Co-trainer Trent Busuttin has all but ruled out a Golden Rose bid for Tagaloa with the Blue Diamond winning colt to remain in Melbourne chasing the 2020 Caulfield Guineas – Cox Plate double.

Tagaloa will stay in Melbourne targeting the Caulfield Guineas and Cox Plate this spring. Ultimate Racing Photos.

Busuttin along with Natalie Young train the classy Lord Kanaloa colt out of Cranbourne and are leaning towards forgetting the Group 1 $1 million Golden Rose (1400m) in Sydney this September in favour of avoiding any COVID-19 related travel dramas by staying put in Melbourne for the spring.

The 2020 Golden Rose Stakes is scheduled for Saturday September 26 at Rosehill Gardens and Tagaloa is a $26 shot in betting through Ladbrokes.com.au.

He is unlikely to head north for the event however with connections focused on the Group 1 $2 million Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 10 and a potential shot at the Group 1 $5 million Cox Plate (2040m) at the Valley a fortnight after that with the valuable youngster.

“You probably should never say never, but we won’t go to the Golden Rose,” Busuttin told Racenet this week.

“The plan is for him to go to the Caulfield Guineas and then into the Cox Plate, as a last-start Guineas winner.

“I’ve got no doubt that outside our bloke, the best colts are all in Sydney and they are all going to be butting heads in a Golden Rose.

“We’ve got a race worth $2million on our back doorstep and if we win a Group I as a three-year-old it is job done in terms of increasing or continuing his value.

“It would just complicate things is we went up there (to Sydney for the Golden Rose).”

Tagaloa has had six starts for two wins ahead of his spring return this weekend in Caulfield’s Group 3 $160,000 H.D.F. McNeil Stakes (1200m) with his Blue Diamond winning jockey Michael Walker to ride, and Busuttin in quietly confident the horse will be effective over further this preparation.

“On pedigree yes, he will be better over more ground, on type, yes, on his racing manners, yes, he’s not a jump and charge horse,” he said.

“Everything would suggest he will be better over more ground.

“But you’ve got to be careful, at the end of the day he has won over 1000m at The Valley and he has won a Blue Diamond.

“I can say he’s going to get over more ground and he’s going to do this and that, but we have just got to let the horse tell us.”

Tagaloa is best known for his win at that same track and distance back in February when taking out the Group 1 $1.5 million Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) in an upset at 25/1.

The colt then headed to Sydney for the Group 2 Todman Stakes (1200m) finishing runner-up to Farnan before his fourth behind the same horse in the Group 1 $3.5 million Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) in March.

All-in markets on the 2020 Caulfield Guineas at Ladbrokes.com.au have Tagaloa as the $11 third elect behind brilliant Group 3 Up & Coming Stakes winner first-up North Pacific ($8) and Team Snowden’s dual Group 1 winner King’s Legacy ($10).

As for the Ladbrokes Cox Plate 2020, the three-year-old is at a current futures quote of $34 with full markets available here.