Two derby winners among nominations for Grand Prix Stakes

Victoria Derby winner Prized Icon and South Australian Derby winner Volatile Mix are among the nominations for Group 3 $150,000 Mullins Lawyers Grand Prix Stakes (2200m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Prized Icon, above, is among the nominations for the  Grand Prix Stakes at Eagle Farm. Photo by Steve Hart.

Prized Icon, above, is among the nominations for the Grand Prix Stakes at Eagle Farm. Photo by Steve Hart.

Twenty-five three year olds have been entered for the Grand Prix Stakes which is a very important lead up race for the Group 1 $600,000 Channel 7 Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm run a fortnight later.

Prized Icon, who won the 2016 Group 1 $1.5m AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington during the Spring Carnival, is trainer James Cummings’ only nomination and is coming off a last start second to France in the $400,000 Inglis 3yo Guineas (1400m) at Scone’s standalone Metropolitan rated meeting on May 13.

Volatile Mix is one of three Darren Weir trained three year olds entered for the Grand Prix Stakes, the other two being Mongolian Wolf and Rockstar Rebel.

Volatile Mix was strong at the end of the 2500m of the Group 1 $600,000 South Australian Derby at Morphettville on May 13 and will be one of the main chances for the Queensland Derby.

Mongolian Wolf score an impressive first up win for the Weir stable in the Group 3 $150,000 Mostyn Copper Group Frank Packer Plate (2000m) at Randwick on April 15 but them finished down the track when eleventh to All Out Of Love in a 2000m 3yo Handicap at Caulfield on May 13.

Weir’s third Grand Prix Stakes nominations Rockstar Rebel is still racing in restricted class and was a last start second in a 2200m BenchMark 64 Handicap at Bendigo on May 5.

Sydney’s leading trainer Chris Waller also has multiple nominations for the Grand Prix Stakes and has entered Black On Gold, Sizzling Bullet, Veladero and Wu Gok.

Veladero is the best performed of the Waller entrants with three Group 3 placings at his last three starts, his latest being a third to Shocking Luck in the Group 3 $125,000 Mittys Rough Habit Plate (2000m) at Doomben on May 13.

New Zealand co-trainers Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards brought Shocking Luck to Brisbane for the Winter Carnival and the three year old has put himself into Grand Prix Stakes and Queensland Derby calculations with his win in the Rough Habit Plate.

The Brian Smith trained Order Again is only one of a handful of locally trained three year olds nominated for the Grand Prix Stakes and threw his hat into the mix with a seven and a half lengths win in a 1500m BenchMark 70 Handicap at Eagle Farm on May 3 followed by a second to Shocking Luck in the Rough Habit Plate.

Nominations for the 2017 Grand Prix Stakes (2200m)

# Last 10 Horse Sex Age Trainer
1 624121×161 BLACK ON GOLD G 3 Chris Waller
2 525×42216 CHARLTON C 3 Robbie Griffiths
3 0950033210 DAZZLE EM SID G 3 Matt Kropp
4 7×548616 DRUMMERS CHANCE G 3 Brad Herne
5 764×170145 GARBHAN G 3 Mitch Newman
6 6441031176 HERE HE COMES (NZ) G 3 Donna Logan & Chris Gibbs
7 x67716x158 HUNDRED G 3 Brett Lunney & Thomas Lunney
8 36×9751 LYRIDS G 3 Michael Costa
9 408×113010 MONGOLIAN WOLF G 3 Darren Weir
10 4213×512 ORDER AGAIN (NZ) G 3 Brian Smith
11 54410×4210 PETER JOHN (NZ) G 3 John Sargent
12 351×620272 PRIZED ICON C 3 James Cummings
13 31 REGINE (IRE) F 3 John Sargent
14 x123x44542 ROCKSTAR REBEL C 3 Darren Weir
15 422×1310 SHADOW VISION G 3 Kurt Goldman
16 93221×4222 SHARP SPEEDO F 3 Chris Anderson
17 16×5062061 SHINE TAK STAR G 3 John Sargent
18 64122×21 SHOCKING LUCK (NZ) G 3 Stephen Autridge & Jamie Richards
19 91×31192 SIZZLING BULLET C 3 Chris Waller
20 0x115 TOP OF THE RANGE (NZ) G 3 Michael Moroney
21 1533×01843 VALENTINO ROSSA G 3 Jason Coyle
22 144×488323 VELADERO C 3 Chris Waller
23 828×644624 VIOLATE C 3 Brent Stanley
24 2215×51741 VOLATILE MIX (NZ) G 3 Darren Weir
25 8462421153 WU GOK G 3 Chris Waller

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.