Via Sistina set for more glory in Champions Stakes

Will it be a repeat performance for champion mare Via Sistina in Saturday’s G1 Champions Stakes (2000m) at Flemington?

With 11 Group 1 victories already – five of them added this year – the eight-year-old mare is poised to add another at the highest level when she takes on 10 rivals in the AU$3 million (approx. HK$15.2 million) race.

The prize of AU$1.8 million (approx. HK$9.1 million) would add to Via Sistina’s impressive career earnings of AU$17.5 million (approx. HK$88.3 million).

This time last year, Via Sistina had just broken the Group 1 W.S. Cox Plate (2040m) track record when she smashed her rivals by an astonishing eight lengths with James McDonald in the saddle.

More: Horse racing betting

She was almost unbackable at her next start in the Champions Stakes when she disposed of the opposition by two-and-three-quarter lengths.

The general opinion is that Via Sistina might not be as good as she was last year, but the question is: how good does she have to be to win on Saturday?

Chris Waller, who will also saddle Kovalica in the race, said he never lost faith in Via Sistina ahead of her victory in the Cox Plate. In the lead-up to that win, she didn’t win but was placed in races that weren’t run to suit her.

Via Sistina is around a 1.55 favourite with betting sites, which is leaning into unbackable territory again.

“I know she hasn’t won her last two runs (before the W.S. Cox Plate win), but all the data suggests she’s flying and … providing the horse is healthy and well, you know they’re going to get somewhere close to it,” he said.

Group 1 winner Attrition finished around three-and-a-quarter lengths behind Via Sistina for fourth in the eight-horse Cox Plate field, and no one was happier with the effort than trainer Mitchell Freedman.

“He is really good and it was a good run in the Cox Plate and he has had a good time of it since then for sure,” Freedman said.

“He is just getting better and better as he gets deeper into the prep and as an older stallion now it’s probably to be expected.”

Freedman said Via Sistina’s run in the W.S. Cox Plate suggested she is not going as well as she was last year, but with back-to-back W.S. Cox Plate victories, it was hard to knock her.

New Zealand trainers Darryn & Briar Weatherley are confident that Pier can cause an upset after the gelding ran third in the G1 King Charles III Stakes (1609m) at Royal Randwick.

“The other day he was headed halfway up the straight by Pericles, and we thought he was going to run fifth and then he fought back to run third. Ethan Brown got off and said he is screaming out for 2000m and he can’t wait until he gets that far,” Darryn said.

In an open race, Benagil, Tom Kitten and Light Infantry Man, who finished fifth in the Cox Plate after leading, are among the contenders.

The Champions Stakes is carded as S1-6 and will be run at 5.10pm AEDT on Saturday, November 8.