Melbourne Storm greats Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Will Chambers are hoping to strike gold in tonight’s opening leg of Victoria’s lucrative VOBIS Gold Premier Race Series at The Valley.
The trio are part-owners of Kiwia who will line up at 7.30pm in the Chandler Macleod VOBIS Gold Star (1500m), a race which offers $150,000 in prizemoney and a further $30,000 in VOBIS bonuses.
The VOBIS Gold Star, which features on the opening night of The Valley’s two-day Ladbrokes Cox Plate Carnival, is the first of 18 races to be showcased across metropolitan and country Victoria in the 2018-19 VOBIS Gold Premier Race Series.
Offering $4.45 million in prizemoney and bonuses this season for VOBIS Gold-nominated horses, the VOBIS Gold Premier Race Series rewards those who chose to breed, buy, own and race their horses in Victoria.
Tonight marks Kiwia’s debut for the high-profile rugby league trio who joined the ownership of the Darren Weir-trained and Gerry Ryan-managed five-year-old gelding following his third placing in June’s Brisbane Cup (2200m).
Kiwia, who’s been placed in 12 of 18 starts, comes up against some quality opposition this evening headlined by last season’s VOBIS Gold Star winner Widgee Turf and the highly-rated Iconoclasm, a stablemate of Kiwia who’s owned and bred by this week’s Geelong Cup-winning connections, Rosemont Stud.
Other key chances in the event, which is Race 3 on the card, include last season’s VOBIS Gold Star runner-up Amadeus, Tony McEvoy’s talented four-year-old Vinland, the Mick Price-trained Duke of Brunswick and country cups king Vianden.
The VOBIS Gold Star makes its debut on the Group 1 Ladbrokes Manikato Stakes undercard this evening having been moved from its traditional January timeslot at The Valley.
The VOBIS Gold Premier Race Series, which runs from October 2018 to July 2019, is headlined this season by the introduction of The Showdown, a $1 million VOBIS Sires race for two-year-olds.
A total of 843 Victorian-sired horses are eligible for the inaugural “The Showdown” which will be held on Victorian Owners and Breeders Race Day at Caulfield on Saturday, 27 April 2019.
To view the full 2018-19 VOBIS Gold Premier Race Series or for further information on the VOBIS program, visit www.racingvictoria.com.au/vobis.