When is the 2026 Champions Sprint?
| Race fact | Verified detail |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-11-07 |
| Venue | Flemington |
| Distance | 1200m |
| Grade | Group 1 |
| Prizemoney | A$3 million |
Champions Sprint overview
The Champions Sprint is the Group 1 1200m straight-course feature on the final Saturday of the carnival. Unlike the three-year-old Coolmore earlier in Cup Week, it brings the weight-for-age sprint division into focus.
Straight-course racing makes the location of speed and the availability of cover important parts of the preview. A simple inside-versus-outside story can be misleading when runners choose different groups or when the strongest pace is concentrated on one side.
Champions Sprint past winners (2017–2025)
Historical feature-race results are separate from the all-races track-and-distance sample below. Only source-backed editions are listed; omitted years have not been filled by inference.
| Year | Winner | Jockey | Trainer | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Giga Kick | Mark Zahra | Clayton Douglas | Flemington |
| 2024 | Sunshine In Paris | James McDonald | Annabel Neasham | Flemington |
| 2023 | Imperatriz | Opie Bosson | Mark Walker | Flemington |
| 2022 | Roch 'N' Horse | Jamie Mott | Michael Moroney | Flemington |
| 2021 | Nature Strip | James McDonald | Chris Waller | Flemington |
| 2020 | Bivouac | Glen Boss | James Cummings | Flemington |
| 2019 | Nature Strip | James McDonald | Chris Waller | Flemington |
| 2018 | Santa Ana Lane | Mark Zahra | Anthony Freedman | Flemington |
| 2017 | Redzel | Kerrin McEvoy | Peter & Paul Snowden | Flemington |
Champions Sprint historical trends
Flemington 1200m. All 264 qualifying races, 171 meetings and 3,064 runners stored between 2017-01-01 and 2026-10-03; not just editions of the Champions Sprint. Snapshot checked 23 October 2026, using the available ten-year window (23 October 2016–23 October 2026), with all other filters unrestricted.
| Published barrier | Runners | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barriers 1–4 | 1,056 | 79 | 7.48% |
| Barriers 5–8 | 1,030 | 102 | 9.90% |
| Barriers 9+ | 978 | 84 | 8.59% |
Barriers 5–8 have the highest observed win rate in this grouped sample: 102 wins from 1,030 runners (9.90%). This is an historical association, not a forecast or an isolated causal barrier effect. The groups differ in field-size exposure and can contain different classes, ages and track conditions.
Stored race-level going only, without substituting a meeting's headline rating. These are scenario subsets of the same sample, not additional races. Rows without a stored race rating are unclassified; subsets smaller than 30 runners are omitted.
| Race going | Runners | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good | 2,117 | 180 | 8.50% |
| Soft | 801 | 71 | 8.86% |
| Heavy | 146 | 14 | 9.59% |
Champions Sprint TrackBro insights
Win rate is wins divided by starters, not the share of all race winners. Every first-place runner counts as a full win, including dead heats. Missing barriers: 0. No runner-level records are published in this graph.
Actual versus Expected is shown only for the app-eligible subset: complete confirmed fields, usable SP for every starter and a total implied probability between 1.00 and 1.50. Expected wins are race-normalised before grouping; eligible sample size can differ from the barrier chart.
| Published barrier | Eligible runners | Actual wins | Expected wins | A2E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barriers 1–4 | 1052 | 78 | 84.61 | 0.92 |
| Barriers 5–8 | 1026 | 102 | 97.19 | 1.05 |
| Barriers 9+ | 977 | 84 | 81.20 | 1.03 |
Champions Sprint related research
Start with Flemington 1200m: track and distance only, Full History where your membership permits it, and every other filter unrestricted. Then change one condition at a time and keep the sample sizes visible. Existing access restrictions remain in place.
Research Champions Sprint with TrackBro
Explore the historical record with Interrogate the Data. View current memberships and access for the live Day Pass and Elite products, prices and terms. Historical patterns help frame questions; they do not promise a winning selection.
Champions Sprint sources
Official 2026 race-day/program reference. Race facts and sources reviewed 23 October 2026.
Historical statistics and honour-roll rows: read-only TrackBro production racing records, checked 23 October 2026. Calculations reuse the existing research application's win and A2E functions; no racing records or research calculations were changed.