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Elite mares take the Guy Walter Stakes run at Randwick on Saturday.
Hope In Your Heart was such a tough one herself in winning. Is there one like her in the 2024 Guy Walter Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday?
2024 GUY WALTER STAKES - RACE HISTORY AND BACKGROUND
The Guy Walter Stakes is a Group 2 race for mares four years and older and is a significant feature of the Sydney autumn racing carnival.
The race is registered as the Wiggle Stakes and was first run by the Australian Jockey Club in 1996 as a quality handicap for fillies and mares in honour of Wiggle, a champion filly in 1958 and 1959 when she won the Stradbroke Handicap as a 2YO before she was exported to race successfully in the USA.
The race name was changed from the Wiggle Stakes to the Guy Walter Stakes by the Australian Turf Club in 2015 as a tribute to the late Warwick Farm trainer Guy Walter (1954–2014) who trained 36 Group One winners and won more than 120 stakes races.
The race is run over 1400m.
Until 2005 the Wiggle Stakes was open to fillies and mares. It has since been open only to mares and has been run under set weights and penalty conditions since 2012.
The Wiggle/Guy Walter Stakes was run as a Listed Race from 1996 to 2013, became a Group 3 race in 2014 and was elevated to Group 2 in 2016.
The Wiggle/Guy Walter Stakes has been a part of the Chipping Norton Stakes program from its inception and has traditionally been run at Warwick Farm apart for transfers to Randwick in 2002, 2003, 2004 and then since 2016.
The 2024 Guy Walter Stakes was worth $300,000 in prizemoney.
The Guy Walter Stakes is an important preliminary to the G1 Coolmore Classic and G1 Queen of The Turf Stakes, the feature races for fillies and mares during the autumn carnival.
Guy Walter Stakes/Coolmore Classic – Danni Martine (2005), Krone (2021).
Previous winners of the Wiggle Stakes/Guy Walter Stakes include dual winners Hot Danish, Steps In Time and Dixie Blossoms along with Bonanova, Forum Floozie, Danni Martine, Doubting, Catkins, Solicit, Krone, Forbidden Love and Hope In Your Heart.
The 2023 Guy Walter Stakes was won by Hope In Your Heart from Larkspur Run and Mustang Valley.
