McArdle confident My Gladiola can snare Blue Diamond redemption
Trainer John McArdle has warned punters not to underestimate deposed favourite My Gladiola (I Am Invincible) as she seeks redemption for a last-start defeat in one of the most open editions of the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in years.
The $550,000 Inglis Easter purchase shot to the top of betting for Saturday’s $2 million feature after her stunning 1.5 length debut success in the Blue Diamond Preview (Gr 3, 1000m) at Sandown in January, when a smothered rails run behind the leaders gave way to a fearsome burst of speed at the 250 metres as she put the race to bed.
She was thus sent out a raging $1.95 favourite for the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 2, 1100m) at Caulfield, but after surprisingly leading was caught late by Palm Angel (Starspangledbanner), eventually going down by a length.
Bookmakers have responded by installing My Gladiola only on the fourth line of betting for today’s Caulfield highlight at around $8.
Perhaps unfortunately for one of the country’s most renowned stallion-making races, the unbeaten Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young trained gelding Field Of Play (Deep Field) headed the market at $5 ahead of four fillies.
At $5.50 sat debut Geelong Diamond (1100m) winner Cherish Me (Brazen Beau) – now half of Ciaron Maher’s all-female contingent after Friday’s vet-enforced scratching of another of his fillies in Icarian Dream (Blue Point).
Godolphin’s Tempted (Street Boss) was at $7 after her fast finishing 0.1 length second in Rosehill’s Widden Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m). Notably, that’s about half the price of the filly who beat her that day in The Playwright (Written By), given distance doubts about that Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott runner over the Blue Diamond’s 1200m.
My Gladiola still shaded Palm Angel ($8.50) on bookies’ lists, and that was in keeping with McArdle’s belief that their last meeting didn’t show his filly in her truest light. Palm Angel will have to pass a veterinary on Saturday morning if she is to take her chance in the Group 1.
After jumping from the widest gate of ten that day, My Gladiola’s regular rider Jamie Mott was left exposed in front, a situation McArdle says won’t be repeated on Saturday when Mott again rides the flashy grey, who again has barrier ten, this time in a 15-horse field.
“Things didn’t go according to plan last start,” McArdle told ANZ Bloodstock News. “She drew wide and the plan was to go back, but she jumped a bit too well and Jamie thought by getting across nice and quickly, something would come around him and lead and he’d get cover. But nothing decided to come around him.
“The filly’s never led before, even in trials, and as the day turned out, leading on the rail was a definite no.
“At the end of the day everyone said she was disappointing, but to me, she still ran second in a Group 2, and behind a stakes-winning filly.
“I was happy enough with the way she ran. She did hold the rest of the field off without too many dramas, and Jamie said she was coming back again after the post, when she got herself balanced up again and had something to chase, so he’s very confident she’ll run the 1200 metres.”
McArdle said he’d like to see My Gladiola in the first half of the field in running on Saturday, but the more crucial need was to attain cover.
“Ideally, we’d be three wide with cover in the first half of the field, but cover is the main thing,” he said. “She over-raced a bit when in front last start, whereas in all of her trials, her first race and in her work, when you ride her back behind a horse, she’ll relax.
“Hopefully, something can cart us up coming around the turn, then we can get clear air and she shows that turn of foot again.”
McArdle was delighted to have secured My Gladiola – a daughter of triple stakes-winning sprinting mare Villa Verde (Not A Single Doubt) – at Inglis Easter with long term client Paul Johnson. Though McArdle feared they were out of the running when their bid of $500,000 was eclipsed by one of $525,000, Johnson went again to secure her for $550,000, with breeders Kia Ora Stud staying in the group of owners.
Having won his two Group 1s in the 2004-05 season with Hollow Bullet (Tayasu Tsuyoshi), McArdle would be thrilled to taste top-level victory again.
“Our stable has won a lot of Group races, but Group 1s are hard things to win,” he said. “It’d be a great thing to win one for a great supporter like Paul Johnson, for Kia Ora, and for the filly’s smaller shareholders who are family and friends.
“I’m as confident as you can be going into a two-year-old Group 1. Two-year-olds are there one day and gone the next.
“It’s a bit hard to line up the form, and it’s a very open race, but I’m confident I’ve got the horse in the best condition she can be in for the race. Jamie’s had a lot to do with her, and he’s very confident in her.
“Every race is hard to win, Group 1s in particular, but I think she’ll run very competitively.”
Natalie Young and Trent Busuttin felt two common factors about the Blue Diamond when it became one of their eight Group 1 victories in 2020: it went to a longshot – in $26 chance Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) – who then became a stallion, standing at Yulong with his first runners now hitting the tracks.
This season the stable hopes for an opposite success, saddling the likely favourite in gelding Field Of Play. The Verna Metcalfe-bred son of Deep Field (Northern Meteor) was pinhooked from $255,000 to $500,000, when bought by Jamie Richards and Andrew Williams Bloodstock at Karaka, and soon had a date with the surgeon due to some early unruliness.
Young believes that’s turned him into a racehorse, evidenced when he made it two from two by taking the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m) after a 3.25 length win at Moonee Valley on December 28 that makes him one of just three entrants on Saturday to have tried 1200 metres, and the only one successful.
Such vagaries amid early season two-year-old form have conspired to make the Blue Diamond something of a punting minefield of late, with the past five winners averaging a starting price of $17.
Only three fillies have won in the past decade – including $16 shot Hayasugi (Royal Meeting) last year – as against seven colts. All of those have gone on to stand at stud, including 2016 winner Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) and 2018’s Written By (Written Tycoon), who have a chance of having their deeds emulated by their offspring on Saturday. Extreme Choice has Team Hawkes’s $1.4 million Magic Millions Gold Coast colt Devil Night, at $12, while Written By has The Playwright.
Only four geldings have won the Blue Diamond. One was the champion Manikato (Manihi) in 1978, and the latest was Kusi (Desert Prince) in 2003.
Young was on Friday reasonably confident that with Blake Shinn aboard from gate five, Field Of Play would perform well.
“He’s come through that Prelude win in excellent style, he’s lovely and bright, and he’s drawn nicely,” Young said of Field Of Play, whose dam Californiasurprise (I Am Invincible) only won at 900 metres, but whose second dam Camporella (Exceed And Excel) won stakes races up to 1400 metres.
“He won first-up over 1200, and he’s come on that little bit more from that. Obviously in a Group 1 up to 1200 will be a lot more of a high pressure race, but he was up on speed in the Prelude and was too good for them.
“He’s bounced through that run and is ready to take that next step up into a Group 1.
“There’s plenty of speed on the inside of him, so hopefully he’ll be third or fourth, one off the fence, and will have that dash in him to kick and extend.”
Young nominated as her most feared rival Devil Night, who debuted with a 0.46 length second to her gelding in the Prelude, but said the Diamond shaped as an open affair as usual.
“Half the field are fillies and half colts, so it could go either way,” she said. “It’s generally a stallion-making race, though we’re going into it chasing the prize-money.
“It’s a race where 20-1 shots get up, like Tagaloa. Each year it depends who gets that good run in transit, and gets a little bit of luck. Hopefully our boy can get some. We’ve got a good gate, a top jockey, and he’s bounced through his first two runs. We couldn’t be happier with him.”
Palm Angel was retained by Rosemont Stud after a minor x-ray issue and has rewarded her Victorian breeders and trainer Jason Warren handsomely so far. She’s won $336,000, including a victory in November’s Merson Cooper Stakes (Listed, 1000m) which relieved pressure for qualifying for the Blue Diamond.
She will face a race-morning inspection from Racing Victoria vets for a small hoof issue, but is expected by connections to be passed fit thanks to a three-quarter shoe.
The Rosemont team saw the sense in putting their British-bred, Arqana-bought mare Noblest (Pivotal) to their then-resident stallion Starspangledbanner (Choisir) to breed Palm Angel. The same cross over a Pivotal (Polar Falcon) mare produced a Rosemont favourite in dual Group-winner Brooklyn Hustle (Starspangledbanner) who, incidentally, now has a colt first foal by Zoustar (Northern Meteor) who’ll also be retained by the stud and trained by Warren.
While McArdle suspects My Gladiola will avenge the Prelude result, Rosemont principal Anthony Mithen said the belief in his camp was reasonably strong that Palm Angel could prove her win that day was no fluke.
He’s hopeful the filly can add to the half dozen Group 1 winners to have carried the stud’s colours – and break a drought, with the latest being Mr Quickie (Shamus Award) in the 2020 Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m).
“Confidence levels are good,” Mithen said. “Something like that hoof issue puts a bit of a knot in the stomach, but she’s shown us everywhere she’s gone that she’s high class, and potentially one of the best horses we’ve had our colours on.
“Her data suggests she’s well above average. She’s been constantly putting down markers that are raising eyebrows.
“Because of that Merson Cooper win, Jason has been able to program her to run her grand final this Saturday, giving her every opportunity to be at her best. That meant we could use the Preview and Prelude as genuine build-ups, and better still she came out and won one of them.
“I’m expecting her to be cherry ripe and showing her best, and perhaps going to another level. If she’s able to do that, I’d love to own any horse who beats her.”