Why the Classics still matter in a speed-obsessed market

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Australia has spent generations chasing speed, with the commercial market rewarding precocity, sharp 2-year-old types and stallion prospects who can make their names quickly. Yet every season, the Classics continue to push back against that bias, performing a role that remains highly relevant in a modern racing and breeding landscape: identifying the 3-year-olds with the class, constitution and scope to matter beyond one campaign.

In 2025/26, there were 13 Classic races run across Australia and New Zealand at Group 1 level, won by 11 different horses by 11 different stallions. It was a roll-call with genuine variety, from dual Classic winners Observer (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) and Autumn Boy (The Autumn Sun) to Sheza Alibi (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}), who turned a Randwick Guineas victory into a devastating Doncaster Handicap performance at her next start.

Ohope Wins (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}) completed the New Zealand Oaks-Australian Oaks double, Green Spaces (Street Boss {USA}) delivered another Australian Derby for Godolphin, and Providence (Wootton Bassett {GB}) became the first Southern Hemisphere-bred Group 1 winner for the late Wootton Bassett.

For all the market’s appetite for speed, the Classics again found horses with depth.

Last season’s Classic winners

The argument for the Classics is not only what this season’s winners might become, but what last season’s winners have already done.

Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express), last season’s dual Oaks winner, trained on at four to win the G1 Memsie Stakes and G2 Sunline Stakes, while also placing in the G1 Cox Plate behind the Fastnet Rock pair Via Sistina (Ire) and Buckaroo (GB). Aeliana (NZ) (Castelvecchio), who came through the G1 Australian Derby, returned this season to win the G1 Ranvet Stakes and G1 Tancred Stakes, as well as record another three Group 1 placings. Linebacker (NZ) (Super Seth) won the Silver Eagle.

Two other Classic winners from last season have already moved into the stallion ranks. G1 Rosehill Guineas winner Broadsiding retired to stud in 2025, covering 160 mares at $66,000 inc GST, while G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Private Life also had his first season at stud, covering 100 mares at $19,250 inc GST.

That is why the Classics still carry weight. They are not simply old races with famous names, but races that continue to shape the following season, the stallion barn and, in the case of the fillies, future broodmare bands.

Observer and Autumn Boy split the spotlight

Observer, who will stand at Darley in 2026, won the G1 Victoria Derby in November to give his second season sire Ghaiyyath (Ire) his first Group 1 winner and followed this up with victory in the G1 Australian Guineas in February.

He represents the Dubawi (Ire) sire line which is on the rise globally.

The form out of the G1 Victoria Derby has been strong over the last few years with 2023 winner Riff Rocket (American Pharoah {USA}) also winning the G1 Australian Derby before sadly dying from colic. The year prior Manzoice (NZ) (Almanzor {Fr}) won the Derby, and he won this season’s G3 Tattersall’s Cup. Hitotsu, whose oldest foals are yearlings, went on to add two more Classics. Like Observer, he won the G1 Australian Guineas and he also won the G1 Australian Derby.

Observer, a son of Smooth (Lonhro), performed across several Classic races, running third in the G1 Caulfield Guineas, third in the G1 Rosehill Guineas and fifth in the G1 Australian Derby. Across all his racing, he won at two and added four more victories at three. Outside his two Classic wins, he won twice at Group 2 level.

Autumn Boy (The Autumn Sun) bested Observer twice when winning the G1 Caulfield Guineas and G1 Rosehill Guineas. The colt became the fourth Caulfield Guineas winner for his trainer Chris Waller in the spring, and one of those four Waller winners was Autumn Boy’s sire The Autumn Sun.

“We have been looking to try and find that horse that replicates The Autumn Sun. (Bloodstock agent) Guy Mulcaster, who buys our horses, found him (Autumn Boy) and as soon as I saw him, I thought he was perfect,” Waller said at the time of the Caulfield Guineas.

Without a stud deal announced for 2026, racing fans ought to be able to see him again in the coming spring. The Caulfield Guineas has a strong record in producing quality stallions with the likes of The Autumn Sun, Ole Kirk, Super Seth and Anamoe on the honour board recently, while still active successful sires All Too Hard won the race, as did Starspangledbanner.

Sheza Alibi changes the conversation

If Observer and Autumn Boy gave the season its Classic rivalry, Sheza Alibi (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}) gave it its exclamation mark.

Transferred to the Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman stable, she won five straight races and lifted herself from promising filly to one of the most exciting horses in training. Her G1 Randwick Guineas victory over Autumn Boy made her a Classic winner, but her next start made her something more.

In the G1 Doncaster Handicap, Sheza Alibi thrashed a high-class field and instantly changed the way her spring is viewed. Autumn Boy was second, while the infertile and now-gelded Group 1 winner Militarize (NZ) (Dundeel {NZ}) was third. Militarize does have 12 live foals, born in 2025, from his one season at stud in 2024.

Racing fans have been anticipating the clash between this season’s impressive 4-year-old mare Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun) and Sheza Alibi in the spring, but throw in Autumn Boy to the mix, and there is plenty to look forward to once the weather begins to improve.

“Peter said the Memsie is the first one, the 1400-metre Group 1, and then the Makybe Diva over 1600 metres,” owner Fred Noffke told racing.com about Sheza Alibi’s spring plans last week.

“And then I think it’ll be the King Charles in Sydney, also over 1600 metres, and then the Golden Eagle.”

That is exactly what the sport needs from its Classics: horses who do not disappear after one defining win, but instead give the next season shape.

The spring fillies add to young sires

Ole Dancer (Ole Kirk) won the G1 MRC 1000 Guineas to provide her second season sire with his first Group 1 winner early in the piece. Kept to shorter trips in the autumn, she ran into the flying sprinter Tempted (Street Boss {USA}) in the G1 Surround Stakes when third.

The Written Tycoon sire line is a burgeoning one in Australia and one to watch with Ole Kirk winning Champion First Season Sire in 2024/25. Ole Dancer is from Snitzel’s family.

The other spring Classic for fillies is the G1 Victoria Oaks, won this season by Strictly Business (Grunt {NZ}). She finished her season with a second placing in the G1 South Australian Derby to frank the form.

The Victoria Oaks has long been a good source of quality race mares with Treasurethe Moment, while the year prior’s winner Zardozi (Kingman {GB}) went on to place at Group 1 level four more times. She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice) didn’t race again but had been a Group 1 winner at two. Miami Bound (NZ) (Reliable Man {GB}) herself out of a Victoria Oaks winner in Arapaho Miss (Danehill Dancer {USA}).

Strictly Business became the second Group 1 winner for O’Reilly (NZ)’s son Grunt (NZ) whose oldest foals are 5-year-olds. Veight is his other Group 1 winner.

The Derby winners bring staying depth

Bjorn Baker-trained Green Spaces (Street Boss {USA}) won the G1 Australian Derby, giving Godolphin their third Classic victory of the season. The other two are those won by the aforementioned Observer. Green Spaces had been second to Autumn Boy in the G1 Rosehill Guineas at his start prior to the Derby.

A half-brother to the good sprinter Trekking (Street Cry {Ire}) who won the G1 Stradbroke Handicap and G1 Goodwood Handicap, Green Spaces is out of Outdoor (Redoute’s Choice).

In South Australia, the Derby was won by Wigmore (NZ) (Sweynesse), with the G1 Victoria Oaks winner in second, and he was one of only two Classic winners this season to be bred in New Zealand. Sweynesse is a son of Lonhro, representing the Zabeel (NZ) sire line, and Wigmore is Sweynesse's second Group 1 winner following Hong Kong’s top sprinter Lucky Sweynesse (NZ).

Up to Queensland for the winter, and Wootton Bassett (GB)’s death was felt keenly when Providence was victorious in the G1 Queensland Derby. Wootton Bassett, a son of Iffraaj (GB) from the Gone West (USA) sire line, is the sire of 21 Group 1 winners but Providence is his first to be born in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Oaks crop gives the mares a future focus

With Treasurethe Moment coming through two of the Oaks races last season to be one of the better 4-year-olds this season, hopefully this season’s crop of Oaks winners can find another quality mare for the next season.

Yulong invested into Ohope Wins (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}) and she joined an elite group when she won both the G1 New Zealand Oaks and came to Australia to add the G1 Australian Oaks. With the likes of Treasurethe Moment and Horse Of The Year Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}) winning the Australian Oaks in recent times, this is a strong indication that if Ohope Wins trains on next season, she provides racing fans with plenty to cheer for.

Like Green Spaces, Ohope Wins is out of a Redoute’s Choice mare, being Choux Mania, giving the former Champion Sire both the Sydney Oaks and Derby victories via his daughters. Of note, Ohope Wins has a very Cox Plate pedigree with her sire winning the weight-for-age event, while her dam’s half-brother four-time Group 1 winner Jimmy Choux (NZ) was second in the Cox Plate.

Panova (Trapeze Artist) became the second Group 1 winner for her sire when taking out the G1 Australasian Oaks in South Australia and she almost made it a Classic double when second at her next start in the G1 Queensland Oaks.

The G1 Queensland Oaks went the way of Fireball Miss (Bivouac) who became the second Group 1 winner for second season sire Bivouac, himself a sprinter. His other Group 1 winner is the speedy dual Group 1 winner Beiwacht. Fireball Miss is out of Pierro mare Femme Fireball, who also produced a Classic winner in the previous season with Femminile (Dundeel {NZ}). Pierro is a son of Lonhro, which we saw as the damsire of Observer and the grandsire of Wigmore.

Why do the classics matter?

In summing up the season’s Classic winners, one thing that strikes is the way that the form through these races stacks up season on season. For decades, the racing industry has been obsessed with early speed and yet these Classics still prevail as indicators of class and durability.

For decades, the industry has been wrestling with the same commercial tension. In 1966, Peter Burrell, then Director of the English National Stud, warned that the economics of racing favoured the breeding and racing of sprinters, while top-class middle-distance blood became harder to retain.

“So the vicious circle is perpetuated,” Burrell said. “More and more we go in for sprinters, and less and less we can afford to break out and breed from the top-class middle-distance horses.”

Nearly 60 years later, and on the other side of the world, the same tension remains familiar. Australia is still a speed-driven market, and it still rewards the sharp, the early and the commercial. But the Classics continue to matter because they find something different: horses with depth, horses that train on, and horses that can become stallions, broodmares and older-season drawcards.

Speed may sell, but the Classics are still where racing finds substance.