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Blue Diamond: A race to stud for the colts

All Too Hard, another horse retired early. (AAP: Julian Smith)
Expert
8th February, 2017
7

If you’re an ardent racing fan it’s been hard to miss the early retirements of Australia’s best colts in recent seasons. Although, these days, retiring after your three-year-old year is considered the norm, rather than early.

Do you wonder who would have won between Pierro and All Too Hard as four-year-olds? Too bad.

Would Sepoy have joined the list of the all-time great sprinters? Maybe. How good could Zoustar have become? We’ll never know.

Whether we like it or not, the value of young colts as future stallion sensations is impossible to ignore. As international investment grows through the likes of Newgate Farm, Arrowfield Stud, and Sun Stud, it will be increasingly tough for the owners of those colts to knock back huge offers.

Can any of us who decry the practice truly say we wouldn’t do the same thing, if we had a 20 per cent share in a Group 1-winning colt?

Sepoy - Horse Racing - Blue Diamond winner

So what does the state of the stallion market have to do with Saturday’s Blue Diamond Preludes and then the G1 $1 million Blue Diamond Stakes on February 25?

Plenty.

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Three of the top Blue Diamond chances are colts – Jukebox, Pariah, and Cao Cao. Any one of these claiming victory in Victoria’s premier juvenile race will send their market value soaring and all but guarantee a career at stud.

Sadly for punters and racing fans though, a win might mean it’s a case of enjoy these colts while you can, because retirement beckons.

The mentality of trainers and owners has changed to meet the demand from stud operations and that in turn has created great innovation in the bloodstock market.

It’s no coincidence that horse share trading is growing at a considerable speed, first through G1Xchange – a stock market for horse shares, and also through Inglis and the recent announcement of The Chairmans Sale during Easter, at which the sales company hopes to auction shares in horses engaged in key races during The Championships.

The Blue Diamond therefore becomes a seriously important race, and the battle to get a place in the field continues at Caulfield on Saturday.

The fillies Prelude is the first to be run, with Catchy and Limestone having an early stranglehold on the market. Both are currently in single figures for the Diamond itself too.

Craig Williams is on Catchy, one of several Blue Diamond chances that he has the choice of riding, and will have to contend with an awkward draw. This is something she overcame on debut, beating Limestone in the process.

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Roomooz from the astute Tony McEvoy yard, who never seems to saddle a bad two-year-old, looks the key danger. She’s got some smart form behind her debut win in Adelaide, and Dwayne Dunn will give her every chance from the squishbox.

The Prelude for the colts and geldings has drawn a larger field than the fillies, including Pariah, the equal Diamond favourite, down from Sydney for the Snowdens, themselves master trainers of juveniles.

Cao Cao has the runs on the board for Mick Price, bolting in at Moonee Valley last start, with form that stacks up with the likes of Catchy. Between Price and the Snowden’s, they have won the last three Blue Diamonds.

Property is the gelding looking to upset the applecart of those interested in colts from a stud perspective. He took great improvement between his debut and second-up run when taking out the Diamond preview two weeks ago.

Marsupial has to be respected from the powerful Godolphin stable, and Azazel might just be ready to win again. Either colt would rocket into contention for the Blue Diamond cheque, and the lucrative call from stud, off the back of victory here.

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