Horse Racing

This Saturday Caulfield will host the latest race for Blue Diamond Stakes 2012 bound youngsters including early favourite Jimando in the $100,000 Listed Chairman’s Stakes (1100m).

Attracting 24 nominations this year, the Chairman’s Stakes is one of four black-type races highlighting the Melbourne racing action at Caulfield on the weekend.

Won 12 months ago by Lee Freedman’s Commands colt Atomic on debut, the Tony McEvoy-trained Jimando will look to make it back-to-back wins for their sire Commands on Saturday.

Three and a half length winner of the Listed Inglis Debutants Stakes (1000m) last time out on October 12, Jimando will be out to keep their flawless record intact with a Chairman’s Stakes win and secure their spot at the top of the 2012 Blue Diamond Stakes odds at Luxbet.

“I’m delighted with the way he’s come back,” the South Australian-based McEvoy said.

“He’s been working beautifully and he’s in the right frame of mind.

“He had a jump-out here at home and he flew the gates and sat right on the bunny and did it with style.”

Jimando pays $5 in the latest markets for the $1 million Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m), the popular two-year-olds feature running at Caulfield on February 25.

The next best fancied of the Chairman’s Stakes nominees is then the Peter Snowden-trained Forget at $13 in the Blue Diamond Luxbet futures.

A nicely-bred son of Exceed And Excel out of Thousand Guineas winning Encosta De Lago mare Mnemosyne, Forget was disappointing on debut when finishing a well-beaten 10^th behind Pierro in the Listed Thoroughbred Breeders Plate (1000m) but is tipped for improvement this prep.

Another Snowden-trained galloper a little further down the Blue Diamond markets that goes into the Chairman’s Stakes with a better record is Elusive Quality colt Rusambo.

Currently a $21 Blue Diamond chance, Rusambo was a close third in the Breeders Plate on debut before backing up a fortnight later to finish second behind Gerald Ryan’s Amorino in the City Tattersalls Plate (1000m) on a Slow (6) Randwick track.

Other notable Chairman’s Stakes entries and their current Blue Diamond Stakes price include Jason Warren’s unraced Snitzel colt Pronto Pronto ($41 Luxbet), twice stakes-placed Andre Roo Hoo ($51 Luxbet), the Danny O’Brien-trained Bush Aviator ($51 Luxbet), and Timely Truce ($51 Luxbet) who ran third to The Travelling Man in last Thursday’s Blue Diamond Preview.

Check out the full Chairman’s Stakes nominations below with the final field to be published here at Races.com.au later in the week.

In the meantime, get in on the early Blue Diamond Stakes betting action by opening your new Luxbet account and enjoy a $400 bonus bet on the house by depositing and quoting the exclusive code BONUSBET.

2012 Chairman’s Stakes Nominations

Caulfield 04/02/2012