Top 5 Caulfield Stakes Winners

The Caulfield Stakes (2000m) is one of the key middle distance races of the Melbourne spring and is often a lead up that is used by gallopers in preparation for the Cox Plate (2040m). See who made our list of top 5 Caulfield Stakes winners since 2000.

In modern times, the feature race has been taken out by some outstanding gallopers.

Top 5 Caulfield Stakes winners.

1. WINX (2016)

The champion galloper, Winx, used the Caulfield Stakes as her final lead up towards the 2016 edition of the Cox Plate (2040m). In her other Cox Plate wins, she went via the Epsom Handicap (1600m) in 2015 and the Turnbull Stakes (2000m) in 2017/18. The Caulfield Stakes was a bit of a non event with just three runners, one of those was the fellow Group 1 winner, Black Heart Bart., while the other was He Or She. Winx did it easily that day as she often did. On the back of her streak of 33 wins to close out her career of 37 wins from 43 starts, it is hard to argue against her being at the top of this list.

2. SO YOU THINK (2010)

You could almost make a case for So You Think to defeat Winx, based on his form in the spring of 2010. After bursting on the scene by capturing the Cox Plate (2040m) in 2009, he returned with wins in the Memsie Stakes (1400m), Underwood Stakes (1800m) and Caulfield Stakes before going back to back in the Cox Plate. He could easily have won a third Cox Plate if he wasn’t sold to overseas interests, heading to the Aiden O’Brien stables in Ireland. He managed to do something that Winx couldn’t do by defeating some of the best on the world stage, winning a further five Group 1 races, taking his tally to 10 overall.

3. NORTHERLY (2001)

The fighting tiger’ made his mark in the early 2000s and ended the reign of the Kiwi champion, Sunline, in a thrilling Cox Plate in 2001, just after his win in the Caulfield Stakes. Earlier that spring, he defeated Sunline in one of the better edition’s of the Feehan Stakes (1600m) that you will see. With Sunline tackling the Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington in 2001, they did not meet again until Cox Plate Day and it was Northerly that fended off Sunline in slightly controversial fashion, denying the champ a third win in the Plate. Northerly went on to make it two in a row in 2002, backing up a week after winning the Caulfield Cup (2400m) with 58kg. In the 2001 edition of this race, he controlled proceedings and defeated some top gallopers in the process, including the 12-time Group 1 runner-up, Shogun Lodge, as well as Ethereal, who went on to claim the Caulfield Cup (2400m) Melbourne Cup (3200m) double that year.

4. LONHRO (2002/2003)

Lonhro won the Caulfield Stakes on two occasions and his win in the 2002 version of this race was particularly memorable with ‘excitement rippling around Caulfield’ as described by caller Greg Miles. He wore down Sunline that year and won an amazing 26 races from 35 starts, including 11 Group 1’s. The crowd favourite split his time between Melbourne and Sydney, picking up his first feature in the 2001 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) and his last in the 2004 Australian Cup (2000m).

5. EL SEGUNDO (2005)

El Segundo was a champion galloper from the Colin Little stable and announced himself as a serious horse with a win in the Caulfield Stakes (2000m) in 2005 before missing out in the Caulfield Cup (2400m) that year. He graduated into a weight-for-age star, missing out in agonising fashion in the Cox Plate behind Fields Of Omagh in 2006 before returning in 2007, making amends by taking out the weight-for-age championship. He retired with 12 wins from 35 starts with six of those wins coming at the highest level.

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