Top 5 Railway Stakes Winners

The Railway Stakes (1600m) is one of three Group 1 races in Perth that is held towards the end of the calendar year and has been taken out by some champion gallopers over the years. See who made our list of top 5 Railway Stakes winners since 2000.

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

Top 5 Railway Stakes winners.

1. NORTHERLY (2000)

While no one would have predicted what was to come in following years with Northerly becoming one of the champions of Australian racing, the 2000 Railway Stakes was a sign of things to come and was the race that put Northerly on the map. The Fred Kersley-trained galloper had worked through the grades that preparation, smashing them by nearly five lengths in the Group 3 RJ Peters Stakes (1500m) before registering the first of his nine Group 1 wins by defeating Old Comrade by three lengths. The ‘fighting tiger’ as he would become known, due in part to his tenacious racing style, as well as the yellow and black colours he wore, captured the hearts of the racing public by winning the Cox Plate (2040m) in 2001 and 2002 as well as the Caulfield Cup (2400m) in 2002.

2. OLD COMRADE (2001)

One of the sparring partners of Northerly at a great time for WA racing was Old Comrade and after missing out in the 2000 Railway Stakes, the Lindsey Smith-trained galloper was able to back up a year later to defeat Mr Tanzania. He traded blows with Northerly a few times during his career and was able to come to Melbourne to pip the champ in the 2002 Australia Cup (2000m). He won six of his 22 races with four of those coming at Group 1 level.

3. REGAL POWER (2019)

Regal Power can advance further up this list and at the time of writing he has started on 20 occasions for seven wins. A winner of the WA Derby (2400m) as a three-year-old, Regal Power came from the tail to defeat the Group 1 winner, Best Of Days, in the 2019 Railway before embarking on a Melbourne autumn campaign in 2020, taking out the second edition of the All-Star Mile (1600m). He is set for a spring campaign in 2020 that is geared towards the Cox Plate.

4. SNIPER’S BULLET (2009)

What a marvel Sniper’s Bullet was. Trained out at Mudgee in country New South Wales, the Tracey Bartley galloper prevailed in the 2009 Railway Stakes before going on to claim the Kingston Town Classic (1800m) that year. Earlier in his career, he rose from a couple of wins at Dubbo to place in the Randwick Guineas (1600m) behind Mentality and then won the Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) in 2007.

5. SCALES OF JUSTICE (2016)

The recently deceased Scales Of Justice was a two-time Group 1 winner, claiming the Railway in 2016 before going three years until his next major with a win, which came in the in the 2019 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield ahead of So Si Bon and Alizee . He returned in 2020 to take out the Group 2 Australia Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley but spent most of his career racing in W.A, winning 12 of 30 races with seven of those at Group level.