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Do your research! Noonan defends negative Bletchingly comments
Connor Scanlon • July 27th, 2026 11:18 am
The weight-for-age Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes is held annually in July at Caulfield Racecourse and marks the final Group race held in Melbourne each season.
Cosmic Crusader took out the 1200m sprint on Saturday and was previously won by Bridal Waltz (2025), Recommendation (2024), Ingratiating (2023) and King Of Sparta (2022).
However, there has been some commentary floating around that the Bletchingly doesn’t deserve to be a Group 3.
On RSN’s Correct Weight, Trav Noonan defended the 34-year-old race, even claiming that from an Asian Pattern Committee perspective, the race should be upgraded to a Group 2.
“On the Bletchingly Stakes, there's a bit of a thought process with that race that it, for whatever reason, is not a good Group 3,” Noonan started.
“You go back on history in the last five years, the race has rated incredibly well with the winners. I'd say if you were actually looking at it properly from the Pattern Committee's point of view, you'd upgrade it to a Group 2.
“With the way it's rating, it's doing a really good job the Bletchingly, and feeding those horses into the Spring Carnival well.
“We saw Bridle Waltz last year come off the race and run so well in a Gilgai behind War Machine. We've seen Recommendation going to the Heath (Vale Black Caviar) 1100m, having won a Bletchingly. Ingratiating, he performed at a really high level. King of Sparta won a Bletchingly then went on to really good success.”
Noonan continued by exclaiming that the commentary is just coming purely from people not doing their research, and expects Cosmic Crusader and Winnasedge to perform well in the early stages of the spring.
“I think the commentary on the Bletchingly, that it's a substandard Group 3 is, I'm just going to say it, is people not doing their research,” stated Noonan.
“Like it's performing very well that race. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the top two (from this year’s Bletchingly) are very, very profitable over the next few weeks.”
Watch Trav Noonan defend the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes below:
