UPDATE: Bodyguard has been scratched from the 2024 Blue Diamond field after failing his vet check. Click here for the full story.
Money continues to roll in for the Matt Laurie-trained Coleman to retain his undefeated status when lining-up as the well supported favourite in the Blue Diamond Stakes 2024 this weekend at Caulfield.
Coleman is one of the key contenders in the 2024 Blue Diamond Stakes field for Caulfield this weekend. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.
A typically talented line-up of two-year-old gallopers will face off in the Group 1 $2 million Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) in Melbourne on Saturday as future breeding value and boasting rights go on the line in the autumn classic.
Heading Blue Diamond betting markets at Ladbrokes.com.au is nicely-bred Pierata colt Coleman who is two-from-two heading into the Group 1 test.
Both his previous victories have been at the Caulfield track making him something of a course specialist as he prepares for his first 1200m assignment.
He claimed the Listed Debutant Stakes (1000m) last October and resumed in equally impressive fashion with a commanding 2.75 length romp home over his rivals fresh on February 3 in the Group 3 Chairman’s Stakes (1000m).
With three weeks between runs he is tipped as the one to beat again and complete the Chairman’s Stakes – Blue Diamond Stakes double for the first time since Extreme Choice (2016).
Coleman has been heavily backed in from $4.20 to $3.90 in Blue Diamond odds online at Ladbrokes.com.au and is drawn barrier seven with Ben Melham to ride.
The danger occupying the second line of betting at $4.80 is early market mover Lady Of Camelot for Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott.
Lyre (2019) was the last Blue Diamond Stakes winning filly and there is money to suggest Lady Of Camelot can be the next to beat home the boys.
The daughter of Written Tycoon is drawn a treat in gate four for Adam Hyeronimus who comes aboard as the third hoop to ride the filly in as many runs.
She was eye-catching on debut only a half-length beaten when fourth at Randwick last September in the Group 3 Gimcrack Stakes (1000m) before saluting with a nearly three length demolition job first-up at Rosehill in the Group 3 Widden Stakes (1100m).
That was an impressive Sydney performance that suggests she will eat up the 1200m but she must handle the colts and geldings as well as the Melbourne way of racing for the first time.
Despite a capacity Blue Diamond Stakes field just two other runners are under double figures for the win with Peter & Paul Snowden’s undefeated I Am Invincible colt Bodyguard ($6.50) and his smart stablemate High Octane ($7.50).
Bodyguard won a Listed sprint at Flemington to kick off his racing career last October and franked that here at the Caulfield track with a half-length win in the Blue Diamond Prelude for colts and geldings.
No colt or gelding has completed the Prelude – Blue Diamond double since Written By (2018).
High Octane comes via the same lead-up with the stable’s Preview winning Deep Field colt out to atone for his fifth in the Prelude.
Plenty of recent Blue Diamond Stakes winners have saluted at double figure starting prices and for value in 2024 punters may be looking further down the markets at the likes of the Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman-trained Chairman’s Stakes second-placed Exceed And Excel filly Eneeza ($12), Fillies’ Prelude runner-up Kuroyanagi ($15), the rails-drawn Matisse ($20), or even a true outsider like Tony & Calvin McEvoy’s Rue De Royale ($51) coming off a second in Sydney’s Inglis Millennium.
The 2024 Blue Diamond Stakes is set to run as Caulfield Race 8 at 4:15pm (AEDT) and full markets from Ladbrokes.com.au are available by clicking here.
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