It looks like it will take an extraordinary effort from one of his ten opponents to stop Anamoe taking the 2023 George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday.
The Godolphin-owned 4-year-old is the 1.61 favourite with William Hill for the 7½ furlong Grade 1, one of the standout turf races on the Australian calendar, first run in 1903 with a A$1,000,000 prize pot.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: March 17th, 12:30 P.M. (GMT)
Fairly heavily raced for a colt of his age, Anamoe has 13 wins from 23 runs and six in his last seven, with victories in 2023 coming in the Chipping Norton and Apollo Stakes, both at Randwick.
Second in the Chipping Norton and third in the Apollo was Fangirl, the current 9.00 third favourite for tomorrow, who has now been beaten four times in six months by Anamoe. The fillies-only Vinery Stud Stakes at Newcastle is her only Grade 1 success thus far.
Chris Waller knows all about training fillies for this race as he schooled Winx to four wins from 2016-2019. He should get Fangirl in contention, but it will be some task to finally beat Anamoe.
Trained by James Cummings, Anamoe continues his partnership with James McDonald as he searches for a ninth Grade 1 triumph.
The best placed in the market to stop him and claim a third top-level victory of his own is 7.00 shot Artorius for trainers Anthony & Sam Freedman.
Another 4-year-old, he returned to form in style a fortnight ago winning the Grade 1 Canterbury Stakes, also at Randwick, for his first win in two years.
Zac Purton was on board that day, but tomorrow Mark Zahra will ride for the first time in 13 months.
He was taken to Europe last summer and was third in both Ascot’s Platinum Jubilee Stakes and the July Cup at Newmarket before a sixth at the Arc Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville.
Godolphin and Cummings also have the fourth favourite, 12.00 chance Golden Mile who will be ridden by Hugh Bowman. The 3-year-old got off the mark at Grade 1 level in October, winning the Neds Caulfield Guineas.
Levante (17.00) comes into this on the back of a win at Otaki in the Grade 1 WFA Classic, but the 6-year-old is yet to win with Michael Dee on board. Osipenko (21.00) has warmed up for this race well, taking Rosehill’s Hobartville Stakes last month, while Electric Girl (21.00) was most recently third in the Canterbury.
Communist is at 26.00 and the outsiders start at 41.00.
