Top 5 Darley Sprint Classic Winners

The Darley Sprint Classic (1200m) pits the sprinters up against one another at the end of the Melbourne spring carnival and has been won by some champion gallopers over the years. See who made our list of top 5 Darley Sprint Classic winners since 2000.

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

Top 5 Darley Sprint Classic winners.

1. BLACK CAVIAR (2010/2011)

Unbeaten in 25 race starts, Black Caviar is the obvious selection at the top of this list. She won the Darley Sprint Classic in 2010 and 2011, providing her with two of her 15 Group 1 wins. Her win in the 2010 race was her first at the highest level and came at her eighth career start. Eight of her 25 wins came at Flemington and her performances were recognised when the Lightning Stakes (1000m) was renamed as the ‘Black Caviar Lightning‘ at the end of her career.

2. TAKEOVER TARGET (2004)

Takeover Target won the Darley Sprint Classic when it was known as the Salinger Stakes and raced on the first Saturday of the Melbourne Cup carnival. The much travelled galloper was purchased for just $1250 by his owner/trainer Joe Janiak, who was a taxi-driver in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. The 2004 win was his first at Group 1 level before going on to claim major races in NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Perth as well as overseas at Royal Ascot in the UK. He won eight Group 1 races in total.

3. MISS ANDRETTI (2007)

Miss Andretti followed in the footsteps of Takeover Target, winning the Darley Sprint Classic race before claiming victory at Royal Ascot. She started her career in Western Australia and was transferred from the David Mueller stable to Lee Freedman, racing 31 times for 19 wins. Other big wins came in the Lightning Stakes, Manikato Stakes (1200m) and the Newmarket Handicap (1200m).

4. REDZEL (2017)

A winner of over $16 million in prize money, Redzel is best remembered for his efforts to take out the Everest (1200m) in the first two years that the marquee Sydney race was run, in 2017 and 2018. The Snowden galloper backed up to claim the Darley Sprint Classic after his first The Everest win and also took out the Doomben 10,000 in 2017.

5. NATURE STRIP (2019)

Nature Strip may very well advance up this list in future years and at the time of writing had won 14 of his 23 starts with four of those coming at Group 1 level including this race in 2019. The son of Nicconi has been prepared by five different trainers throughout his career but seems settled in the Chris Waller camp nowadays. His performance to devastate his rivals when clicking through his gears in 2019 was first class and in 2020 he will embark on an The Everest campaign.

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