Caulfield Guineas History

The Caulfield Guineas is the Melbourne Racing Club’s premier event for three-year-olds and takes place during the Spring Carnival each October.

The 1600m race has earned a reputation over the years as one of the classic races for the three-year-olds during the Spring Carnival.

The prizemoney for this event totals a cool $1 million and as with the fillies’ feature event – the Thousand Guineas, which takes place on the same day at Caulfield – the winner of this race is also entitled to a bonus of $250,000 if they also win the Caulfield Classic, run on Caulfield Cup day.

First run in 1881, and won by Wheatear, the Caulfield Guineas attracts the best colts and geldings around and even lures some of the more talented fillies as well, who choose to by-pass the Thousand Guineas in favouro of the opportunity to take on their male counterparts.

The fillies haven’t fared too well over the years, however, with the mighty Surround being the last to win the race back in 1976.

The Group 2 Stan Fox Stakes (1400m) held in Sydney in September and the Group 2 Caulfield Guineas Prelude, run over 1400 metres at Caulfield, usually two weeks prior to the Guineas, are the two key lead up races to the Group 1.

In recent years, both lead-up races have between them proven to be a very good guide to finding the winner of the Caulfield Guineas.

Contrary to popular belief, this race is not one that usually leads to a Caulfield Cup or Melbourne Cup winner or in most cases even a starter in one of those two spring features.

Caulfield Guineas winners seem to perform a lot better if they start in the Cox Plate run at Moonee Valley, usually two weeks later.

As three-year-olds, they are given a big weight advantage over the older horses in the classic weight for age event, which is run over 2040m.

The two horses that filled the Caulfield Guineas quinella in 2012, namely All Too Hard and Pierro, went on to run second and third in the Cox Plate that year, beaten only by the very smart international runner Ocean Park.

Over the years, the Caulfield Guineas has seen many great horses win the event and go on to bigger and better successes. Gallopers like last year’s winner Press Statement, Starpgledbanner (2009), Weekend Hussler (2007), the mighty Lonhro (2001) and Redoute’s Choice in 1999 are all glowing examples of class winners in the past.

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