WILLIAM REID STAKES
1200m, $500,000, Group One, weight-for-age at The Valley, run under lights
NOTABLE WINNERS
* Gothic (1929); Comic Court (1951); Flying Halo (1952/53/55); Dual Choice (1972); All Shot (1973/74); Manikato (1979/80/81/82/83); Vo Rogue (1988); Hareeba (1995); Cape Of Good Hope (2005); Apache Cat (2008/09); Silent Sedition (2017); Hellbent (2018); Sunlight (2019)
HISTORY:
* First run in 1925 when won by The Night Patrol who also won the following year
* Formerly known as the Australia Stakes. Reverted to its original name, the William Reid Stakes, in 2010
* Previously run in January
* Group One since 1987
* Manikato won the race five years in a row from 1979 to 1983
* Champion Black Caviar won twice in 2011 and 2013 during her unbeaten career
* Flamberge in 2016 was Peter Moody’s final winner before he retired from training
* Melbourne’s final Group One race for the season
* The William Reid joins the Moir Stakes (September) and Manikato Stakes (October) as Melbourne’s only Group One races run under lights
TALKING POINTS:
* The field of 11 contains seven Group One winners – Scales Of Justice, Gytrash, Mystic Journey, Pippie, Bivouac, Exceedance and Loving Gaby
* Sunlight (2019) became the first three-year-old filly to win since Virage De Fortune in 2006. Loving Gaby is only three-year-old filly this year
* Loving Gaby is attempting to win the Manikato Stakes/William Reid Stakes double in the same season
* Scales Of Justice won the Australia Stakes in January
WHAT THE KEY PLAYERS ARE SAYING:
“She’s still a three-year-old filly but she is one of the best sprinters we have in the land and she feels furnished” – Loving Gaby’s jockey Craig Williams
“She probably won’t get the 1200 metres if she runs the times she did early in the Oakleigh Plate, so we’ll restrain her a touch” – Pippie’s co-trainer Chris Meagher
“He’ll turn up on Friday night and if he likes the track he’ll go well and if he doesn’t like The Valley he probably won’t go well” – Gytrash’s trainer Gordon Richards
“I guess it does open the door to be snookered inside and not get out, it has actually happened to him before” – jockey Hugh Bowman on barrier one for favourite Bivouac
Credit: AAP