VRC Winter Series Heats and Finals VRC Winter Series Heats and Finals

This series for two-year-olds was introduced to showcase young up-and-coming sprinters and provide an opportunity to gain valuable experience up the unique Flemington straight.

The intention is to contribute to the development of the next generation of Australia’s world-class sprinting talents.

The series takes in heats at Flemington, Caulfield and Sandown, and the $150,000 final is held over the famous Flemington Straight Six course. Former winners include Sense Of Honor, Jagar, Thron Bone and Stellar Olympus.

This series targets later-developing two-year-olds who are suited to the longer distance of 1600m of the Listed Taj Rossi Series Final and is named after Taj Rossi, the outstanding performer trained by the legendary Bart Cummings.

When the son of Matrice was bought by Cummings in 1972 at the Adelaide Yearling Sales for $18,000 (top price) and then sold to prominent owner Victor Peters, neither could envisage the heights to which Taj Rossi would rise in his short but spectacular career.

Beginning his racing as a two-year-old in Adelaide, his first two wins came in moderate company in the winter of 1973 at Flemington. In the spring he ran second at Moonee Valley. Then followed a dazzling sequence in which he won six of his next seven starts including the Ascot Vale Stakes, Moonee Valley Stakes, W.S. Cox Plate, VRC Derby, George Adams Handicap and Sandown Guineas.

Said Bart Cummings: “All along I have said that he is one of the best, if not the best, three-year-old that Australia has known in the last 50 years”. This magnificent group of victories secured for Taj Rossi the award of Racehorse of the Year for the 1973-74 season.

Cummings had great respect for Taj Rossi, who was retired to stud as a four-year-old, siring among others, Taj Eclipse, the winner of the 1983 VRC Oaks and yes, owned by Mr and Mrs Victor Peters.

Former winners include Cherry Tortoni, Royalzel, Quang Tri and Dolphin Skin.

This series is aimed at three-year-old sprinters, with heats over distances between 1000m-1200m, conducted at Flemington and Caulfield.

It is named in honour of Sir Alexander (Alec) Reid Creswick (1912–83), who was a member of the VRC Committee for 24 years, from 1959 until his death in 1983, serving as Chairman 1969–77. His great-great-grandfather Henry Creswick had been a foundation committee member of the Victoria Racing Club in 1864.

Sir Alec was a fine horseman himself—Master of the Melbourne Hunt Club, a leading polo player, head of the Equestrian Federation of Australia and a practical supporter of successful Australian participation in successive Olympic Games. He bred and raced many fine racehorses, including champion filly True Course.

The final, the $175,000 Listed A.R. Creswick Stakes (1200m), is run on Flemington Finals Race Day over 1200 metres, with an honour roll including Nature Strip, Gytrash, Passive Aggressive and Renosu.

This series is for three-year-old milers with heats over distances of 1300m to 1600m held across Melbourne at Flemington, Caulfield and Sandown.

The final is a $150,000 quality handicap for three-year-olds over 1600m on Flemington Finals Race Day. Former winners include Walking Flying, Seiners Express, Arran Bay and Golden Path.

Formerly the All-Victorian Sprinters Series, the series was renamed in honour of five-time Group 1 winning sprinter, Santa Ana Lane, trained by Anthony Freedman.

Santa Ana Lane amassed more than $8 million in prizemoney, winning Group 1 races in NSW, SA, QLD and the Group 1 VRC Sprint Classic (1200m) here at Flemington.

Santa Ana Lane was retired a happy and healthy eight-year-old and now resides at Living Legends, located at Oaklands Junction.

This six-heat series attracts the fastest winter sprinters and features three heats up the famous Flemington straight with heats also conducted at Caulfield and Swan Hill, before culminating in the $175,000 Listed Santa Ana Lane Sprint Series Final.

Former winners of the series include Malibu Style, Lord Von Costa, The Astrologist, Sirius Suspect and Mnementh who fulfilled Mitch Beer’s childhood dream of training a winner at Flemington having grown up in Essendon.

This series for fillies and mares is named in honour of Leilani, another Bart Cummings-trained champion who left an indelible print on Australian racing.

She won the 1974 AJC Oaks before transforming into a dominant four-year-old race mare, winning the Turnbull Stakes, Toorak Handicap, Caulfield Cup and Mackinnon Stakes in the spring of 1974, before running a gallant second to stablemate Think Big in the Melbourne Cup.

In the ensuing autumn, Leilani won the Orr Stakes, St George Stakes and Australian Cup, among other races. Winning 14 of her 28 starts, Leilani was a horse that Cummings was very fond of; so much so that he named his Sydney stables Leilani Lodge in her honour.

Although Cummings was not one to talk much about his horses – especially those in the past as he preferred to look forward – it is well-known that he had huge respect for Leilani, known as a great horse with great fight.

Leilani was raced by prominent Melburnians, The Hon Andrew and Mrs Susan Peacock as well as Mr Ian and Mrs Liz Rice.

Former winners Rivette Series include Cordilla, Foxy Frida, My Yankee Girl and Spanish Reef.

Previous winners of the Leilani Series include Music Bay, Lindhout, Megamea and Seonee.

*The Leilani Series, and the former three-year-old fillies series, the Rivette Series, were combined in 2023 with heats for fillies and mares to be conducted at Flemington, Caulfield and Mornington.

This series for open milers takes in heats at Sandown, Swan Hill, Caulfield and Flemington, attracting the most in-form gallopers over distances from 1400m-1600m and bringing them together for the $200,000 Listed VRC-CRV Winter Championship Series Final (1600m) on Flemington Finals Race Day.

Former winners include Sircconi, Mongolian Marshal, Tuvalu and Riddle Me That.

Introduced in 2019, the Mahogany Challenge was created to showcase developing stayers in Victoria. The series is for three-year-olds and takes in heats at Flemington and Sandown, before culminating in the final on Flemington Finals Race Day.

The series is named after the mighty Mahogany, who was raced jointly by Hall of Fame owner Lloyd Williams and businessman Kerry Packer, and trained by the all-conquering Lee Freedman.

He won eight Group 1 races, including both the VRC Derby and Australian Derby as a three-year-old, and was named the Australian Racehorse of the Year for the 1993-94 season.

Known as one of the most versatile gallopers in Australian racing history, Mahogany won four of his eight Group 1s at Flemington, including the Lightning Stakes in 1995 and 1997.

Former winners include Persan, Token Spirit, Calmsir and First Immortal.

This series is for open stayers and is named in honour of revered author and poet Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson, who had a lifelong love affair with horses. Polo matches, picnic races and riding his own pony were all part of his early life in country NSW.

After moving to Sydney and qualifying as a solicitor, he began submitting poetry to The Bulletin under the pseudonym “The Banjo”, the name of a racehorse his father had owned.

His various careers included jockey, horse trainer in the Middle East during WWI and racing journal editor, but it’s his wonderful bush ballads and poems – such as The Man From Snowy River – that truly reflect his equine passion.

In 1886 he published A Dream of the Melbourne Cup; the first of many racing ballads, including Old Pardon, the Son of Reprieve, The Open Steeplechase, Rio Grande’s Last Race and The Wargilah Handicap.

Former winners include Lord Belvedere, Grand Promenade, Monbaher and Mimi’s Award.