021.

The 2021 winner was Forbidden Love.

She won over $2.2 million from 29 jumps for eight wins and six placings. The Surround Stakes was her first major win and first Group 1 win.

One four-race patch by Forbidden Love delivered the Group 2 Guy Walter Stakes, the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes, the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes and a fourth in the 2022 Doncaster Handicap.

Conclusion

The Surround Stakes is a keen race for three-year-old fillies. Many of the early winners were mainly unknown, but as the race improved in grade, so did the gallopers taking part.

There were many Group 1 winners, winners of more than $1 million and some respectable results in the breeding sheds.

Surround Stakes Past Winners