The Sydney Championships take place over the 3rd and 10th of April and gives runners the chance to compete for $21.2 million in prize money over two days of premier thoroughbred horse racing.
Those riches seem to be doing the job for Racing New South Wales as over 1400 runners have been nominated to attend the eighth edition of The Championships with one noticeable runner being the return of UK runner Addeybb.
Jockey Tom Marquand arrived back in Australia on Tuesday to prepare for his upcoming rides in Sydney with one of the UKs top weight for age horses Addeybb set to defend his crown in the $4m Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes stakes on April 10th at Royal Randwick.
“Addeybb has been nominated for The Championships,’’ ATC’s James Ross told The Daily Telegraph. “We’ve also got nominations for two top-class Japanese horses, Salios and Loves Only You, and there are a range of others still coming in.’’
The Queen Elizabeth is set to be the focal point again this year with Addeybb set to tackle last years runner up Verry Elleegant who had a huge spring and Jamie Richards trained Melody Belle who finished sixth in the race last year but has since gone on to win 3 Group 1s in New Zealand.
The highest number of nominations has been for the $1m Ingilis Sires Produce over 1400m with a total of 295 runners nominated. The Percy Sykes Stakes was also impressive with 219 nominations.
We’re set up for a truly international event however with 63 runners nominated from New Zealand, 10 Japanese runners listed to take part and the solitary Southern Legend nominated from Hong Kong.
Betting for the Queen Elizabeth Stakes is currently led by Addeybb who is $5 favourite with Japanese runner Salios second favourite at $6.