The Perth Racing Club stages the Group 3 Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) each spring. The race is run on the same day as the Caulfield Cup, so we could easily see ourselves taking in the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) at Ascot Racecourse in Perth and watching the broadcast of the Caulfield Cup.
The race was renamed in 2022 in honour of former champion racehorse Eurythmic.
Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) Race Details
Date: 19/10/24
Time: TBA
Racecourse: Ascot
Race Distance: 1400m
Conditions: TBA
Prize Money: $150,000
How To Bet On The Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes)
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Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) Betting Tips
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When Is The Eurythmic Stakes: 19/10/24
What Time Is The Eurythmic Stakes: TBA
Where Is The Eurythmic Stakes: Ascot Racecourse
How To Live Stream The Eurythmic Stakes:
To live stream the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes), TAB Account Holders can watch the race live.
More Details About The Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes)
The race covers 1400 metres on one of our favourite courses, is open to horses aged four years and above, and is run under handicap conditions.
Prizemoney for the race is $150,000.
The better mare Dance Music won the race in 2021.
She received $87,000 for her effort.
Dance Music sat on the speed, marking the leader, Massimo, until it mattered at the end, where she breezed past to take the win.
History of the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes)
The race was originally named the Anniversary Cup from inception through 2004. The name was switched to Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) for the 2005 jump.
It was Listed quality through 2012, becoming Group 3 level in 2013.
The trip has been all over the map from sprint to staying and everything in between. The rather odd distance of 2200 metres was used for the first race. It was stretched to 2400 metres from 1979 through 1983, when it was abbreviated to 1800 metres. The year 2000 saw it go for 1600 metres.
What followed was a long stretch where the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) was a long sprint of 1400 metres. That iteration of the race persisted from 2001 through 2014. The lone exception was in 2015, when PRC determined that the race needed an extra 20 metres.
There were two years where the race was shifted away from Ascot.
The first was in 2003, when the race jumped at Northam Racecourse, some 96 clicks north of Perth. Even if the whole town turned out, the attendance for the race would have been below 7,000.
The second and final time it was decided to move the race away from Ascot was in 2005, when the more proximate Belmont Park Racecourse was chosen.
Venue for the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes)
Ascot Racecourse in Perth is the venue for the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes).
We might have revealed our biases earlier, but we will reiterate that Ascot is one of our favourite venues. There is something about watching the gallopers almost on the banks of the Swan River that we find compelling and pleasurable.
The track is well located close to major arteries and not far from the Perth Airport, so getting to the track is convenient and it is just eight clicks from the Perth CBD.
The claim for the year racing started at Ascot is 1848.
Some refer to Ascot as the “Grand Old Lady” of Australian Racecourses, but we are mildly dubious. What is less subjective is that the home straight has an incline that causes racing experts to view the course as the most severe test of staying types in the entire country.
We ourselves, when we can muster the energy for a run, dislike running uphill almost as badly as we dislike running downhill, so we can relate to the words of the experts while noting that there is not a Group level staying race of more than 2400 metres staged at Ascot.
Group 1 races held at Ascot are the Kingston Town Classic, The Railway Stakes and the Winterbottom Stakes.
Additionally, there are six Group 2 and nine Group 3 races.
All the Group races are open to all genders, except for the Group 3 WA Champion Fillies Stakes and the WA Oaks, which are restricted to fillies.
Racing History of the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes)
We do not have high expectations of the racing history of a Western Australia race. Many of the winners raced almost exclusively in state, at either Ascot and Belmont, or provincial tracks in the vicinity.
The most recent winner, 2021’s Dance Hero, supply the evidence for the above assertion.
There have been some that have dominated WA tracks and were given the chance to run at the eastern metro courses. We will be looking for those types, along with any that won at Group 1 level and those that contributed to the Australian Thoroughbred gene pool.
The winner of the first Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) was Meliador.
He was by a Brit stallion named Just Great out of Lady Finger, an unraced mare that did solid duty in the sheds.
Meliador won most of the better races in Western Australia and in 1979; he won the Group 1 Perth Cup, which at that time was a 3200-metre race.
From what we can determine, he was a good sire, at least in terms of quantity. It appears that from 12 named foals, only three made it onto the track and none of those three ever so much as placed in a race.
The next winner was Regimental Honour.
He won nine races with 14 placings for around $192,000 in earnings.
Regimental Honour was a much better sire, with 14 named foals that produced some stakes winners. Eight of the 14 earned money. The best was Word Of Honour (1985) out of Sansolan that won about $426,000. Next best was Proud Treaty (1983) out of Ebony Eyes that won about $180,000.
Gay Affair was the first mare to win the race in 1980.
She was a typical mare that raced 24 times for 10 wins and 6 placings.
Gay Affair was served by top stallion including Vain (2x), Bletchingly and two others, but of her five foals, only one won a race and one placed once.
The next winner, Little Imagele, from 1981 was a gelding that won the Western Mail Classic and other WA races.
He was followed by Mnitorma in 1982. This name was obviously a typo, but none of the variations we tried could produce an actual horse.
The New Zealand mare Rosamoss did exist and did win the race in 1983.
She won 10 races from 44 jumps, with an additional 11 placings. That is pretty good racing, but when and where she raced meant that it was only good for $127,000 in prizemoney.
She produced some stakes winners, including a couple of foals that raced as geldings and made 122 starts between them for 11 wins and almost $100,000 in stakes.
Track Jester from 1986 caught our eye.
He won 10 times and placed in three races from 23 jumps. He did win a couple of Group 3 races, but our attention was attracted to his sire, Kaoru Star that was by Star Kingdom, a name we did not expect to turn up in Western Australia pedigrees.
No sooner did we write about not expecting Star Kingdom when he popped up in the lines of the 1987 Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) winner, Leica Soldier.
Leica Soldier was an effective racer, winning 10 and placing in 11 races from 42 tries. He did not sire any foals, as best we could determine.
Eastern Flight from 1988 was a mare that managed to make 71 jumps for 9 wins and 20 placings.
Seventy-one jumps by a mare is a lot by any measure and worthy of induction into the fictional Pro Group Racing Hall of Fame.
She was of mostly northern hemisphere lines, but after all that racing, she only had time for one baby, a mare by Cheraw named Eastern Quest that made room and board money only. vProud Treaty from 1990 was unremarkable, save for his 72 jumps, but he was the son of the 1979 winner, Regimental Star from Ebony Eyes, so we are seeing a Western Australia influence on the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes).
In 1992, Red Javelin won the race.
He was a gelding that raced almost exclusively in Western Australia, where he won 12 races, including the Group 1 Beat Diabetes 2 Stakes at Ascot. Red Javelin shipped to Victoria and was given three tries there, two open handicaps at Caulfield and another at Moonee Valley, where his best finish was a sixth.
A gelding named Classy Dresser won the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) in 1996. The three previous winners we skipped were all geldings that could claim fame only by making so many starts.
Classy Dresser fits that description to a “t”. He made 83 jumps in the west and as a younger galloper, he had won the Group 2 WA Guineas in 1992.
New Zealand’s Summer Beau was the winner in 1997.
He was the best we found to this stage in the history of the race. He earned more than $860,000 from 41 jumps for 14 wins and 11 placings. He had a big win in the Group 1 Fruit N Veg Stakes in 1996. After winning the Northerly, he again won the Fruit N Veg Stakes in 1997. He had some better wins at Group 2 and Group 3 as well. He did some effective racing in Queensland, but could not produce any good results in a couple tries in Victoria.
The winner for 1998 was a gelding named Paddy Me Lad that is notable only to us, because he made 123 jumps.
Umah from 2000 won his first two starts, one of the being the Group 1 Karrakatta Plate at Ascot. He was in the 2000 Group 1 Railway Stakes when the current race namesake, Northerly, beat him by over 11 lengths.
Umah supplied six named foals, all by different dams, but only Dillwynia (2003) out of Blazing Angel earned any money.
Superior Star was the winner in 2003.
Her sire was the exceptional Nothin’ Leica Dane.
She won almost $440,000, which is big bikkies for this race, by winning six and placing in six from 28 jumps. This was the year the race shifted to Northam. After many races in WA, she ventured to Singapore, where she won a Group 3 race.
As a breeder, she was served by Encosta De Lago without success, but a mare named Surpassing by More Than Ready managed to win six races and over $70,000.
As much as we would like to, we cannot pass by the 2005 winner Changing Lanes. He won over half a million, but took 100 tries to do it. He was fifth to Miss Andretti in the 2005 Winterbottom Stakes, so at least he lost to a good one. A Group 3 win in the Lee Steere Stakes at Belmont was his best win.
Grasspatch Girl won the race in 2006. She would go on to win the Lee Steere in 2007, after the race was promoted to Group 2. She earned $536,000 from 39 jumps for 10 wins and 14 placings.
She was sub-par as a broodmare, supplying just three foals. Distant Memory (2010) by Faith won five races and a little above $100,000.
We come to 2008 and 2009 to discover the only dual winner of the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes).
It was Megatic, a gelding by Danetime out of Mega Role. He won close to a million dollars and needed only 33 jumps for nine wins and seven placings.
In 2007, he won the Group 1 Kingston Town. He ventured to Rosehill and Randwick for two races without any success, including dead last in the 2008 Doncaster Handicap. He came within whiskers of winning the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) for a third time in 2010. He never made it to race in the east again after his poor showings in NSW.
It was Famous Roman that denied Megatic his third Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) win in 2010.
He was another winner of the race with Danetime as his sire. He won almost three quarters of a million from 38 jumps for seven wins and eight placings. Sent east, he tried eight races at Flemington and Caulfield for some good results, including a fourth in the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes.
Famous Roman was a good sire, but only a couple earned any prizemoney.
Ranger, a gelding by Testa Rossa from Marrich Bay was the winner in 2011. He won the Group 2 Lee Steere in his next jump. He had a brush with a win in the Group 1 Kingston Town, but Playing God ridden by the god of WA jockeys, William Pike, were better by a length.
The 2013 winner was Playing God that beat Ranger in the Kingston Town.
Playing God won nearly $1.7 million.
He was by the good sire Blackfriars and he managed two thirds in Group 1 races at Flemington, the Australian Guineas and the Australian Cup. He jumped favourite in the Guineas and third favourite in the Cup, so there was no divine intervention when it came to racing at headquarters. He did win at Group 1 when he won the Kingston Town in 2010.
He was a good sire with many progeny that earned in the high six-figure range. His best offspring was Kay Cee (2016) out of Flirt N Hope that has won above $1 million.
The mare Fuchsia Bandana won in 2014.
She won over $660,000, with some Group 3 wins and consistent high finishes in better WA races.
She has yet to prove her value as a breeder, but there may be some time left for that to change.
We have our “What was this horse doing in this race?” moment when we see the name of the 2015 winner, Black Heart Bart.
We suspect that the answer might be that Bart was hiding from Winx, but he was one of the few that would take her on. He lined up in the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes in 2016 when the only other competitor with the chops to line up with Winx was He Or She.
The 2015 edition of the race was postponed for three days out of concern for safety, so Bart had to cool his hooves for a bit.
He won over $4.8 million, with Group 1 wins in The Goodwood at Morphettville, the Memsie Stakes, Underwood Stakes (2016 and 2019), the C. F. Orr Stakes and the Futurity Stakes. The second win in the Underwood Stakes came when Bart was racing as a nine-year-old.
Man Booker from 2018 was a good gelding that won above $1.1 million from 31 starts for 12 wins and 3 placings.
Like more than a few earlier winners of the Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes), Man Booker won the Group 2 WA Guineas.
Our final winner to date is Taxagano.
This nine-year-old gelding is listed as active. He has made 66 jumps for 10 wins and 14 placings to earn almost $675,000. The Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) was his most recent win. Nineteen subsequent tries did not result in Taxagano placing.
Taxagano was, at $91, the longest bet in the race, so any punter that had something on him was probably smiling broadly for days.
The Eurythmic Stakes (formerly the Northerly Stakes) has seen some good winners, but beyond Black Heart Bart, only a couple have won at Group 1 level.
Only a few gallopers have earned the ticket to race in the east and their results suggest that there is a quality gap between the WA horses and the east, only do not suggest that to Northerly or Black Heart Bart.
Eurythmic Stakes Past Winners
Year | Winner |
2023 | Autumn Angel |
2022 | Resortman |
2021 | Dance Music |
2020 | Taxagano |
2019 | The Velvet King |
2018 | Man Booker |
2017 | Silverstream |
2016 | Lite'n In My Veins |
2015 | Black Heart Bart |
2014 | Fuchsia Bandana |
2013 | Playing God |
2012 | King Saul |
2011 | Ranger |
2010 | Famous Roman |
2009 | Megatic |
2008 | Megatic |
2007 | New Spice |
2006 | Grasspatch Girl |
2005 | Changing Lanes |
2004 | Prince Of Vasac |
2003 | Superior Star |
2002 | Mr. Callahan |
2001 | Storm Shot |
2000 | Umah |
1999 | Dynaliebe |
1998 | Paddy Me Lad |
1997 | Summer Beau |
1996 | Classy Dresser |
1995 | Vagabond Boy |
1994 | Zamaloid |
1993 | King Diamond |
1992 | Red Javelin |
1991 | Vale Of Avoca |
1990 | Proud Treaty |
1989 | Pagonic |
1988 | Eastern Flight |
1987 | Leica Soldier |
1986 | Track Jester |
1985 | Restoration |
1984 | Mr. Efficient |
1983 | Rosamoss |
1982 | Mnitorma |
1981 | Little Imagele |
1980 | Gay Affair |
1979 | Regimental Honour |
1978 | Meliador |