Wodeton and Tempted, second and third in the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes in March, meet for the second time this month in Friday’s Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes for Southern Hemisphere 3-year-olds at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney, Australia.
The $657,500 Golden Rose Stakes will provide clues as to which of the nine runners in the field will play prominent roles in major stakes in coming months.
Tempted, the lone filly in a field of nine in the Golden Rose Stakes, won her first start of the current Australian season in the Group 2 Run to the Rose Stakes at six furlongs at Rosehill Gardens on Sept. 13. Skyhook, who starts in the Golden Rose, and Wodeton, were third and fourth in that field.
Wodeton finished a head behind Marhoona in the $3.16 million Golden Slipper, the world's richest race for 2-year-olds, at six furlongs at Rosehill Gardens. Marhoona was later named champion 2-year-old for the 2024-2025 Australian season.
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Skyhook, Tempted, and Wodeton tend to run from off the pace, as does the lightly raced colt Autumn Boy, who will start in his first Group 1 in the Golden Rose. Autumn Boy has won 2 of 3 starts and was beaten for the first time when second by a half-length to Golden Rose runner Sixties in the Group 3 Ming Dynasty Stakes at seven furlongs at Rosehill Gardens on Sept. 13.
Chris Waller trains Autumn Boy, Sixties, Wodeton, and Beiwacht, who was second in the Run to the Rose Stakes. Ciaron Maher trains Tempted.
Sixties won his first stakes in the Ming Dynasty by leading throughout and could be a danger from the front against a better field in the Golden Rose Stakes.
The 10-race Rosehill Gardens program begins at 9:55 p.m. Eastern.
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