Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
From day one, feature races in Australia were named in honour of their English counterparts; little wonder considering the intrinsic Britishness of racing the world over.
The Champagne S. for 2-year-olds was first run at Doncaster in 1823 - originally open to both genders but now a Group 2 event for just the males.
Some of the stars of the turf have won the race - such as The Tetrarch (GB) and his famed daughter Mumtaz Mahal (GB) - as well as her grandsons Mahmoud (Fr) and Abernant (GB). And another breed-shaping matriarch in Pretty Polly (GB) (Gallinule {GB}).
Back in the 1860’s there were a couple of Champagne S. races run over different distances in Sydney. One of those was first run in 1861, just a year after the AJC had moved its headquarters from Hyde Park to Randwick... a 1000-metre contest for 2-year-olds.
Always run during the autumn carnival, it had a few distance changes in the early years though it was mostly conducted over 1200 metres until 1972 when the AJC decided that the current 1600 metres was a good fit following on from the Slipper and the G1 Sires Produce S.
Militarize (NZ), winner of the G1 Champagne S. in 2023 | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Run as a “principal race” from 1864, it was granted Group 1 status as soon as The Pattern system came into play in the season of 1979/80.
Its first winner Exeter (who was exported to China) at first glance seems to be lost a little in history, listed by the Stud Book as NTB (non thoroughbred) with unidentified parents.
But newspapers at the time report him as being a son of Waverley and Lady Morgan; a mare who died shortly after foaling him - Exeter raised by hand. Also placed in a couple of nice races, he was sold for £100 to China - accompanied there by his strapper which must’ve been some adventure at that time!
It seems likely that the Etienne de Mestre-trained galloper was named after his breeders Exeter Farm from where de Mestre’s two-time (the first two runnings) G1 Melbourne Cup winner would Archer emerge.
Archer won the G1 Melbourne Cup in 1861 and 1862 | Image courtesy of Wikipedia
The trainer was informed of his former charge’s deeds in China by mail; reports coming in that Exeter had taken on English imports in three races (possibly on the same day!) and beaten them, winning £10,000 for his new owners.
Which apparantly came as no surprise to Exeter Lodge’s Tom Roberts who claimed at the time that Exeter was the best horse he had bred.
So it was a most interesting start to the Champagne S., a race which quickly became Sydney’s premier juvenile event.
In its first decade it was won by a number of horses who would go on to enjoy influence at stud and who boast interesting stories.
Such as Fireworks, the only dual Victorian Derby winner... the season that the VRC decided on the Classic’s short-lived change of date to January 1. Also winner of the AJC Derby, he put on display his toughness and versatility by winning a couple of features over 24 furlongs.
He went on to a successful stud career as did Fishhook who was famed at the time for his battles with the the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame member The Barb.
Also making a great contribution at stud was Yattendon who was accomplished over sprinting and staying trips. He began serving mares whilst still racing and he made his mark, the Stud Book recording him as having sired 33 stakes winners.
Chester, winner of the Champagne S. in 1877 | Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Amongst that tally are two particularly notable horses - the only unbeaten Melbourne Cup winner Grand Flaneur and fellow Cup hero Chester who between 1887 and 1893 was four-time Champion Australian Sire.
The first Melbourne Cup winner to sire a Melbourne Cup winner (in fact he had two), Grand Flaneur was also successful at stud, earning the Championship title for season 1894/95.
Chester also won the Champagne S. (in 1877) as did his son Autonomy (1892). The year before Chester it was won by Robinson Crusoe (whose amazing story we told last spring), the 1887/87 Champion Sire whose son Navigator won the 1882 running of the Champagne.
The race continued to be won by high-class gallopers with the next stallion of note to claim victory being Bobadil in 1898. Accredited by the Stud Book with 39 stakes winners, he was also a broodmare sire of influence with the great Eurythmic being out of one of his daughters.
That era also saw the first stakes winning producing female Champagne S. winner - Wilga (Epigram {GB}) (1890) producing two stakes winners including the AJC Derby winner Belah (Havoc {NZ}).
The best winner of the early 1900s was Woorak (1914), the LKS Mackinnon-owned galloper who three years later took out the Oakleigh Plate under the considerable steadier of 65.5kg. His success at stud was highlighted by the wonderful horse Whittier who owns an interesting bit of history - the first of his two Caulfield Cup victories coming as the grandstand burned down!
The 1920s was a stellar decade for the Champagne S., in that decade won by four especially noteworthy gallopers - Furious (The Welkin {GB}) who has a race named in her honour, Mollison (Seremond {GB}) and two great sons of Valais (GB).
Those horses being the personality laden entires Heroic and Manfred who both enjoyed great success at stud; the former winning seven consecutive Champion Sire titles.
Gallery: Two sons of Valais (GB) who won the Champagne S., images courtesy of Wikipedia
Dual WS Cox Plate winner Young Idea was one of several classy Champagne winners of the 1930s, a decade which also saw it won by Heroic’s champion son Ajax, another successful stallion whose son Magnificent won the race in 1945.
Hall Mark won the race in 1933 and High Caste (NZ) in 1939. Both progressed to big careers on the track, also enjoying success as stallions.
The great mare Flight (Royal Step) took out the 1943 running and it was 14 years later that the Champagne had to give up its position as the premier 2-year-old race. For it was in that year that the inaugural Golden Slipper took place.
Gallery: several classy Champagne winners of the 1930s and 1940s, images courtesy of Wikipedia
And both races were won by the mighty Todman. And what a quinella the Champagne was, another star of the turf in second placing - Tulloch (NZ).
Two years later Todman’s brother Noholme won the Champagne, both horses well and truly proving their worth at stud; still featuring heavily in pedigrees with the latter siring Paris Review, second dam sire of Written Tycoon’s sire Iglesia.
The high-class Sky High was the first Champagne winner of the 1960s and the last year of that decade saw one of the race’s best ever winners - the superstar sprinter Vain.
He made history on several accounts that day, winning the race by 10 lengths in record time (in fact the fastest recorded 1200 metres by any 2-year-old in Australia at that time), becoming the country’s highest earning juvenile as well.
Vain, winner of the Champagne S. in 1969
We could talk all day about Vain but it is worth noting that the 1983/84 Champion Sire is another Champagne winner to continue to prove influential. Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) is famously line-bred to him and he is the second dam sire of Written Tycoon.
The 1970s was another vintage era with the two winners - Baguette in 1970 and Luskin Star in 1977 (both successes at stud) becoming the first horses to take out all three feature juvenile events; the Slipper, the Sires' Produce and the Champagne.
Since then just four others have completed that feat - Tierce in 1991, Burst (Marauding {NZ}) in 1992, Dance Hero (Danzero) in 2004 and Pierro in 2012.
Pierro, winner of the Golden Slipper, Sires' Produce and Champagne S. in 2012 | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Two years after Baguette’s succes, Anjudy (Wilkes {Fr}) won the Champagne and the pair would meet at stud, producing Crown Jester - sire of one of the great early speed influences of recent times in Rory’s Jester.
Racegoers look back at the 1980s as one of the great eras of Australian racing and it was certainly a great time for the Champagne - won in that decade by Rose Of Kingston (Bletchingly) who would produce the record-breaking G1 Melbourne Cup winner Kingston Rule, Red Anchor (NZ), Bounding Away (Biscay) and Sky Chase (NZ) - sire of the champion Saintly (NZ).
One of the fifteen female Champagne winners to produce stakes winners, the 1990 winner Triscay (Marscay) established a nice dynasty with twelve of her descendants being stakes winners. And another eight stakes placegetters including Tassort whose G1 Sires' Produce S.-winning daughter Manaal is one of this Saturday’s leading contenders.
Manaal, one of the contenders for the G1 Champagne S. on Saturday | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Tierce, Burst, Intergaze, Encounter and Dracula were also Champagne winners in the last decade of the 1900s whilst Assertive Lad took out the first of the new century. Viscount and Dance Hero were amongst that decades best winners of the race whilst 2012 saw the latest Triple Crown hero and now successful stallion Pierro in the winner’s circle.
Classy broodmare Guelph (Exceed And Excel) won the following year and since then five male Champagne winners have ended up at stud - Prized Icon, The Mission, Castelvecchio (the current record holder covering the mile in 1:33.31), King’s Legacy and Captivant with last year’s winner Militarize (NZ) looking that way bound.
So the Champagne has been some race, won by horses who have gone on to win all the great races from Classics to the big miles, the feature sprints and Melbourne Cups. It has been a breeding ground for successful stallions and broodmares.
