Group 1 winners Catchy, Invader and The Mission have all been included in the 2017 Ladbrokes Caulfield Guineas nominations that were released this afternoon.
Invader is one of 327 horses that have been included in the 2017 Ladbrokes Caulfield Guineas nominations. Photo by: Steve Hart
Catchy is unlikely to contest the Ladbrokes Caulfield Guineas and has also been included in the entries for the Group 1 Thousand Guineas, but the Caulfield Guineas is set to be the major 2017 Spring Racing Carnival assignments for Invader and The Mission.
Invader stamped himself as a star in the making with an impressive victory in the Group 1 Inglis Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on April 1 and he went into the Group 1 Champagne Stakes (1600m) a fortnight later as a clear favourite, but he was upstaged by The Mission.
Invader trailed nicely behind Winx at Royal Randwick this morning and is building towards a potential return to racing next weekend, while The Mission finished second behind Supreme Effort in a barrier trial at Gosford on August 2.
The three Group 1 winners are far from the only talented horses in the 2017 Ladbrokes Caulfield Guineas nominations and there is a massive amount of quality throughout the initial entires.
Racing Victoria General Manager Of Racing Greg Carpenter put down the stellar entries to the inflated prizemoney that will be on offer in the 2017 Ladbrokes Caulfield Guineas and he believes that the winner of the Group 1 event could go on to be a serious contender in the 2017 Ladbrokes Cox Plate.
“There is no doubt that the huge number of Caulfield Guineas entries (327) received today is in direct relation to the rise in race prizemoney which has doubled to $2 million as part of major prizemoney increases announced in May,” Carpenter said.
“It is one of the strongest Caulfield Guineas we’ve ever seen with the leading stars of the autumn such as Catchy, The Mission, Invader, Summer Passage and the story of the winter, Royal Symphony, among the leading contenders to take home the $2 million purse and then pursue the Cox Plate two weeks later.”
The 2017 Ladbrokes Caulfield Guineas first acceptances will be released on September 12 and the final field will be revealed on October 10 before the race is conducted at the home of the Melbourne Racing Club on October 14.
