The 2019 Rubiton Stakes is a Group 2 contest raced each year at Melbourne’s Caulfield Racecourse as part of their highly successful Melbourne Autumn racing carnival.
The race is scheduled for February when horse racing really starts to fire up on a national scale again in the new year. The Rubiton Stakes is an 1100m race with prize money worth $175,000 to the winners.
The Rubiton Stakes are now run on CF Orr Stakes Day, a move which took place in 2010 in an attempt by the Melbourne racing Club to further increase the spectacle of that meeting. The contest also used to be a weight for age event before its shift to set weight and penalties.
Many horses in this race may be first up for their campaigns using the Rubiton as a spring board for ambitions later on in the carnival.
Some of the big events they can move on to include the Group 1 lightning Stakes at Flemington or the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate at Caulfield.
Even the Group 1 William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley in March could be an option for a top end horse capable of handling weight for age conditions at that level.
There’s no doubt who the Rubiton Stakes belongs to though when you look through the winners list.
Super Elegant won this race back to back from 2003 to 2005.
Schillaci couldn’t quite do the same, instead winning it in 1995 before returning for a win in 1997.
It was a similar story more recently as well when Here De Angels won in 2008 and then again in 2010.
