Waller in Driver's Seat Heading into Civic Stakes At Royal Randwick
June 21, 2023
The 73rd edition of the Listed $160,000 Drinkwise Civic Stakes highlights another strong program of winter racing at Royal Randwick this Saturday.
Sydney’s 12-time champion trainer Chris Waller has four of the 18 runners accepted for in the 1400m feature while Royal Randwick mentor John O’Shea and the Newcastle-based Kris Lees will launch respective two-pronged attacks on the race. Waller’s representation will come from the resuming trio of Polly Grey ($34), Longvillers ($8) and Bonny Ezra ($51) while Tycoonist ($34) heads into the Civic Stakes second-up. Lees has Ucalledit ($11) and Acquitted ($14).
O’Shea boasts the early TAB Fixed Odds favourite in Waihaha Falls ($5) while stablemate Cotehele, which opened up an equal $6 favourite with Waihaha Falls, is now on the second line of betting at $6.50 alongside Cisco Bay ($6-$6.50).
Waller’s last Civic Stakes triumph was back in 2018 with Liapari.
All in all there are 156 acceptors for Saturday’s program at Royal Randwick with the track rated a Good 4 as of Wednesday morning.
CIVIC STAKES FAST FACTS
- Sam Clipperton and Christian Reith have won two editions each of the Civic Stakes in the past 10 years
- John O’Shea won back-to-back runnings of the Civic Stakes with Generalife and Haussmann (2014, 15)
- You have to go back to Magic Gleam (1988, 89) to find the last dual winner of the race
Saturday’s card also features the ACY Securities Stayer’s Cup (2600 metres) with Waller having two entries (Shameless Miss $11 and Oz Legend $5.50), while the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace training combo have a dual representation of their own in the form of Strawberry Rock ($5) and Wahine Toa ($3.20).
Tickets for this Saturday and all Winter season racedays are available for as low as $17 for Groups of 10 or more, with the Punters Pack available at $39.
Punters Packs are loaded with value and include one General Admission entry ticket, two Furphy vouchers, a $10 food voucher and a racebook.
Punters Packs can be purchased online at theraces.com.au up until 4:30pm on the Friday prior and collected on raceday at the Wagering Concierge in the Betting Ring.
UPCOMING FEATURES
$160,000 Listed Winter Stakes – 8 July
$160,000 Listed Winter Challenge – 22 July
$150,000 July Sprint – 22 July
$300,000 Group Two Missile Stakes – 5 August
Full fields for Saturday’s Royal Randwick card are available here as are the TAB Fixed Odds markets for the entire card.
The first is set to commence at 11am with the final race to be held at 4:25pm.