Tuesday, 22 April 2025: A ratings-based look at the Champagne & All Aged Stakes.

JIMMYSSTAR winning the SCHWEPPES ALL AGED STAKES at Randwick in Australia.

Champagne Stakes – Nepotism 

Nepotism was a visually impressive winner of the Champagne Stakes, coming from well back off a strong tempo to get up on the line.

He's run to a RAS rating of 114, up from 108 and 110 in his first two starts. The pace was on and he's come from last.

A rating of 114 is on the lower side of Champagne winners, without being terrible, especially in recent years.

The list is topped by outstanding triple crown winner Pierro who ran to 125 in his Champagne win. A rating of 114 equals King's Legacy in 2020, is one pound ahead of Capitvant in 2021, and four pounds ahead of Militarize in 2023. Broadsiding ran to 116 last year, as did Castelvecchio in 2019 and She's Extreme in 2022.

The table below shows the last six Champagne winners, the number of races they won thereafter, and their best rating after the Champagne win.

Horse	Champagne Rating	Record (post-Champagne)	Peak rating (post-Champagne)
Broadsiding	116	10 starts, 5 wins (3x G1)	118 (+2)
Militarize	110	11 starts, 1 win (G1)	118 (+8)
She's Extreme	116	5 starts, 1 win (G1)	111 (-5)
Captivant	113	9 starts, 0 wins	119 (+6)
King's Legacy	114	6 starts, 0 wins	110 (-4)
Castelvecchio	116	8 starts, 1 win (G1)	122 (+6)

The recently retired Broadsiding holding up the average with five wins, while Castelvecchio did post his peak of 122 when second in the Cox Plate, and Militarize did run third in a Doncaster with 54kg as a three-year-old.

It'll be interesting to see where Nepotism fits in with some of these horses and their records. In his favour, he's done all of this in his first three starts and maiden campaign, so there's every chance he can continue to improve.

As a whole, the two-year-old ranks haven't rated highly and it wouldn't surprise if we simply haven't seen the top three-year-olds debut yet.

NEPOTISM winning the MO?T & CHANDON CHAMPAGNE STAKES

 

All Aged Stakes- Jimmysstar 

Jimmy relished the rise to 1400m to take the All Aged Stakes, his second Group 1 win of the preparation.

The tempo was just fair here but Ethan Brown gave him an outstanding weaving ride, the difference being he was able to get him to land midfield rather than out the back.

He's run to 122 on the RAS ratings, which edges his Oakleigh Plate win by one pound, although I'd argue the Oakleigh Plate's fantastic time figure almost gives that the edge.

122 is basically in line with recent All Aged winners, a list topped by the great mare Sunline who ran to her peak of 129 in both 2000 and 2002. Hay List also ran to 129 when finding a race without the greatest mare Black Caviar in 2011.

Magic Time was well down the list at 119 last year while Giga Kick went 126 in his win the year prior.

At 122, Jimmy matches Cascadian in 2022 and English in 2016, and slightly edges Pierata (121) and Kolding (120) in other recent years.

While Jimmy won the Oakleigh Plate over 1100m, he got an ideal pace scenario for him, whereas here, over 1400m, a slower tempo is fine.

Naturally, The Everest has been thrown up as the Spring target, where he could run into Ka Ying Rising.

At 122, Jimmy is at least eight pounds off the Hong Kong champ who holds a RAS peak of 130, and a Timeform peak of 132.

I think 1400m is probably Jimmy's best trip, but 1400m targets are a bit tricky, usually earlier in the campaign. That said, the revamp of the Melbourne Spring sees the Group 1 C F Orr Stakes (1400m) at the back end of the carnival now.

If he's going to go The Everest route, which seems very likely, I'd be going in second-up, and then really looking to come back to Caulfield for the Orr.