Sydney Spring Racing Carnival Tips & Betting advice

The Sydney Spring Racing Carnival takes place between August and October each year and showcases a number of big Group 1 races, including the George Main Stakes, Golden Rose and Epsom Handicap as well as Warwick Stakes, The Metropolitan, Spring Champion Stakes and Flight Stakes and the richest race in Australia The Everest. The Golden Eagle will be a new addition to the Spring Carnival in 2019.

Guide to the Sydney Spring Carnival

The Sydney Spring Racing Carnival is held between August and December each year with the main Group 1 action taking place at Rosehill Gardens and Royal Randwick.

It may not have the same lure as the Autumn Carnival does in Sydney when the classics are staged, or have the same high quality of the Melbourne Spring Carnival running concurrently, but there are now seven elite races as well as a number of other Group races taking place during the carnival and some of the equine stars gracing the turf.

Lead up and prep races are held during the early weeks of the carnival, including the Group 3 Missile Stakes, and the upgraded Group 1 Warwick Stakes in now the

first Group 1 of the Sydney Spring Racing Carnival in late August.

The $1 million Golden Rose (1200m) at Rosehill takes place in mid-September. A fairly new race, it is an early-season chance to shine for three-year-olds having previously been staged in March during the Sydney Autumn Carnival and pits some of the stars of the last season together. Watch out as the champions of the previous seasons lock horns.

Randwick plays host to the Group 1 George Main Stakes the following week on an afternoon of high-class Group racing action. The George Main Stakes is a 1600m weight-for-age contest which was won in consecutive years by champion horse Kingston Town in 1981 and 1982 and has a glittering roll of honour of winners that now includes Winx.

One of the most prestigious days of the carnival is Epsom Handicap Day or Super Saturday at Randwick on the first Saturday of October, with three Group 1 races scheduled. It was previously four elite races on the same afternoon, but the Spring Champion Stakes was moved back a week to headline its own day.

The Epsom Handicap (1600m), won amongst others by Super Impose who recorded back-to-back successes in 1990 and 1991, is the biggest of the races and is ably backed up by The Metropolitan (2400m) with both handicap contests. Three-year-old fillies, meantime, get the chance to shine in the Group 1 Flight Stakes over 1600m.

The Spring Champion Stakes, a 2000m contest for the best three-year-olds is traditionally the last of the Group 1s in Sydney, but the big races don’t stop with the newly-created The Everest, a race in which places are purchased and which should see some of the very best throughbreds go head-to-head at Randwick, and The Golden Eagle added to bring even more quality to the action.

Where to bet on the Sydney Spring Carnival

Bookmakers Ladbrokes, Neds and Sportsbet offer some of the best odds on racing in Sydney throughout the year. Or take advantage of the top 5 bookmaker deals below.