Laurie dreaming of Blue Diamond glory with classy Coleman
Trainer Matt Laurie is as confident as he can be, in a race of multiple chances, that long-term fancy Coleman (Pierata) can arrest a recent modest stretch for short-priced runners in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Caulfield today.
A $550,000 Magic Millions purchase for Laurie by Yulong Stud’s first-season sire Pierata (Pierro), Coleman has long been at or near the top of the market for the Blue Diamond since October, with his standing only reinforced by the form around him.
And Coleman, already the favourite yesterday morning, was wound in further later in the day after the controversial enforced scratching of a key rival in James Harron’s $1.6 million colt Bodyguard (I Am Invincible). A $6 chance after powerful stakes wins in his first two starts, Bodyguard was deemed lame by Racing Victoria stewards, contrary to the vehement view of veteran co-trainer Peter Snowden.
Bookmakers last night had Coleman at around $3.80, but he could be pressured for favouritism today by Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon), who was at $4 for her bid to bring Gai Waterhouse her first Blue Diamond, and keep alive Tulloch Lodge’s hopes of a “quadruple” of juvenile majors this summer and autumn.
Coleman made his bow in Caulfield’s Debutant Stakes (Listed, 1000m) on October 18 with an imposing length-and-a-quarter victory over Arabian Summer (Too Darn Hot) and Aardvark (Capitalist).
Arabian Summer then strolled home with Ballarat’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1000m) and won again over 1100m at the Gold Coast before a solid fifth in the major Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) at that track. Aardvark reappeared last weekend, powerfully winning Flemington’s Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m).
After a spell, Coleman resumed with an ultra-impressive two-and-three-quarter length victory in the Chairman’s Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m), again at today’s venue, on February 3. He comfortably accounted for Eneeza (Exceed And Excel), who’d blitzed the field in the Merson Cooper Stakes (Listed, 1000m) at the same track on December 2 after a debut second in the Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Flemington, when she beat Arabian Summer into third.
Coleman’s time after bounding clear in the last 200m of the Chairman’s Stakes, in only a five-horse field, was a slick 56.71 seconds – only 0.74 seconds outside a track record set in 2009.
The favourite’s crown has been a heavy one in the Blue Diamond in the past four years, when there has been only one winner at single figure odds, and then only just. The winners have been Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) at $26, Artorius (Flying Artie) at $13, Daumier (Epaulette) at $20, and Little Brose (Per Incanto), the relative “hot pot” of the list at $9.50 last year.
In those four editions, the top elects have been Hanseatic (Street Boss), who was second at $2.60; Enthaar (Written Tycoon), sixth at $2.40; Jacquinot (Rubick) third at $4.40; and Barber (Exceed And Excel), who was ninth at $5.
However, Laurie yesterday said after a carefully-plotted preparation, and with an ideal gate of seven for jockey Ben Melham, he was confident of Coleman’s chances of providing his third Group 1, following Portland Sky (Deep Field) in Caulfield’s 2021 Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) and Escado (Casino Prince) in the 2013 South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m).
“I’m very happy with him. We’ve got a very good colt, and I’m just hoping we get the right run and things go our way,” Laurie told ANZ Bloodstock News. “I do think he’s the one for the others to beat, and hopefully that’s how it plays out.”
Laurie has trodden a meticulous path with the Kulani Park-bred Coleman.
“After his first run, we could’ve gone to Queensland for the Magic Millions Classic, but I was pretty firm in my thinking of focusing on this race,” Laurie said. “That appears to have been a good move, so hopefully he’ll be able to nail his grand final.”
The Mornington trainer has no doubts Coleman will handle the rise from his two starts over 1000 metres to 1200 metres today.
“He looks like he can handle high pressure and still find, and that’s probably what he’s going to need to win a race like this,” he said.
“He looks as though he’s running through the line, on both occasions really solidly over 1000 metres, to suggest the 1200 is not going to be an issue. He’s got a lovely big action on him, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s getting out to longer distances further later down the track.”
Laurie has taken an extra precautionary step by adding a tongue tie today.
“It’s just as a bit more assurance. It’s his grand final, a Group 1, it’s going to be a busy and hectic race, and I won’t want to be coming out of it with a horse who potentially pulls his tongue back and we’re thinking, ‘Gee, it would’ve been nice to have a tongue tie on’,” Laurie said.
“He’s worked in one before, and he’s happy with it. It’s only a positive.”
Coleman completed his preparation with a solo gallop at Caulfield on Tuesday – “He’s so professional that he probably does a little too much in company” – and Laurie has a picture, all going well, of how the race might pan out.
“Gai’s horse will lead, I’m pretty sure of that, and hopefully from barrier seven we’re gunning her down in the straight,” he said. “Gate seven is ideal. I didn’t want to draw 16 or one. We should hopefully get clear air.”
Lady Of Camelot, an ultra-impressive go-to-whoa two-and-three-quarter length winner against male rivals first-up in Rosehill’s Widden Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), will strive to become only the second female winner in seven Blue Diamonds.
If she can, she will keep alive the in-form Waterhouse-Bott stable’s hopes for a clean sweep of the first four prime juvenile races of the season, having taken Randwick’s Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) with Fully Lit (Hellbent), and the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) with Storm Boy (Justify). The latter is the dominant favourite for the biggest one of all, the $5 million Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) at Rosehill on March 23, in which Tulloch Lodge currently have seven of the top 10 runners in betting.
The Go Bloodstock homebred Lady Of Camelot has a perfect barrier in gate four from which to assume her universally anticipated leader’s role today.
A Blue Diamond of many chances was reduced by one yesterday when RV veterinarians said Bodyguard – who they deemed to be lame on Thursday – had not improved.
Snowden was privately seething over the decision. While reluctant to comment publicly and risk official sanction, he told ANZ Bloodstock News there was “nothing wrong with the horse”, and that the ordeal surrounding his scratching from a stallion-making Group 1 was “very upsetting”.
Team Snowden and Harron will now have to be content with one runner together in Fearless (Pierata), who Peter Snowden said was over-the-odds at $34 after his half-length second to Prost (Snitzel) in Rosehill’s Canonbury Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m).
The stable has another particularly dangerous chance in the Newgate-China Horse Club colt High Octane (Deep Field), who won the Blue Diamond Preview (Listed, 1000m) on debut before being hopelessly blocked in the straight when fifth in Bodyguard’s Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m).
“He barely had a barrier trial that day, and he’s in very good order now,” Snowden said of High Octane, who has gate nine for Blake Shinn, and was elevated to $7 third-favourite after Bodyguard’s replacement by first emergency In Her Eyes (Star Witness).
Tony and Calvin McEvoy have two confirmed runners in colts Rue De Royale (Per Incanto) and Dublin Down (Exceedance), and will have a third in filly Altermatum (Zoustar) if the second emergency gains a run.
After fighting seconds from rough gates in Rosehill’s $1 million Golden Gift (1100m) and the Millennium, Rue De Royale would have been shorter than his $41 quote had he not drawn the second-widest barrier for today’s 16-horse field. Despite the race having only one bend, only four of its past 20 winners have jumped from wider than gate 11, and the past five have had single-digit gates.
And Dublin Down – an impressive neck winner of the Maribyrnong Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) on Melbourne Cup day – would have been tighter than his $61 quote if not for the minor respiratory procedure compelling him to attempt the rare feat of tackling a Blue Diamond first-up.
“He was supposed to run in the Prelude, but got an entrapped epiglottis and needed a little bit of surgery, and a couple of weeks of taking it easy,” Tony McEvoy said.
“It was minor, but the timing was bad, and so here we are first-up. I’m happy with him, he’s done enough, but he’s just lacked a race.”