Tuesday, 8 April 2025: A look at the ratings from a big first day at The Championships
 | | AELIANA winning the ATC AUSTRALIAN DERBY at Randwick in Australia. | |
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The numbers are in for the first day of The Championships at Randwick and here's a look at how the Group 1 winners rated.
ATC Australian DerbyThe ATC Australian Derby was not the richest race on Saturday's card, but the $2 million contest produced the performance that caused most jaws to drop.
Aeliana smacked her rivals by 5-1/4-lengths in the 2400m event, which she covered in a time of 2:29.8, earning her a mark of 119 on the Racing And Sports rating scale.
The daughter of Castelvecchio's winning margin was the greatest since her grandsire, Dundeel, put six lengths on his rivals in 2013 in a performance that earned him a rating of 123.
The only other horse to post a bigger Derby figure than Aeliana since Dundeel was Mongolian Khan, who ran 120 in his 2015 success.
The Chris Waller-trained star is just the fifth filly to win the Derby since it moved to autumn in 1979 and while RAS ratings have not been applied to the first two – Rose Of Kingston (1982), Tristarc (1985) – Research ran 117 in 1989, while 2011 Shamrocker was also assessed at 119.
The victory thrust Aeliana's name forward as a contender for this season's Champion 3YO Filly award and while it would be unlikely she wins that gong with just one Group 1 win, she's in the box seat to be the highest-rated filly of the year.
Her stablemate Lady Shenandoah, a three-time Group 1 winner, owns a peak rating of 117, while star Victorian filly Treasurethe Moment is at 115.
The latter, of course, gets the chance to elevate in this weekend's Group 1 ATC Australian Oaks.
Doncaster MileAs impressive as Aeliana was, Stefi Magnetica edged her out as the highest-rated runner of the day with her second career Group 1 win in the $4m 'mile'.
The Bjorn Baker-trained four-year-old ran 1:35.28 in her thrilling win over Royal Patronage and Encap, earning a RAS rating of 120, which was the same mark from her win in last year's Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m).
They are not peak figures, though, with her career-best coming in last year's Group 1 Champions Mile (1600m), when she rated 122 with her fourth placing in the race won by Mr Brightside.
Stefi Magnetica's mark was well up on the previous mare to win the Doncaster – Nettoyer, who ran 115 in 2020 – and equal to 2011 winner Sacred Choice, but down on the other mares to win the Doncaster this century.
There's no shame in that, mind you, with Sunline (129), Winx (128), More Joyous (124) and Private Steer (122) the other mares to win since 2000.
T J Smith StakesBriasa graduated to the top echelon of Australia's sprinters with his win in the $3m race over 1200m, earning a rating of 123 for his win in 1:08.57.
That was well up on his previous best of 113, but down on the race's recent average.
Winners since 2008 include Black Caviar, who won her two in 135 and 136, Nature Strip, who ran at least 129 in each of his three wins, the same mark Lankan Rupee ran to in his win, while Apache Cat, Takeover Target and Santa Ana Lane all won in 128.
Since 2008, the average rating of T J Smith winners is 125.7.
It would be foolish to think the four-year-old grey won't graduate beyond 123 before his career's out, given he has had just nine starts, and he might get the chance to improve it Saturday week's 1400m All Aged Stakes, where a clash with Joliestar, Jimmysstar and Broadsiding looms.
ATC Sires'Victorian colt Vinrock became the first horse in 44 years to complete the VRC Sires' Produce Stakes/ATC Sires' double, earning a mark of 114 for his win in an incident-packed edition of the $1m event in 1:22.82.
It doesn't rank among the higher-rating editions of the 1400m event for two-year-olds with Anamoe (120) the recent benchmark and El Dorado Dreaming, who won the 2018 edition in 112, the previous to win in a sub-115 figure.
But Vinrock, the first son of I Am Invincible to win a Group 1 race in Australia at two, won it at just his third start, the first to achieve that feat since Excites in 2006 with the mighty Octagonal the only other to have done so in the past 30 years.
