Group 1 winning colts Extreme Choice and Astern are sharing favouritism for the Group 1 $500,000 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington today.

Astern, above, has joined Extreme Choice to be equal favourite in the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington. Photo by Steve Hart.

The John O’Shea trained Astern has joined Extreme Choice at $3 at the top of the market order at Ladbrokes.com.au with the Team Hawkes trained Star Turn in close contention at $4.40.

The field for the Coolmore Stud Stakes has been reduced to eight runners following the scratching yesterday of the Golden Slipper winner Capitalist and today’s withdrawal of Astern’s stablemate Archives.

Astern and the Mick Price trained Extreme Choice both opened up at $3.50 when the final field was released on Wednesday with Extreme Choice firming in quickly to be the early favourite before being joined by Astern this morning.

Star Turn has remained around the same quote all through betting so far with the Peter and Paul Snowden trained Russian Revolution the next in the betting at $11 just ahead of Extreme Choice’s stablemate Flying Artie at $12.

Coolmore Stud Stakes market order at Ladbrokes.com.au: $3 Extreme Choice, Astern, $4.40 Star Turn, $11 Russian Revolution, $12 Flying Artie, $41 Saracino,  Derryn, $71 Monolo Blahniq.