Verry Elleegant Stakes 2025 Tips - Via Sistina set to atone

Jackson Oldham

Editor

Last updated: Tue 18 Feb 2025 04:40

Jackson Oldham 18 Feb 2025

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2025 Verry Elleegant Stakes to be held on March 1st at Randwick Racecourse.
Fangirl won the recent Apollo Stakes, showing impressive performance.
Via Sistina expected to excel as race distance increases, favoured to win.

Expired

Via Sistina (Getty Images)

The 2025 Verry Elleegant Stakes (1600m), formerly known as the Chipping Norton Stakes will be held on Saturday 1st March at Randwick Racecourse. It is set to be contested by some of the best horses in the country, headlined by Via Sistina, Ceolwolf and Fangirl.

All three of the headline horses in betting contested the Apollo Stakes on Saturday, February 15 and it was Fangirl who took out the top prize, beating stablemate Lindermann, with Via Sistina in third and Ceolwolf, who finished back in fourth.

Fangirl had things run to suit on that occasion first-up in the Apollo, as the slow speed set-up by Lindermann (9.6L slower than G1 average to the 600m) allowed her to show her superior turn of foot, as both Via Sistina and Ceolwolf were involved in a bumping duel for a portion of the straight.

Looking at the closing sectionals, Via Sistina was the fastest horse home, running the fastest last 100m and 200m of the race and the fourth-fastest last 100m and 200m of the meeting on that day.

Fangirl had the advantage in a slowly run 1400m but as the distances get longer and we get out to the 1600m and beyond, her stablemate Via Sistina should have the edge and the mile could well be the sweet spot where it is also a fraction too short to see the absolute best of Ceolwolf.

It is unfair to look at the winless second-up record of Via Sistina in Australia when assessing her chances in the Verry Elleegant Stakes, as the latest run was her only failure, where she hit a very heavy Flemington track and clearly didn’t handle it and prior she ran as good as she possibly could behind Pride Of Jenni in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, running her last 600m in 33.6s.

As long as the rain doesn’t arrive, which looks like a fair bet, as the long range two-week forecast says only 5-10mm for the seven days leading into the race, then Via Sistina should be very hard to beat in the 2025 Verry Elleegant Stakes.