SEN Track Preview: Blue Diamond and Futurity day at Caulfield
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Huge day of Group racing at Caulfield today.
The $1.5 million Blue Diamond Stakes for the two-year-olds is the feature, ably supported by fellow Group 1 races the Futurity Stakes and Oakleigh Plate.
Weather is fine, rail is in the true and the track is a Good 4.
Race 1 - Listed Mornington Cup Prelude (2000m) @ 12:40pm
Keen
Defibrillate continues his winning ways in the opener. Looks well suited in this at his pet distance and a track where’s two from two. Jockey Billy Egan has a great record on the horse winning five (and two places) from seven rides.
The Mounting Yard: Black Caviar Lightning Stakes Day at Flemington A Set the default text size A Set large text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size
The Mounting Yard returns this week after a three-month hiatus and I couldn’t pick a better program with which to kick off 2020: the Group 1 Black Caviar Lightning Stakes Day at Flemington.
The track should be between a Good 4 and Soft 5 with the weather predicted, and Flemington generally plays fairly, so tempo should dictate whether they can run or not.
Let’s get into it!
Benchmark 78, handicap, fillies and mares, 1600 metres
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Did you ever get bored watching Black Caviar keep the record intact, without blemish? Or ever think it was mundane that Winx would put 33 together straight, 25 of those at the elite Group 1 level?
No, me either. So why am I posing this seemingly totally rhetorical question now when it would be much easier to fill an end of year column with lists of top horses or achievements to make it easy on myself?
It stems from a piece put together by RSN racing editor Matt Stewart under the headline “Competition and Courage, not dominance, gets hearts racing”. He mentioned the win – 11th in a row, of The Harrovian at Eagle Farm as the most popular winner of Saturday. I’d agree, but it came in the context of questioning how that “courageous win” (and it was), was more stirring than the “relentless dominance of Black Caviar and Winx”.
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Damian Lane requires one win from eight rides at Caulfield on Boxing Day to earn a slice of Melbourne racing history.
Lane s scintillating form in the saddle during December has resulted in 14 victories across Melbourne metropolitan meetings.
It equals the mark reached by Craig Williams in July 2016 when Williams withstood a challenge from Dwayne Dunn in the race for the 2015/16 Melbourne Jockeys Premiership.
While records available to Racing.com only date back to August 2007, it is unlikely another jockey has ridden more winners in a calendar month prior to that period given the proliferation of metropolitan racing in Melbourne in recent years.