The Kosciuszko 2021

In a hurry? We’ve listed all the quick facts that you need to know about The Kosciuszko:

One of the more unique races on the calendar, The Kosciuszko isn’t a Group One, but attracts the eyes of many. It is run over 1,200m under set weights and penalties conditions and exclusively for NSW Country or ACT trained horses.

The runners in The Kosciuszko are selected by the 14 winners of a sweepstakes, with anyone in the country able to enter and has a total prizemoney pool of $1,300,000. This year’s race, held at Randwick Racecourse, will be run on Saturday, October 16th, and was won by It’s Me in 2020.

The Kosciuszko is a 1,200m ‘special conditions’ race exclusively for NSW Country and ACT trained horses, bringing the best of the bush to the city tracks. The entrants in the race are selected by 14 winners of the sweepstakes for The Kosciuszko, with anyone from the public able to purchase a ticket for the sweepstakes for just $5 from TAB.

Being brought on to the racing calendar in 2018, The Kosciuszko follows a similar pathway to The Everest, which is the headline race held on the same day at Randwick. The sweepstakes is a fun way for the public to get better knowledge of the talented horses in country racing.

Given the short history of the race, with just three horses winning, there haven’t been any historic horses to contest the race yet. However, we don’t know how the careers of the winners may end up. Belfyer won the inaugural running of The Kosciuszko, Handle The Truth won in 2019 and It’s Me won as a heavily backed favourite last year.

2021 The Kosciuscko Tips

Our The Kosciuszko tips are available and you can find our runner by runner preview here. But, long story short, we like Sunrise Ruby at each-way odds to make a splash in The Kosciuszko. There are also a few others we like, including a main danger that is yet to finish out of the top two in his career, but to find out more information on those tips, you’ll have to chat to The Shark!

Being a very new race, only being run since 2018, The Kosciuszko is becoming a very special and important race in the Sydney Spring carnival, highlighting the talent of country racing.

It’s interesting concept and large amount of prizemoney make it one of the most popular races that most Aussies like to have a casual punt on. Our expert tipsters will put together a short list of The Kosciuszko tips to look out for in the leadup to the big race.

With winners of the sweepstakes not being announced until mid-September, it is hard to get an idea of what horses will contest The Kosciuszko in 2021, especially with horses just coming back to start their Spring preparations.

However, the odds are already out and It’s Me is favoured to defend her title, priced at $4.60. The talented mare is a perfect 4/4 in her career, winning a maiden handicap in Scone before going on to win two Highway Handicaps at Randwick racecourse in the lead up to her winning the 2020 Kosciuszko.

Art Cadeau is on the second line of betting at $6. The gelding has had a very impressive career so far, running in 11 races and finishing no worse than 2nd. In the calendar year of 2021, he had just three runs, winning each of them, capped off with the Country Championships at Randwick in April.

Victorem, who was favourite for the race in 2019 and finished 2nd, is currently $7 while Front Page, who was fancied to take out last year’s race but was injured on his way to the race in a float accident and hasn’t raced since September ‘20, and Ice In Vancouver, who has won three of his six races to date but finished 14th of 14 in last year’s race, are both priced at $8.

We will list The Sharks’ The Kosciuszko best tips for the race this year closer to the time of the race. Make sure you check back on this page for updates!

The Kosciuszko Tips From Experts

Our The Kosciuszko tips are available and you can find our runner by runner preview here. But, long story short, we like Sunrise Ruby at each-way odds to make a splash in The Kosciuszko. There are also a few others we like, including a main danger that is yet to finish out of the top two in his career, but to find out more information on those tips, you’ll have to chat to The Shark!

We have found some key indicators to look out for in the lead up to the race, when looking for your The Kosciuszko betting tips. Have a read on below to find out more:

Is Previous Form in The Kosciuszko a Good Indicator of Future Success?

While there is yet to be a repeat winner of The Kosciuszko, the best country horses obviously rise to the top and should be considered every year.

While Belflyer won the inaugural running of The Kosciuszko and then came 14th of 14 in the following year, he contested the 2019 race as an eight-year-old and it was his last career race. Handle The Truth won in 2019 and then came fourth in 2020, indicating the quality of the horse but still not showing us that previous form means future success.

There is yet to be a horse finish in the top three more than once so far from the three runnings, however last year’s winner It’s Me and 2019 runner-up Victorem are both in the top in the top three for betting, showing that this may be the year that previous form can be a good indicator of future success.

Should I Bet On The Favourite in The Kosciuszko?

It is definitely a good tactic to bet on the favourite in The Kosciuszko. The three favourites are yet to finish out of the top four so far, with Don’t Give A Damn ($3.30) in 2018 being the lowest placed.

Victorem ($2.70) finished 2nd in 2019 and would have given punters a bonus bet back for their troubles, depending on their preferred agency, while It’s Me ($2) was very well backed in 2020 and won by just 0.2 lengths.

Formlines Heading into The Kosciuszko

Given the nature of the race and how new it is on the schedule, each of the three winners have taken very different paths to success. In 2018, Belflyer contested the race first up, surprising to win as a $71 chance. Handle The Truth was second up when winning in 2019, coming 5th in a BM88 two weeks earlier.

It’s Me is the outlier, contesting the race fourth up in her preparation. She ran her first two races with the regular two weeks break in between, but then had four weeks until her third run and then another four weeks until The Kosciuszko. Her two runs prior to The Kosciuszko were both Highway Handicaps, running in a class 2 and then class 3 race, respectively.

Age

Both Handle The Truth and It’s Me won as four-year-olds, with that age being the clear standout. Belflyer is a bit of an outlier, being seven when he won. However, he was an outlier already, being backed as if he had no chance of winning, at $71.

Gender

It’s Me is the lone mare to win the race, as Handle The Truth and Belflyer both won as geldings.

Weight

The set weights and penalties conditions see trends follow the gender path, with It’s Me carrying just 53.5kg to victory while Handle The Trust was tasked with 57kg and Belflyer carried 57.5kg past the post.

The Kosciuszko Best Bets

Our The Kosciuszko tips are available and you can find our runner by runner preview here. But, long story short, we like Sunrise Ruby at each-way odds to make a splash in The Kosciuszko. There are also a few others we like, including a main danger that is yet to finish out of the top two in his career, but to find out more information on those tips, you’ll have to chat to The Shark!

Long before The Kosciuszko field is officially announced – online bookies will open early markets, or all-in markets, for The Kosciuszko betting. This is prime time to bet on your favourite horse, as you might be able to bet on strong contenders for The 2021 Kosciuszko at double-digit odds.

Given they have already been released, The 2021 Kosciuszko odds will obviously fluctuate frequently in the lead up to the race, especially when we have a better idea of which country-trained horses will be targeting the race and their form leading into the race.

Punting early on these markets can find you a favourite at prices of $10 or more, which will retain you a much higher return on investment. However, there is increased risk with doing this and you should be well aware.

Depending on when you place your 2021 The Kosciuszko futures bet, your horse may not even run but you won’t get your money back, occurring when the market is ‘All-In’ or closer to the starting date. If you are betting when it says ‘Before Noms’, you have the security of receiving your money back if your horse doesn’t run.

The 2021 Kosciuszko odds are already out and they are currently in ‘before noms’, meaning you’ll get a refund if your horse doesn’t nominate. Be sure to compare these prices between different bookies because, although they usually agree on a horse’s price, you may stumble across much higher odds – with an obvious higher profit involved.

The below table shows the current 2021 The Kosciuszko odds as of Thursday, October 14th, two days before the race, courtesy of Sportsbet:

Given the stage that the country trainers are given with this race, The Kosciuszko field often attracts the best country horses and has quality throughout. Brett Cavanough was very vocal with his opinion of It’s Me last year, being bullish on the fact that it would have been competitive in The Everest.

That is the sort of quality that the country races have to offer and The Kosciuszko field represents that perfectly. The $1.3M prizemoney pool attracts the best and has the trainers treat this as a grand final for their horses. The final field for The Kosciuszko will be announced at the barrier draw, which is set to take place on Wednesday, October 13th.

With The 2021 Kosciuszko field yet to be determined, let’s take a look back at the 2020 field, headlined by winner It’s Me:

With the race yet to be run, we still don’t know what The Kosciuszko results for 2021 will be! However, check back in after the race and we will have all of the information on how the big race went and what the results are.

Looking back at the 2020 race, the heavily backed It’s Me came from 11th to storm home down the outside and beat Redouble by 0.2 lengths, who was a length in front of Man Of Peace, who just held off the 2019 winner, Handle The Truth. Jumping from barrier seven, It’s Me let the pace go forward around her, settling back in the field with coverage on her outside.

Jason Collett started working her out around the bend but was stuck in a pocket at the top of the straight, not being able to force her out until inside the 300m mark, but ultimately her class and an incredible turn of foot was shown with her sprint to the line.

Tommy Berry had Redouble sit three pairs back on the fence, settling for 5th for running. Instead of forcing him wide into the traffic, he hoped for a run down the rails to open up and that is exactly what he got, powering down the rails and he looked like the winner, but was just out-done on the line.

Man Of Peace was the pace-setter in the race, leading throughout but didn’t quite have enough gas in the tank to hold on late, settling for third and just holding off Handle the Truth and Two Big Fari, who were 0.1 and 0.3 lengths back in fourth and fifth respectively.

You’ve read the words, now watch the video! Have a squiz below at The Kosciuszko race in 2020:

Here are the full results from The Kosciuszko in 2020:

The Kosciuszko Winners

The results for the upcoming The Kosciuszko are not yet available, but in the meantime, you can have a look below at all the recent past winners: