Underwood Stakes 2023 Barrier Draw & Final Field
- The barrier draw has been completed for the Underwood Stakes
- The 2023 edition will be run on September 23
- This Group 1 headlines a big Saturday card from Caulfield
- Full field is included below

Duais has drawn barrier seven in the Underwood Stakes. (Getty)
With two brilliant wins over the Brisbane Winter Carnival, which includes a soft victory as favourite in a strong edition of the Q22, Without A Fight (barrier 11) was spelled with the 2023 Melbourne Spring Carnival majors in mind.
A three-time Stakes winner in Europe who joined the Anthony & Sam Freedman stable after a big defeat in the 2022 Melbourne Cup, the son of Teofilo features highly in the Caulfield Cup markets, which is the race he's reportedly being targeted at.
Although it wasn't on a seven-day turnaround, Alligator Blood (barrier 8) did win this race last year following a runner-up finish in the Makybe Diva Stakes and he was once again second in that Flemington feature.
Champion jockey Damien Oliver stays aboard the five-time Group 1 winner.
Attrition (barrier 15) is bursting to breakthrough this campaign and he may have just been a run short when missing behind Pinstriped second-up in the Feehan Stakes.
Before that, he was brave when covering ground for fifth in a PB Lawrence Stakes, which was taken out by Mr Brightside.
Lindermann (barrier 3) is a Chris Waller-trained four-year-old that bounced back with a fourth in the Chelmsford Stakes last start after a forgivable return failure in the Winx Stakes.
He finished second behind Communist third-up in the autumn and did beat Pericles two weeks later in the Rosehill Guineas, so he could be close to a peak run here.
Soulcombe (barrier 5) is another leading contender from the Chris Waller yard and the son of Frankel kicked off his spring campaign in style with a first-up win in the Heatherlie Stakes on September 2.
Craig Williams takes the ride on Duais (barrier 7), an Edward Cummings-trained mare who is a little while between drinks, although she has a decent third-up record and that includes an Australian Cup victory last year.
Ciaron Maher & David Eustace have accepted with Smokin' Romans (barrier 14), Right You Are (barrier 2) and Duke De Sessa (barrier 16), while Grahame Begg has dual representation via Nonconformist (barrier 6) and Lunar Flare (barrier 12).
16 runners (plus one emergency) make up the final field for the 2023 Underwood Stakes.
Underwood Stakes 2023 Barriers & Final Field
No. | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Barrier | Weight |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Vow And Declare | Danny O'Brien | Billy Egan | 4 | 59kg |
2 | Alligator Blood | Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | Damien Oliver | 8 | 59kg |
3 | Mo'unga (NZ) | Annabel Neasham | Jamie Mott | 17 | 59kg |
4 | Nonconformist | Grahame Begg | Harry Coffey | 6 | 59kg |
5 | Tuvalu | Lindsey Smith | Jamie Kah | 13 | 59kg |
6 | Smokin' Romans (NZ) | Ciaron Maher & David Eustace | John Allen | 14 | 59kg |
7 | Alenquer (FR) | Michael Moroney | Declan Bates | 10 | 59kg |
8 | Without A Fight (IRE) | Anthony & Sam Freedman | Mark Zahra | 11 | 59kg |
9 | Right You Are | Ciaron Maher & David Eustace | Ben Allen | 2 | 59kg |
10 | Soulcombe (GB) | Chris Waller | Blake Shinn | 5 | 59kg |
11 | Duke De Sessa (IRE) | Ciaron Maher & David Eustace | Ethan Brown | 16 | 59kg |
12 | Bank Maur | Richard Laming | Jye McNeil | 1 | 58kg |
13 | Lindermann | Chris Waller | Hugh Bowman | 3 | 58kg |
14 | Attrition | Mitchell Freedman | Ben Melham | 15 | 58kg |
15 | Duais | Edward Cummings | Craig Williams | 7 | 57kg |
16 | Lunar Flare | Grahame Begg | Michael Dee | 12 | 57kg |
17e | Alaskan God | Daniel Morton | TBA | 9 | 59kg |
Underwood Stakes Winners
The Underwood Stakes was first run and won back in 1924 by Whittier, who ended up defending that title a year later.
An 1800m feature run under weight-for-age conditions, The Underwood Stakes gives the winner a ballot-exempt route into the Caulfield Cup.
With Phar Lap, Ajax. Bonecrusher, Octagonal and So You Think among the champions to have won this event, The Underwood Stakes is a big race in itself, along with being a key lead-up event for the spring majors.
Russian Camelot (2020), Zaaki (2021) and Alligator Blood (2022) have won the last three editions of the Underwood Stakes.
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