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The Championships at Randwick may have come and gone, but Sydney's final two Group One races of the Autumn Carnival, the Champagne Stakes and All Aged Stakes, headline a 9-race card at Randwick this Friday night. Live-stream the card on the new Sky Racing World App or watch the broadcast live on TVG (First Post: 9:55pm ET / 6:55pm PT).

Just as The Championships bear similarities to the Breeders' Cup, there are parallels between Australia's and America's Champagne Stakes: both races were inaugurated in the 1860s and are staged late in the season for 2-year-olds at a mile, and both have produced future Classic winners and Horses of the Year. Belmont's Champagne Stakes has been won by future Triple Crown champions Count Fleet and Seattle Slew, and its winners now earn qualifying points to the following season's Kentucky Derby. Randwick's Champagne Stakes serves a dual purpose, both as a glimpse of Classic potential and as the culmination of a juvenile Triple Crown series. Six horses have swept Sydney's 2-year-old Triple Crown, but the possibility of a seventh was extinguished when last month's Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside was immediately sent for a layoff.

Despite Sires Produce winner Anamoe also being rested until next season, the second leg of the juvenile Triple Crown provides the top pair in Champagne wagering. Hilal (5-2) and Captivant (3-1) finished 2nd and 3rd in the 7-furlong Sires Produce. The other main formline is from last week's Fernhill Handicap, whose participants are the only runners to have experience going a mile. Converge (6-1) carried high weight to win the Fernhill, and is therefore advantaged under the Champagne's set weights versus those he vanquished. Converge was the first of two winners last Friday night sired by Frankel (the other, Hungry Heart, gave Frankel his first Classic victory Down Under by capturing the Australian Oaks). American racing fans looking to spice up an exotic wager might be drawn to Patton (70-1), a son of American Pharoah who will carry the famous Spendthrift silks into battle.

The Champagne will be served at 9.55 p.m. Pacific as Race 6, and followed 40 minutes later by the All Aged Stakes. Sydney's final Group One race of the season was so named because horses of all ages are eligible. However, despite a huge weight advantage under the race's weight-for-age conditions, it is a rarity to see a late-season 2-year-old take on elders. Still, this year's field does justice to the name by running the gamut from a trio of 3-year-olds to an 8-year-old! Wagering is headed by lone 4-year-old Masked Crusader (2-1), on the strength of his outstanding runner-up performance behind Nature Strip in the TJ Smith Stakes on Day One of The Championships. The Godolphin pair of Savatiano (6-1) and Cascadian (8-1) are both last-start G1 winners. Savatiano, a daughter of Street Cry, has been freshened since defeating Masked Crusader seven weeks ago; the conspicuously white-faced Cascadian cuts back a furlong from the Doncaster Mile two weeks ago. Cascadian will again be ridden by Jamie Kah, one of many female riders in high demand throughout Australia. Kah currently tops the Melbourne jockey standings.

As Sydney's Autumn Racing Carnival winds down, focus will soon shift north to my hometown of Brisbane. The aforementioned Nature Strip will be one of the star attractions during the TAB Stradbroke Carnival, which runs from mid-May through late-June. A pair of G1-winning mares are also slated to appear in Brisbane before retiring: star New Zealander Melody Belle will look to equal Black Caviar's total of 15 Group One wins prior to being offered at the National Broodmare Sale, while pizza-loving Nettoyer will try to earn another celebratory beverage after enjoying some pink champagne in the wake of last week's triumph in the Queen of the Turf Stakes.

The Randwick card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 9:55pm ET / 6:55pm PT) alongside cards from Gold Coast, Doomben and Kembla Grange. All races will be live-streamed in HD on the new Sky Racing World App, skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, and AmWager. Wagering is also available via these ADW platforms. Fans can get free access to live-streaming, past performances and expert picks on all races at skyracingworld.com.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Michael's vast U.S. experience includes; race calling at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Arlington and Santa Anita, calling the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network and the 2016 Breeders' Cup on the International simulcast network. Michael also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.

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If field sizes and wagering value are a beacon for horse players, two of Sydney's oldest and most prestigious races at Randwick are a prime attraction this Friday night. The Group 1 Epsom and Metropolitan Handicaps, each inaugurated in the 1860s, have drawn fields of 20 and 18 respectively. Yet, Friday's most anticipated race might be The Premiere Stakes, one of five supporting stakes on tonight's stellar card, as Nature Strip and Classique Legend clash in their final tune-up for the $15 million The Everest.

Sydney's leading trainer, Chris Waller, will saddle an incredible seven runners in the Epsom (G1). While post positions are not a huge impediment at the Randwick mile start, favoritism changed as a result of the draw and now rests with a Waller trainee who will break from the rail. Star of the Seas (4-1) finished third in last year's Epsom – one of four G1 minor placings in the past 12 months, at odds ranging from 11-1 to 30-1. The 6-year-old gelding is finally receiving the respect he deserves atop the market, and few would begrudge him a breakthrough at the elite level.

If there is such a thing as a race within a race, the fillies Probabeel (7-1) and Funstar (10-1) carry a terrific rivalry from their 3-year-old season into the Epsom as newly-turned 4-year-olds. The pair has met six times and share the honors (3-3) in head-to-head clashes. Appropriately, they will be neighbors in the starting gate (18 and 19, with Probabeel losing favoritism as a result). Probabeel and Funstar will be ridden by two of Australia's most accomplished jockeys, Kerrin McEvoy and Glen Boss respectively, who also share a 3-3 scoreline – in Melbourne Cup victories. By coincidence, they have also won the first three runnings of The Everest (McEvoy leads 2-1). Boss captured his first Epsom last year, a prize that has so far eluded McEvoy.

In Friday night's co-feature, Kerrin McEvoy will get a leg-up on the Metropolitan (G1) favorite, Mugatoo (9-5). Since arriving from England in the second half of 2019, Mugatoo has been a gradually growing force in the Australian staying ranks for respected trainer, Kris Lees. The gelded son of Henry the Navigator has won his past three races and is primed for this Group One test at 1-1/2 miles, with regular rider McEvoy declaring Mugatoo to be “the best he's been” in his Australian career. While Mugatoo appears one of the soundest investments on the card, Rondinella (15-1) is ticking over nicely and has been set for this specific target. The mare represents value beneath Rachel King, one of numerous talented female jockeys plying their trade Down Under.

McEvoy's strong book of rides extends to the final prep for The Everest, the world's richest turf race which is now just two weeks away. The Premiere Stakes (like The Everest, at six furlongs) pits a pair of prodigiously gifted sprinters against each other: Nature Strip (4/5) and Classique Legend (2-1). McEvoy rides the latter, a lightly raced gray who was third in last year's Premiere before an unlucky midfield finish in The Everest at just his seventh career start. Classique Legend's resumption from a layoff two weeks ago was breathtaking, as he unleashed a paralyzing burst once hooked into the clear by McEvoy.

Trainer Les Bridge is based at Randwick, where he was the youngest trainer when beginning his career as a 22-year-old – and is now the oldest resident trainer at 82. In the 1980s, Bridge trained the winner of a Golden Slipper (world's richest juvenile race) and a Melbourne Cup (two-mile handicap). The highly respected, veteran conditioner has no hesitation in declaring Classique Legend the best horse he's handled.

In the Premiere – as in the forthcoming The Everest – the horse to beat is Nature Strip, whose raw speed and immense talent are matched only by his enigmatic nature. In a recent “barrier trial” (training race), Nature Strip dumped rider James McDonald at the start and was ordered by stewards to trial satisfactorily before his entry for Friday's race would be accepted. Trainer Chris Waller fulfilled that obligation, but any appearance by Nature Strip creates anticipation on multiple levels: at his best, there is simply no turf sprinter on the planet capable of beating him, but his record of 24:14-3-0 shows that he's more likely to completely bomb than fill a minor placing — he is the epitome of equine “must-see TV.”

The Randwick card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 10:25 p.m. ET / 7:25 p.m. PT) alongside cards from Eagle Farm and Gold Coast. All races will be live-streamed in HD on skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, AmWager, and BetAmerica. Wagering is also available via these ADW platforms. Fans can get free access to live-streaming, past performances and expert picks on all races at skyracingworld.com.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Michael's vast U.S. experience includes: race calling at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Arlington and Santa Anita, calling the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network and the 2016 Breeders' Cup on the International simulcast network. Michael also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway

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