The $1million Group I SAJC Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) at weight for age at Morphettville this Saturday will see a capacity field of 15 after scratchings, headlined by the defending champion Charm Stone ( I Am Invincible), G1 Lightning Stakes heroine Skybird (Exosphere), Benedetta (Hellbent) already a G1 Goodwood winner at this track/distance, and the Royal Ascot bound Generosity ( Divine Prophet).
Click here to read more about the legend of Robert Sangster after whom this race is named.
The elite level performers don't end there! Star Perth galloper Super Smink (Super One) lines up for the Karrakatta winning Morton stable with proven G1 performers Stretan Angel (Harry Angel) and Ameena (Tassort)
Who are the fillies taking on their older sisters this year?
The gallant grey My Gladiola ( I Am Invincible) is all quality while exciting up and comer Point Barrow (Blue Point), stablemate to Ameena, is the race favourite at time of writing.
There have been some big upsets, in fact the recent record of favourites in this race is abysmal!
Climbing Star won at 25/1 in 2024.
Bella Nipotina was an unbackable favourite in 2023 and finished out of the placings on the soft track as 12/1 Tavistock filly Ruthless Dame romped to victory for Maher / Eustace.
Snapdancer was a 16/1 shot in 2022 (Maher and Eustace again!) having run 15th in the Newmarket at her previous start and beat her stablemate, the raging favourite Away Game by one and a half lengths.
In 2021 hot favourite Mizzy was down the track, in 2020 it was 40/1 pop Bella Vella who got the chockies while faves Sunlight and Away Game were nowhere.
Star mare Viddora got beat by 14/1 chance Secret Agenda in 2017 and raging fave English was sixth.
Miss Andretti got rolled in 2008 by Juste Momente at 20/1 with 50/1 bolter Zipanese beating her home
In fact, the last favourite to win the Robert Sangster Stakes was the memorable flyer Miracles Of Life In 2015 a decade ago, so let us not hesitate to look for a bit of value!
In 2026 the Mick Price & Michael Kent Jnr trained Charm Stone ( Vinnie) is attempting to create history and become the first horse to win multiple editions of the race.
It's a big ask, numerous top mares have tried and fallen short. But she's in the right stable. Mick Price is the “winningest” Robert Sangster Stakes trainer having put the polish on Spirit Of Love back in 1998, French Bid (2004), Bel Mer (2009), Secret Agenda (2017) and Charm Stone with Michael Kent Jnr.
Who else is back for another crack?
Last year's runner up Ameena (Tassort) could not find that form again in the spring, and returns as a four year old now.
Stretan Angel ( Harry Angel) was a well beaten ninth last year.
Benedetta ( Hellbent) was a close third to Climbing Star in 2024, then won The Goodwood.
Fillies have a decent record - since Rostova's victory in 2010, Shoals, Instant Celebrity and Ruthless Dame have joined her as winners, while Ameena, Learning To Fly, Lyre, I Am A Star, Gregers, Angelic Light and Sister Madly all placed.
Villa Verde, the dam of 2026 filly contender My Gladiola was fourth as a three year old in this race to Driefontein in 2014.
The forecast is for beautiful weather and a good track, that's what we like to see.
Top Pick: GENEROSITY
What a gem is Generosity. From humble beginnings as a $9,000 MM Gold Coast yearling buy for her original trainer Simon Miller from the draft of Glastonbury Farms, the now five year old daughter of Divine Prophet, who was bred by Aquis, is poised to accompany supermare Joliestar to take on Royal Ascot for the Waller stable and fly the Aussie flag!
She has also ascended to the top of the tree as a broodmare prospect. Generosity holds an entry for the prestigious Inglis Chairman's Sale in May as Lot 60. Her Robert Sangster rivals Benedetta, Stretan Angel and Ahha Ahha will also be offered in a star studded catalogue of elite breeding prospects at this world-renowned sale.
Transferred to Waller after a brilliant and unlucky fifth in the G1 Goodwood at this course and distance last year, Generosity showed above average ability from day one, but just failed to snare a stakes race at three years in Perth, being placed in both the G3 Champion Fillies at 1600m and the Listed Lee Steere Classic at 1400m. Nevertheless she racked up wins against good company over shorter trips, signalling her future as a sprinter.
At four she claimed her first big scalp when soundly beating the Quokka hero Jokers Grin over 1200m in November, and was only narrowly defeated by him after racing wide throughout in the Quokka itself in April, before her rip-roaring Goodwood run.
The daughter of Divine Prophet was purchased mid-2025 by B2B Thoroughbreds, and scored her first win for her new connections when she beat Golden Slipper heroine Marhoona first up this prep in the G2 Challenge Stakes, following that up with a close fifth to the same filly in a bunched finish to the G1 Galaxy.
She's busting for a fast run 1200m now and has drawn the rail. Jockey J Mac can take a sit behind the pace, spending no petrol, and let loose the mare's big turn of foot at the right moment to steer her to what would be a well deserved G1 win.
Generosity has the impressive record of 27 starts for 5 wins, 12 placings and $1,246,415 in earnings.
She is the third winner and second stakes winner from four to race from the Casino Prince mare Orabelle, a three quarter sister to the Listed winner All Too Royal and a half-sister to G3 winner Bel Merci.
Also the dam of Annabelle and Rob Archibald’s multiple stakes winner Midnight In Tokyo, the multiple Listed winner Orabelle is herself a daughter of the G1 Robert Sangster Stakes winner Bel Mer (Bel Esprit) who also placed in the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.
Orabelle's current 2yo is an unraced Russian Revolution filly named Bella Tatiana in the stable of Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr.
Orabelle’s latest offering, a colt by Russian Revolution was sold earlier this year at the Magic Millions yearling sale to Stable 88 for $130,000 from the draft of Newgate Farm.
She has not had a foal since, having missed to Farnan and Stay Inside in the last two seasons.
Generosity's third dam is Drop Anchor, a Listed winning short course sprinter by Roberto's remarkable son At Talaq.
The 1986 Melbourne Cup winner who also won a G1 CF Orr Stakes has long been an influence for speed through his daughters.
Drop Anchor produced 13 foals all of whom raced, and 11 were winners. These included Bel Mer's full brother, a stakes winner in Singapore and full sister Found The One, who produced multiple Group winning mare Sylvia's Mother to Snitzel.
Generosity's fourth dam Marine Park was by the great Sir Dapper out of the Bletchingly mare French Finale and won the VRC Straight Six at Flemington. French Finale was a full sister to the dam of the lightning fast, dual G1 winning sprinter Clay Hero
This classy running family descends from the stakes winning French-bred mare Palormia, exported to NZ in 1951. Her G1 winning sire Davout was a son of the more rarely seen Arc winner Parth by champion Polymelus (sire of Phalaris), and her grand dam was the high class performer Belle Mere daughter of the legendary matriarch Cinna - also by Polymelus, and linebred to her own ancestress Quiver, the taproot mare of family 3-e.
Generosity is bred
Blue Hen Rolls 5f x 4m sex balanced
Danehill 4m x 4m
The aforementioned Polymelus is carried x 2 in Polynesian, sire of Native Dancer - which makes the double of Danehill, inbred to his finest daughter Natalma, super powerful!
Ditto with Blue Hen Rolls - she is Native Dancer 4m x 5f while Choisir's sire Danehill Dancer amps it up with a 5f,5f x 4m,5m pattern.
Generosity's family (3-e) is allied to that of the Argentinian champion Forli (3-b) who is carried twice by Divine Prophet's dam - via his breed shaping daughter Special, and his son Imperial March. In fact, Divine Prophet's damlines are crammed full of various lines of the 3 families.
Multiple sex balanced lines to Vain are also a key factor in Generosity's pedigree, as is linebreeding to Silly Season via his sons Lunchtime and Adios, and to a close relative of Adios in Grey Sovereign.
My Babu, Sir Ivor and Biscay are sex balanced.
Generosity is the best of six stakes winners for the G1 Caulfield Guineas hero Divine Prophet who stands at Highview Stud in NZ having begun his career at Aquis Farms.
The full brother to dual G1 placed, now champion NZ sire Proisir, Divine Prophet was the more speedy and precocious of the two and many would have assumed he was the better stallion prospect.
They are sons of the legendary sprinter and emerging sire of sires Choisir from the Encosta De Lago mare Prophet Jewel, from one of the greatest of all Kiwi families which descends from the imported Sunbride (Tai Yang) , the matriarch of Te Parae Stud.
Sunbride now stands proudly alongside iconic producers Eight Carat and Eulogy in the NZ Racing Hall Of Fame.
Her descendant Proisir leapt out of the blocks with a bevy of G1 performers for Rich Hill Stud ( he currently has six G1 winners), They were headed by the champion Legarto, who counts the G1 Australian Guineas among her five majors and retired from her brilliant career on a high as a six year old - with a brilliant win in the G1 Bonecrusher NZ Stakes last month.
Legarto will be offered at the Magic Millions National Broodmare sale in May. Another multiple G1 winning mare by Proisir raced by the same connections was Levante, and she is retained for breeding in partnership with Arrowfield. Her first foal, a filly by Snitzel was a $600,000 MM Gold Coast buy this year for Chris Waller / Mulcaster Bloodstock and the mare is now in foal to The Autumn Sun.
So it's all going swimmingly for Proisir, while Divine Prophet is yet to notch up his first G1 winner.
But I have faith.
The stallion has enjoyed success with speedy females See You In Heaven (Group winner at Sandown, Flemington and Morphettville ) and Fortunate Kiss (runner up Wangoom Hcp) as well as Generosity and though in the shadow of his brother, he has shown that he too, can get a female of the highest class.
Generosity's damsire Casino Prince is now well established, like his sire Flying Spur, as a name you love to see in a mare pedigree.
The hallmark of his stock is sustained high quality speed and Orabelle had that.
Given the poor recent record of favourites in this race I'm hoping Generosity stays around her current 6/1 mark!
Generosity and J Mac will be giving their all from barrier 1
Next Best: SUPER SMINK
Dan Morton's classy Perth mare resumed with a big win in the RN Irwin Stakes over 1100m here and she flies second up.
A brilliant and totally dominant winner of both the G2 Karrakatta Plate / G3 Sires Produce as a juvenile, Sminky has placed three times over the Ascot mile at stakes level including her close up third in the 2024 G1 Railway Stakes
It is at 1200/1400m where she has excelled however, including at her most recent second up start when she won the G2 Lee Steere Stakes at WFA last November.
Morton has never shied away from testing his little mare, who he admits is the stable favourite, in the best open company.
Her career record of 26 starts for 7 wins and 10 placings with earnings of more than $1.6 million would look even more impressive than it already is, had she tackled some of the low hanging fruit among the stakes races restricted to her own sex.
Now five, the daughter of unheralded sire Super One (I Am Invincible) was a modest $45,000 purchase for Morton Racing from the Forest View Farm draft at the 2022 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale.
She is one of only two stakes winners for the stallion, who was an unbeaten champion 2YO in Singapore and a G3 winner at Morphettville. He initially stood at Newgate Farm before relocating several times and finally finding his home at Roselee Park in WA.
Super Smink's dam is the Snitzel mare Sminky Shorts, unplaced at her only race start.
Sminky Shorts may not have worn any hotpants on the track, but she is a member of a family that has performed with distinction in the West!
Sminky Shorts is a three quarter sister to Listed stakes winner and G2 VRC Sires' Produce Stakes / Listed ATC Breeders' Plate runner-up Detective (Snitzel)
She is one of three winners from the unraced Viscount mare Most Joyous, a half sister to four stakes winners produced by the incredibly fast 3 x stakes winning juvenile Most Secret (Bletchley Park).
A prolific breeder of both quality and quantity, Most Secret left thirteen named foals and ten were winners.
They included the G1 Railway winning heroine Covertly by Metal Storm (the dam of abovementioned stakes winner Detective and stakes placed Bourne Detective, both by Snitzel); Listed WATC December Stakes winner Secret Link (Encosta De Lago), and her final foal - a 2015 I Am Invincible filly named Crack The Code who was an impressive winner of the G3 Kevin Hayes Stakes at Caulfield.
Most Secret's G3 Colonel Reeves winning colt So Secret (Danetime) went to stud in WA and sired winners of the both Karrakatta Plate and Bunbury Cup!
Super Smink's interesting tail female line goes back to the Irish-bred Ankaret, winner of the Coronation Stakes and runner up in the Oaks at Epsom.
Ankaret was a half sister to Stardust - the sire of Australasian breed shaper Star Kingdom.
This family is a branch of 16 (Agnes) descending from her daughter Lady Alice - also the ancestress of another sire who shaped the breed in North America, the mighty Broomstick.
The latest offering from Sminky Shorts, a filly by WA champion sire Playing God, was a $200,000 buy for Belmont Bloodstock (FBAA) from Forest View Farm at Perth MM this year
The mare missed to Gingerbread Man last season.
Super Smink is bred
Danzig 5m,5m x 5m
Canny Lad 4f x 5f
Storm Bird x 5m x 5f sex balanced
There is no doubt Super Smink's double cross of legendary broodmare sire Canny Lad, who placed in a Cox Plate, has played a key role in her ability to carry her scintillating speed up to a mile.
Particularly as his sire Bletchingly is a relative of her linebred ancestor Danzig and of Blue Hen Rafha, the dam of her great grandsire Invincible Spirit.
She is also linebred to the 2f (Alope) family via Tale Of The Cat, Round Table (x 4 and sex balanced), to Blue Hen Somethingroyal, and to the mighty Nijinsky who is also sex balanced via his Blue Hen daughters State and Dancing Show and his Classic sons Green Dancer and Caerleon, another important foundation for the Super One speed.
Super One is no Vinnie but he can get a good horse.
While Super Smink is the flag bearer among his progeny, he has also sired Listed Canberra Sprint winner Another One, stakes placed Superazi, brilliant speedster Alpha One (second in the Vain Stakes to Giga Kick!) and G3 placed Tasmanian Embeller.
His bonny daughter Super Smink will have the services of champion hoop Craig Williams and they will jump from barrier 9.
Roughie: AMEENA
She was right off the boil last Spring, but I think Ameena is a real lover of firm ground and a true “ Autumn horse”
She is also best fresh, in which state the now four year old daughter of Tassort unleashed a mighty run to go down by a narrow margin to Charm Stone after suffering interference in this very race last year as a filly, before running another huge race in The Goodwood for fourth.
She still has to bounce big in a big way from her below par spring runs.
Perhaps she was a wee bit tired, having had a solid prep at two (winning her first two starts then runner up at G2 level) and six starts at three where she kicked off in Sydney with a win in the G2 Silver Shadow and a narrow second in the G2 Tea Rose before losing form, then coming back to Adelaide in April where she ripped off those two magnificent G1 efforts.
Once that sort of ability has been displayed, you know it always lurks within. Ameena is back at what seems to be her favourite track, nice and fresh with a crossover noseband and tongue tie fitted, and will jump from an ideal barrier. You know trainers Anthony and Sam Freedman will have her absolutely primed to go.
Ameena is a homebred for Emirates Park and like their Golden Slipper winning filly Marhoona she descends from a mare by their wonderful stallion Secret Savings.
Ameena's sire Tassort (Brazen Beau) who stands at Newgate Farm is proving true to his breeding, hailing as he does from a family of absolutely elite females going back to the great champion Triscay.
Tassort's three stakes winners to date are his G1 heroine Manaal ( also bred by Emirates Park, as was Charm Stone!), Ameena and this season's Listed winning, G2 placed juvenile Agrarian Girl.
Ameena's beautifully bred damsire Harbour Watch, shuttled to Australia by Emirates Park, was sadly short lived.
A member of the famed Fall Aspen family he was unbeaten at two years and a half brother to dual G1 winning South African filly Europa Point.
Ameena's second dam, the stakes winner Boom Time Savings, ran fourth in a Golden Slipper.
Ameena is bred
Danzig 5m,5m x
Mr Prospector x 5m,5m
Among many factors which make her pedigree a standout is the fact that Ameena descends from a branch of the same female line as Tassort’s damsire Exceed and Excel and it's a noble one.
Her ancestress is US Hall Of Famer Chris Evert - US Fillies Triple Crown winner at three, and foundation mare of Three Chimneys Farm. Chris Evert produced only five foals in her thirty years of life - all fillies, and all established successful families.
Ameena is the first foal from her dam bred on the Exceed And Excel cross. The one time her grand dam Boom Time Savings visited Exceed And Excel she produced the filly Boomex - unraced but dam of multiple Group winning sprinter Marboosha (filly by Dream Ahead)
Looking to the sire of Harbour Watch, Acclamation. A champion sire and broodmare sire like his great son Dark Angel - one of the most successful nicks for Acclamation /Dark Angel has been Exceed And Excel, and another producing great results is Green Desert, Tassort’s tail male line.
It's a nice touch to Ameena's pedigree that Tassort’s third dam the mighty sprinter La Baraka was by Rubiton's brother Euclase - not a champion like his brother was, but pretty darn good, and he loved the 1200m at Morphettville - he blitzed them here by three lengths in The Goodwood of 1992!
Ameena and Todd Pannell will look to get a good run and launch late from barrier 5.
Blowout: STRETAN ANGEL
This five year old daughter of Harry Angel (Dark Angel) is another fantastic breeding prospect catalogued for the MM National Broodmare Sale in May.
She was so unlucky not to get her G1 when defeated by a head in the G1 Goodwood here in 2024, and likes this track. It might pay to forget her unplaced runs at this carnival last year when she was late into her campaign and coming off consecutive G1 placings in the Lightning ( to Skybird) and Newmarket ( to Joliestar), and fourth in the G1 William Reid ( to Schwarz).
She's second up (yet to miss a place in six runs) and returned with a good third to Super Smink in the Irwin, has the blinkers fitted for the first time and has drawn well.
The Phillip Stokes trained Stretan Angel is one of the best sprinters in the land. She has met and defeated the likes of G1 winners Amelia's Jewel, Benedetta, Giga Kick, Lady Laguna, Magic Time, Overpass and Switzerland.
Though she was a runaway stakes winner at two, as a daughter of Harry Angel out of a Bernardini mare, Stretan Angel has racetrack longevity in her DNA and is still only the veteran of 25 starts, which have netted her 3 wins and 9 placings for earnings of more than $1.3 million.
The stat that understandably puts punters off is her 1200m record - 14 tries and only 4 placings to show for it - but that stat is a little deceptive, because those defeats include narrow misses not only in The Goodwood, but in bunched finishes at open WFA in the G2 Gilgai and the G1 Champions Sprint.
If she's ever going to run it out strong and win her G1 it is now, as a mature athlete against her own sex.
Stretan Angel cost a mere $64,000 when her trainer and Rick Connolly Bloodstock plucked her from the draft of Raheen Stud ( as agent) as a 2022 MM Gold Coast yearling.
She is one of 20 stakes winners for Darley's successful shuttler Harry Angel and the best performed of his daughters in either Hemisphere, with his three G1 winners to date being the now gelded Tom Kitten, War Machine and valuable Yulong-owned entire Private Harry.
Stretan Angel is a half sister to this season's runaway G2 Silver Slipper winning colt / Todman Stakes runner up Stretan Ruler (Wild Ruler) who ended his campaign with a meritorious 5th in the Golden Slipper and is an exciting three year old prospect to say the least!
Stokes Racing and Suman Hedge Bloodstock (FBAA) joined forces to purchase the colt from Willow Park Stud at Inglis Easter for $220,000.
Stretan Angel and Stretan Ruler are two of four winners from five to race for the placed Bernardini mare Stretan.
Her Harry Angel colt made $540,000 at the Inglis Classic Sale for Kirks Bridge Farm when bought by Equine Growth Fund / Blueblood Thoroughbreds / SP Bloodstock this year.
Sretan foaled another filly to Harry last spring and was then covered by European Horse of the Year City of Troy (USA) in his first season at Coolmore Australia.
Stretan is a half sister to multiple Group placed mare Alegria ( Medaglia D'Oro ) dam of the G2 Brisbane Cup winner and dual G1 Derby placed Alegron ( Teofilo) and they are two of five winners from the G3 sprinting mare Pure Joy ( Fu Peg) a half sister to the very fast sprinter Fravashi out of the winning Dehere mare Angelic Smile a full sister to stakes winning mare Russian Caravan.
This is also the immediate family of the great producing Lonhro mare Custard, dam of five stakes winners.
The family ( branch of 13-a) descends from the Alycidon daughter Cake, also the ancestress of Snowland, Snippetson, Portillo, Myboycharlie, Al Hareb, Snow Alert and many more.
Stretan Angel is bred
Mr Prospector 5m x 4m
Spectacular Bid 5f x 5f
Her first six dams are all by American bred sires - namely Bernardini, Fusaichi Pegasus, Dehere, Seattle Dancer ( remember him? Robert Sangster's megamillions colt - wouldn't it be fitting if this mare could win his race?), Prince Tenderfoot and Never Say Die.
As Spectacular Bid is from the same line of descent as Dark Angel's damsire Machiavellian, this inbreeding to him is potent and reinforced by relative Halo who (as he is in Machiavellian) is carried via a daughter in Fusaichi Pegasus, with a Danzig mare as well making for a great nick with Harry Angel's line to Grand Lodge.
Dark Angel is a (distant ) relative of Dehere's sire Deputy Minister (10-c) and Harry Angel's damsire is from the closely related 10-b family, all lines tracing to Queen Mary. This family is very prominent in Bernardini's inbred ancestor Dr Fager and, since it is also the family of Princequillo's sire Prince Rose the duplication of Princequillo daughters Somethingroyal and Cequillo is especially desirable.
Lots more going on in Stretan Angel's lovely pedigree and when she begins her new career at stud she will appeal as a wonderful match for stallions with Street Cry / Danehill blood in particular, but can she get that well deserved G1 before the curtain comes down on a brilliant career?
Stretan Angel and Lachlan Neindorf will fly from barrier 3.
