Rosehill Gardens hosts a new meeting as part of the $87 million Sydney Everest Carnival this Saturday with the $2m Group 2-Petaluma Hill Stakes and inaugural running of the $1.5m Alan Brown Stakes featuring on a huge card.
With capacity fields in both of those features, Saturday’s 10-race card with a massive 159 entries also includes the Group 2 $300,000 TAB Roman Consul Stakes, Group 3 $250,000 The Nivison and the second running of the $500,000 Toyota Forklifts Tapp-Craig.
Montefilia (Jason Collett) - the ruling favourite for Saturday's Petaluma Hill Stakes at Rosehill Gardens. Image by Steve Hart Photographics
The Rosehill Gardens meeting is the fourth Saturday of the 10-week Sydney Everest Carnival and comes just one week before the running of the $20m TAB Everest.
Australian Turf Club Head of Racing and Wagering, James Ross said the addition of the Rosehill Gardens fixture added further dimension to the growing Sydney Everest Carnival.
“The Petaluma Hill Stakes has attracted a high-quality field including five Group 1 winners and run this year a week later for $2 million prizemoney.
“The new [$1.5m] Alan Brown Stakes has also attracted a capacity field at its inaugural running which is fitting given Mr Brown’s enormous contribution to Sydney racing and Racing NSW.
“The [Group 2] TAB Roman Consul Stakes features a number of emerging young sprint stars on pathways further into spring along with the Tapp-Craig, named after two icons of the sport."
Full fields for Saturday’s bumper card are available HERE and full TAB markets for all races HERE.
The Chris Waller trained Montefilia – a four-time Group 1 winner – is the ($3.60-$3.70) favourite with TAB and jockey Nash Rawiller in the Group 2 $2m Petaluma Hill Stakes ahead of Hoo Ya Mal ($4.40; jockey Adam Hyeronimus) for the white-hot in-form Waterhouse and Bott Stable.
The Waller and Waterhouse/Bott stables have combined won 10 of the past 20 runnings of the Hill Stakes, while 15 of the past 20 winners have started first or second favourite.
The $1.5m Alan Brown Stakes – named in honour of the highly-respected former NSW racing administrator – sees an open betting market headed by the well-backed Waller runner Waterford ($6-$4.60 fav) with Brett Prebble aboard ahead of Cepheus ($4.60-$5.50) for trainer Matthew Dunn and jockey Nash Rawiller.
The Alan Brown Stakes has a full field of 18 runners along with four emergencies.
The Group 2 $300,000 TAB Roman Consul Stakes has attracted a high-quality field of three-year-olds headed by boom unbeaten Bjorn Baker sprinter Ozzmosis ($2.50-$2.40) for last week’s Group 1-winning jockey Rachel King.
The highly-talented Les Bridge trained Celestial Legend ($4.60-$5) for Kerrin McEvoy, along with King’s Gambit ($6 to $5.50) for Peter & Paul Snowden and Tommy Berry and Royal Tribute ($6.50-$7) for Waterhouse & Bott and Tim Clark add to crack field.
The Group 3 $250,000 The Nivison sees a 14-horse field headed by favourite Parisal for trainer James Cummings and jockey Zac Lloyd heavily backed early from $3.70-$3.20.
The Gary Portelli trained Encap who ran second in the Group 1 KIA Golden Rose is a strong $2.15-$2 favourite with jockey Brett Prebble aboard in the $500,000 Tapp-Craig.
Punters Packs offer general admission customers more than $60 value for just $39 and include entry, food and beverage vouchers and a racebook.
For all racing, general, ticketing information go to theraces.com.au