3 minute read
A look at the quality of some of the runners who have tackled the Memsie Stakes first-up.
The Memsie Stakes is almost 125 years old, but it has only been a Group 1 since 2013, which was the year Atlantic Jewel provided one of the more memorable wins in the Caulfield feature.
The Mark Kavanagh-trained star headed into the 1400-metre weight-for-age event first-up for 17 months, but cruised home by 2-1/4 lengths.
Her win came amid a seven-year stretch when fresh was best when it came to the Memsie Stakes.
Each winner from 2010 to 2016 was first-up, with time between runs ranging from Black Heart Bart's 77 days to 490 days for Atlantic Jewel.
The five winners after Black Heart Bart were either second-up or third-up, but Snapdancer got one back for the first-uppers last year.
Favourite for this year's Memsie, which will be run on Saturday, is Mr Brightside who has race fitness on his side, having resumed with a win in the Group 2 Lawrence Stakes on August 19, but the race's most fascinating runner is first -up.
I Wish I Win has not started since winning the Group 1 T J Smith Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on April 1.
He posted the highest Racing & Sports Rating returned on an Australian track last season in that win, which makes him one of the better-credentialled first-up runners to contest the Memsie since 2010.
Of the 78 horses to have run first-up in the Memsie in that time, only So You Think and Typhoon Tracy have owned a peak rating of 127.
That was the 2010 edition, which So You Think won and Typhoon Tracy finished fourth.
Whobegotyou finished runner-up in that Memsie, having owned a peak rating of 126 going into it, with Humidor the only other horse who has gone into a Memsie first-up with a rating of 126.
That was 2019, when Humidor resumed after almost a year on the sidelinesdue to injury, having won his Memsie (2018) second-up off an eighth placing in the Lawrence Stakes.
Atlantic Jewel and Dundeel, the fourth placegetter in the 2013 Memsie, are the next most highly-rated Memsie first-uppers since 2010, having gone in with a peak rating of 125.
I Wish I Win is one of seven horses resuming in this year's Memsie with Alligator Blood the next highest-rated on the Racing & Sports Ratings scale at 124.
They occupy the second and third lines in betting and the Memsie is a race in which punters have shot pretty straight over a long period of time.
Humidor won at $21 and Dissident $12, but Bundy Lad in 1994 was the previous winner at double-figure odds.
Twenty-one of the 23 winners this century have started $7.50 or shorter, including 13 favourites.
