The Shorts

The Shorts is a Group 2 race held at Randwick Racecourse and is considered one of the early spring feature races, with the race boasting a prize pool of $1,000,000.

The Shorts was classified as a Principal race from 1867 until 1978, before being upgraded to a Listed race from 1979 to 1993. From 1994 to 2006, The Shorts was run as a Group 3 race before receiving its final upgrade to Group 2 in 2008.

Every running of The Shorts has been held at Randwick, bar the one edition of the race in 2011, when it was run at Rosehill.

Many past or future Group 1 winning sprinters have won The Shorts, with some using the early season feature to begin their spring campaigns.

Classique Legend (2020) and Redzel (2017) used The Shorts as a key lead-up race to their success in The Everest later in the spring.

Notable winners of The Shorts include Nature Strip (2022), Eduardo (2021), Classique Legend (2020), Redzel (2017), Rebel Dane (2015), Terravista (2014), Hot Danish (2010), Ab Initio (1999), King’s Favourite (1976 & 1977), Nagpuni (1953 & 1954), Winnipeg (1941 & 1944), Calmest (1926 & 1927) and Gigandra (1912, 1914 & 1915).

2023 The Shorts Betting Odds

Markets for The Shorts 2023 are currently unavailable. We will update this page when The Shorts odds are available.

Best The Shorts bookmakers

All of our top racing bookmakers have markets for The Shorts.

The Shorts betting sites are available well in advance of the race, with this a feature that draws plenty of attention from punters.

You an access horse betting sites to bet on The Shorts via several different means, including via betting apps, bookie websites and even via telephone in some cases. Australian bookmakers have got outstanding features, including some outstanding promotions.

Sport Table

Latest The Shorts News

2023 The Shorts Final Field

Horsebetting.com.au will update this page when The Shorts 2023 field is released.

Previous The Shorts Field

• 2022 The Shorts field

  No.	Silks	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight
  1		Nature Strip	Chris Waller	James McDonald	2	58kg
  2		Eduardo	Joseph Pride	Brenton Avdulla	8	58kg
  3		Masked Crusader	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	William Pike	12	58kg
  4		Mazu	Peter & Paul Snowden	Sam Clipperton	4	58kg
  5		Shelby Sixtysix	Danny Williams	Robbie Dolan	1	58kg
  6		Classique Legend	Les Bridge	Kerrin McEvoy	7	57kg
  7		Overpass	Bjorn Baker	Rachel King	11	57kg
  8		Lost And Running	John O’Shea	Hugh Bowman	6	56kg
  9		Athelric	James Cummings	Tommy Berry	3	55kg
  10		Andermatt	James Cummings	Jason Collett	13	55kg
  11		Handle The Truth	Keith Dryden	Tyler Schiller	5	55kg
  12		Rocketing By	David Pfieffer	Tim Clark	9	55kg
  13		Anethole	Cody Morgan	Tom Sherry	10	55kg

2022 The Shorts result

Recent The Shorts results

• 2022: Nature Strip returns with Shorts victory
  Nature Strip ($2.40) seemed to return from his overseas trip to the United Kingdom better than ever, as the dominant King’s Stand Stakes winner returned to Australia with an impressive victory in 2022 The Shorts. Instead of leading like normal, James McDonald took a sit on the eight-year-old gelding and trailed his main rival Eduardo ($3.50) into the home straight. As Brenton Avdulla went for the leader, McDonald was still swinging off the reigning Everest winner and within a few strides the Chris Waller-trained sprinter took over and kicked clear to record a 1.4 length victory.
• 2021: Eduardo rolls Nature Strip
  The 2021 edition of The Shorts was being called a ‘mini Everest’ as six confirmed starters clashed in the Group 2 contest at Randwick. After the racecourse received a lot of rain, the money came for the raging favourite, Nature Strip ($2.10), but it was his main rival Eduardo ($5.50) who would take the honours in the early season match-up. James McDonald and Nature Strip looked to have enough in the locker to kick clear of Eduardo in the straight, but Joseph Pride’s eight-year-old had the fight to get back in front when it counted.
• 2020: Classique Legend flies home to claim The Shorts
  Classique Legend ($4.40) has stamped his claim as one of the top sprinters in Australia with a slashing win in the Group 2 The Shorts at Randwick. After settling at the back of the field, Kerrin McEvoy had to navigate a tricky path between runners to find the outside. Once the five-year-old gelding found the outside, he let down with the blistering turn of foot that we have seen many times. Eduardo ($11) and Bivouac ($5) settled down to fight out the placings, as they had no answer for the winner.
• 2019: Pierata proves too strong in The Shorts
  After heavy rain decimated the 2019 The Shorts field, the 11-horse field was reduced to just five starters, with the Gregory Hickman-trained Pierata ($2.70) claiming victory in the Group 2 contest. Redzel ($4.40) led the field to the home bend, but once the field entered the home straight the third of the market fancies, Classique Legend ($3.10) levelled up to Pierata and Redzel to battle it out in the last 200m. The son of Pierro handled the wet conditions the best and he pulled away from the other two in the final strides to win by half a length.

The Shorts winners

The Shorts winners pre-2000