MEMSIE STAKES – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
$400,000 1400m WFA
HISTORY: First run in 1899 at one mile (1600m). Given Group One status in 2013
NOTABLE WINNERS: Phar Lap won in 1931 at nine furlongs (1800m); Makybe Diva resumed to win in 2005 and four starts later won her third Melbourne Cup
TALKING POINTS:
* This year’s field has six Group One winners – Happy Trails, Boban, Moment Of Change, Super Cool, Dissident and Silent Achiever
* There is only one last-start winner, the Gai-Waterhouse-trained Sweet Idea. Waterhouse hasn’t won a Memsie but she used the race to launch Fiorente’s successful Melbourne Cup campaign last year
* Early favourites Boban and Messene have been switched from Sydney in search of firmer footing
* Boban, who has attracted the most early support, chasing his third Group One win after 2013 Epsom Handicap and Emirates Stakes
* Major Cups contenders: Super Cool, Sertorius, Puissance De Lune, Silent Achiever
* Silent Achiever an early Cox Plate favourite
* Since 2002, six Cox Plate winners ran in the Memsie, including So You Think in 2010