SAJC Breeders Stakes 2024 Tips, Betting Odds, Past winners and results

Autumn racing At Morphettville Racecourse in Adelaide will find the Group 3 SAJC Breeders’ Stakes contested by two-year-olds over 1200 metres under set weight conditions.

The race carried prize money of $127,250 for 2023 and the winner’s share of $68,975 was paid to Treasurway, a filly currently trained by Jason Warren that has just the Breeders’ Stakes in her win column as of her last jump in the Listed Gothic Stakes in late October of 2023.

 

Breeders Stakes Race Details

Date: 4-5-24

Time: TBA

Racecourse: Morphettville

Race Distance: 1200m

Conditions: TBA

Prize Money: $127,500

How To Bet On The Breeders Stakes

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

Ladbrokes

Palmerbet

Unibet

Breeders Stakes Betting Tips

1. Tips Will Be Updated Closer To The Race

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When Is The Breeders Stakes: 4-5-24

What Time Is The Breeders Stakes: TBA

Where Is The Breeders Stakes: Morphettville Racecourse

How To Live Stream The Breeders Stakes

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

More Details About The Breeders Stakes

Treasurway has vie placings to go with the one win from 10 jumps to win $225,000.

There are many races called some variation of Breeders’ Stakes held around the world where Thoroughbred racing is conducted.

We are looking at the South Australian Jockey Club (SAJC) version. Future references to the race will be as the Breeders’ Stakes.

The racers in the Breeders’ Stakes are typically locals that might be taking aim at the SA Sires’ Produce Stakes and others might be looking to take on races in Victoria and New South Wales.

At one point, the race was held during February, but was shifted to later in the autumn, a move possibly intended to, amongst other things, give young horses a couple extra months to begin Group grade racing.

History of the Breeders’ Stakes

The race was first run in 1955.

It has jumped under various names over the years, but it was always some variation that included “Breeders.’” The original name was Bloodhorse Breeders’ Stakes until 1968, when it was the Blue Breeders’ Stakes. It returned to being the Bloodhorse Breeders’ Stakes in 1980, but by 1984, it was the West End Breeders’ Stakes. From 1994, it has been abbreviated to simply Breeders’ Stakes.

It has always been 1200 metres, or thereabouts under the old measurements using furlongs. Metrication in the early 70s saw the race at 1200 metres and it stayed there from 1973 through 1979.

It was out to 1450 metres in 1980 because the race was moved to Victoria Park Racecourse. The other time the race used a different venue was in 2002, when it jumped at Cheltenham Park Racecourse at the distinctly unique trip of 1263 metres. From 2003, the race has been 1200 metres and both Victoria Park and Cheltenham are now shuttered.

It was graded as Principal until the Group classification system was put into effect, making the race Group 2 in 1979. It was moved down to Group 3, where it remains to this day, in 2006.

Venue for the Breeders’ Stakes

Morphettville Racecourse is in Adelaide, where it has been the site for racing since 1876.

As of late 2023, the track is home to four Group 1, four Group 2 and nine Group 3 races. All of the Group races at Morphettville jump during the autumn, with the exception of the Group 3 Spring Stakes in September.

Morphettville Racecourse has a tri-oval layout. For 1200 metre races, the barriers are erected in a chute built specifically for 1200 metre trips.

The gallopers get a nice straight with which to begin. They then make a turn around the tightest of Morphettville’s three turns, and then head down the home straight to the finish line in front on the grandstands on the northwest side of the course.

Racing History of the SAJC Breeders’ Stakes

We went digging into the list of Breeders’ Stakes winners and found some better winners than we might have expected, especially in the early years of the race, when all major races were graded as Principal.

The many years between 1979 and 2005 when the race was a Group 2 event do not seem to offer any notable names, but that may change as we look closer at some of the Breeders’ Stakes winners.

The winner of the first race in 1955 was Eminent Star. Any time we see a horse with a name that uses the word Star, we immediately check the pedigree to look for connections to Star Kingdom, but in the case of Eminent Star, there were none, although the years lined up for such connections to exist.

Nothing about Eminent Star’s racing record or breeding efforts are worth note, but being the first to do something has to mean something when historical elements are the focus.

We will make our way through the list of winners, stopping on those that somehow made significant contributions to Thoroughbred racing in Australia.

In cases where progeny is not mentioned, it is due to there being none or those that were not satisfying expectations. We will skip any Breeders’ Stakes winners that won the race, and then seemed to disappear into some void.

The first winner we found worthy of mention was the 1960 winner Jet Beau. His grandsire was Great Britain’s Hyperion, a stallion that is frequently found in the lines of better Australian racers. As for his racing, we know he won the Breeders’ Stakes. He was the first we encountered on the list to leave some offspring, although we found just three fillies by Jet Beau, none of which did anything notable as racers.

We see a notable in the 1963 winner of the Breeders’ Stakes - racing tips.

We know because there is a race named for this galloper – Pago Pago.

To us, Pago Pago represents the onset of some good horses jumping and winning the Breeders’ Stakes.

The 1960 son of the good sire Matrice, Pago Pago only raced 10 times, but he won nine of those and placed in the other. It was Pago Pago’s year in 1963, when he won the Merson Cooper Stakes and the Sires’ Produce Stakes in Victoria. His biggest win was the 1963 Golden Slipper Stakes.

It is on the progeny tables where we most frequently encounter the name of Pago Pago. It is not always one of the foals gotten by Pago Pago, but more distant descendants at times, that made important racing contributions.

As for direct offspring, Pago Pago was highly competent. Many foals sired by Pago Pago raced in the U.S. and Canada. His top Australian racer was Storaia that earned above $460,000. One of his colts named Island Whirl earned over $U.S. 1.4 million. About 27 Pago Pago offspring earned above $100,000 from racing.

Based on what we found from the inception of the race through 1962, we were not expecting to see a quality type such as Pago Pago on the list of Breeders’ Stakes winners, so when we arrived at the 1965 winner, we most assuredly were not expecting to find a winner of this calibre.

That winner in 1965 was Tobin Bronze.

The earlier winners combined and quite probably combining quite a few later winners, would not equate to the win total of Tobin Bronze.

His 60 jumps produced 28 wins and 16 placings. As great as he was though, there were just two major races that he won more than once. He won the Blamey Stakes in 1966 and 1967. His other dual victory was the Cox Plate those same two years. The Breeders’ Stakes was just the start and in 1965, he won the Victoria Derby. Of the other major races he won in 1967, a few of those were the All Aged Stakes, Doncaster Handicap and the Caulfield Cup.

Tobin Bronze competed against top liners, winning at times over the likes of Galilee, Khalif, Red Handed, Winfreux and Light Fingers.

Tobin Bronze was a prodigious and significant sire. A 60-time jumper himself, quite a few races by stallion standards, some of his offspring had extreme durability. We found one with 173 jumps! Another reported 125 and still another reported 122 jumps! There was a bunch that raced between 50 and 100 times. Fourteen Tobin Bronze offspring won above $100,000.

With a race like the Breeders’ Stakes, with modest prestige and prize money, we would expect a drought of significant winners following the anomaly of a Tobin Bronze, but our expectation would prove false, because the next notable winner of the race was the following year, 1966.

The winner that year was Storm Queen.

This mighty mare made 20 jumps under the tutelage of Bart Cummings. She won 13 and placed in 3. Her other good wins in 1966 were the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes, Golden Slipper Stakes, Champagne Stakes, Moonee Valley Stakes, Edward Manifold Stakes, Caulfield Guineas and the George Adams Handicap.

While she did not win the 1967 William Reid Stakes, she finished ahead of Tobin Bronze.

She supplied nine foals after racing, four by Showdown, three by Oncidium, and one each by Gielgud and Idomeneo. There was one minor winner, some unraced, and that is about it.

We have made a bit of a leap forward to 1979 and the first year the Breeders’ Stakes was a Group 2 grade race.

The winner that year was Runaway Kid.

Runaway Kid was by Kaoru Star, with Star Kingdom for grandsire. His better win was the 1979 Group 1 Caulfield Guineas, where he beat Epsom Handicap winner Bold Diplomat into second place, with none other than Kingston Town into third.

We next look at the 1986 winner Military Plume.

Military Plume was a New Zealand horse by Ireland’s Sir Tristam.

He raced to boost his stud fees, making just 25 jumps for 8 wins and 9 placings to earn over $920,000.

His first Group 1 win was the 1986 Western Mail Classic that followed placing in the Group 1 Western Australian Derby. When he won the 1987 Group 1 VRC Australian Guineas, he beat none other than Vo Rogue.

Good racing horses often remain intact in New Zealand and Military Plume took advantage by siring hundreds of foals. He had a couple that raced in Hong Kong and earned millions in HKD. His top Australian earner was Light Of Success, a 2000 gelding out of Scentessa that won over $900,000. Right behind that figure was the 1991 mare Northwood Plume that won over $850,000 and three Group 1 races.

The 1994 winner was Blevic.

His 26 jumps for 8 wins and 12 placings earned above $1.3 million. He won the Group 1 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes that same year. His other good win in 1994 was the Group 1 Victoria Derby, where he beat Danewin. His final win was the Group 2 Alister Clark Stakes. Eight subsequent jumps supplied four placings.

Blevic was a great sire after racing. His top earner Avoid Lightning earned just under $1 million and the next 52 earned between $637,000 and $100,000.

A mare named Freestyle by Snippets out of Stella Artois was the winner in 2005, the last jump of the race at Group 1 before it was lowered to Group 3.

She made only seven jumps for four wins and one placing, but her meagre winnings did get the notice of better stallions, such as Flying Spur, Redout’s Choice and Commands, to name three.

Her eleven named foals supplied eight that won some money racing, including one that raced for $USD 282,000 and another that earned more than $HKD 6 million.

Another good mare to win the Breeders’ Stakes was the 2006 winner De Lago Mist. As we suspected, she was an offspring of Encosta De Lago out of In The Mist.

She won the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes in 2006 when it was a Group 2 race. Like Freestyle, De Lago Mist was a good dam that supplied eight foals. The best was a 2014 filly by Exceed And Excel named Shrouded In Mist that won above $320,000.

The last we will examine for now is 2022 winner See You In Heaven. 

See You In Heaven is a 2019 filly by Divine Prophet with Choisir as grandsire. She is active with 15 jumps for 5 wins and 6 placings to earn over $666,000. Her last jump, as of early November 2023, was the Group 1 Toorak Handicap at Caulfield, where she ran 10th. She has wins in the Group 2 Sandown Guineas and the Group 3 Behemoth Stakes (Spring Stakes) since winning the Breeders’ Stakes.

The Breeders’ Stakes delivered some good racers and breeders.

Juvenile races are popular and contain interest for those who like to follow the better two-year-olds as they race as older horses.

We found multiple Group 1 winners, good earners and good breeders, things which make a race held away from the major venues in Victoria and New South Wales all the more interesting.

Breeders Stakes Past Winners