2026 Australian Guineas Contenders

The race has produced a host of notable winners, including eight-time Group 1 winner Mahogany, brilliant sprinter-miler Apache Cat, and 2013 Cox Plate winner Shamus Award, among others.

Trainers Colin Hayes, Lee Freedman and Mick Price have each prepared three winners of the three-year-old feature. Hayes produced star Sir Tristram colt Zabeel in 1990, and Zabeel later sired three Australian Guineas winners himself – Mouawad (1997), Dignity Dancer (1999) and Reset (2004) – making him the only former winner to achieve that feat.

Damien Oliver holds the riding honours with three victories, two of them for Lee Freedman, including Golden Slipper-winning colt Flying Spur, who carried the Arrowfield Stud colours to success in 1996. Champion filly Miss Finland also sported the gold and black diamonds silks when she took out the race in 2007, having already won the STC Golden Slipper, MRC Thousand Guineas and VRC Oaks.

Six fillies have lowered the colours of the colts and geldings in the race’s 40-year history, most recently the Ken and Bev Kelso-trained star Legarto, who crossed the Tasman to score in a rugged, hard-fought edition.

The Group 3 C.S. Hayes Stakes has long been a traditional lead-up for colts and geldings, run on Black Caviar Lightning Race Day, with 17 Australian Guineas winners emerging from the race and eight completing the double.

The Group 2 Autumn Stakes is the next most successful pathway, producing ten Australian Guineas winners, five of which have completed the double. One of them was Reset, famously defeated future international Group 1 winner Starcraft in the 2004 Australian Guineas before adding the C.F. Orr Stakes, after which injury prompted his retirement to stud at Darley, where he stood until 2018.

Which three-year-old has what it takes to claim Group 1 honours and etch their name in the Flemington history books.

We assess some of the leading contenders heading towards this year’s Australian Guineas.

Since joining the Ciaron Maher stable, Observer has gone from strength to strength. His Howden Victoria Derby triumph was breathtaking, he strode to the front and dictated terms throughout, capping a landmark day for jockey Mark Zahra, who notched his fourth consecutive victory on the card and second Group 1 after Tentyris’s Coolmore Stud Stakes win. Observer has resumed this campaign right where he left off, delivering a professional first-up performance in the Group 2 Autumn Stakes (1400m). While ten previous Australian Guineas winners have come through the Autumn Stakes, only Southport Tycoon (2024) has done so recently, the last before that was Heart Of Dreams in 2009.

Sixties, a son of 2016 Blue Diamond winner, Flying Artie, took a few starts to break his maiden but did so in style on a heavy Kensington track at Randwick, scoring by seven lengths. He quickly progressed to stakes grade, winning the Group 3 Ming Dynasty Stakes (1400m) over 2025 Caulfield Guineas victor Autumn Boy, before finishing fifth in the Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) behind stablemate Beiwacht. After excelling mostly on rain‑affected going, this preparation he’s proven his versatility with two strong victories, including a dominant C S Hayes Stakes (1400m) win despite covering extra ground. With seven of the past eleven Australian Guineas winners emerging from the C S Hayes Stakes, this promising Chris Waller-trained colt shapes as a major player in this year’s edition.

Planet Red impressed with a powerful late surge in the Autumn Stakes (1400m), finishing just a length and a quarter behind Derby winner Observer and earning high praise from jockey Jamie Melham. Mick Price, who trains in partnership with Michael Kent Jnr, knows what it takes to win the Australian Guineas, having done so three times with Light Fantastic (2008), Heart Of Dreams (2009) and Grunt (2018). The emerging gelding’s rivalry with Observer sits at one win apiece, with Planet Red finishing runner-up to Autumn Boy in last year’s Caulfield Guineas (1600m). Although he is yet to race at Flemington, he shapes as the type to relish the spacious track and unleash his trademark finishing burst.

Peter Moody hasn’t saddled a runner in the Australian Guineas since Sweet And Speedy contested the 2015 edition, finishing behind Wandjina. His closest brush with victory in the Flemington Group 1 came in 2010 when classy filly Set For Fame finished runner-up to Rock Classic. Now training in partnership with Katherine Coleman, Moody will rely on Victorious Spirit as the stable’s sole representative this year. Stablemate Sheza Alibi, who was a brilliant winner of the Group 2 Angus Armanasco Stakes (1400m), will bypass the Guineas. A long-striding son of Ghaiyyath, Victorious Spirit impressed last start when slicing through the field to finish strongly in the Group 2 Autumn Stakes (1400m), indicating the spacious Flemington track and rise to the mile will play to his strengths. His lone career victory came in a Sale maiden, where he defeated Getta Good Feeling, the Wakeful Stakes winner and current Crown Oaks favourite, who resumes in the $1 million Inglis Sprint (1200m).