The 2017 running of Victoria’s biggest race for juveniles, the $1.5 million Group One Blue Diamond Stakes, has attracted a large group of promising gallopers.
Amazingly six of the 17 runners are members of the Lindsay Park stables of David Hayes, Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig and they are looking to continue their stellar run of two-year-old success this season.
Since the arrival of Danehill on our shores, the Blue Diamond has been dominated by that champion stallion. He sired his first winner of the race – Danelagh – in 1998 and since that time 12 of the 18 winners have had him in their pedigrees.
His 1999 winner Redoute’s Choice sired two winners of the race (Nadeem and Undoubtedly) whilst his son Not A Single Doubt also has two Blue Diamond winners on his resume; Extreme Choice and Miracles Of Life.
Exceed And Excel has also had two Blue Diamond winners; Earthquake and Reward For Effort. The latter is attempting to become the race’s first winner since Redoute’s Choice to sire a winner – his daughter Blondie making her way into the field having won so easily at her Moonee Valley debut last month.
Meanwhile 2002 Blue Diamond winner Bel Esprit has a grandson – the emergency Sheer Madness (by Moshe) – in the field. That maiden is out of a mare by Danehill stallion Flying Spur, sire of 2007 winner Sleek Chassis.
One outstanding Danehill stallion yet to sire a Blue Diamond winner is Fastnet Rock but he gets his chance on Saturday with five runners; Cao Cao, Will’s Bid, Catchy, Formality and Roomooz.
Snitzel hasn’t had a Blue Diamond winner yet either but he is the second best represented in this year’s field with three runners; Azazel, Jukebox and Spoils.
Redoute’s Choice is also represented by Pariah whilst Danehill’s grandson Choisir has Taking Aim.
More Than Ready, sire of 2012 winner Samaready, has a grandson in the field – Aspect by Pluck.
And one hard to beat is the toppie Property whose sire Starcraft sired the 2010 winner Star Witness.
Just one other sire line has a Blue Diamond runner this year, that of Sir Tristram whose wonderful grandson Lonhro is the sire of Wait For No One and grandsire (via Pierro) of Tulip. His son Reset, who never tasted defeat, has the unbeaten Muraahib.
So that’s the sires, now the families!
Some of history’s most famed mares have descendants running in this year’s Blue Diamond. Such as Chelandry, ancestress of Pariah. He hails from the same branch of this prolific family that produced 1988 Blue Diamond winner Zeditave.
Being a descendant of another grand mare in Celestial Light, Wait For No One can also boast a Blue Diamond winning relative in Reward For Effort.
Cao Cao doesn’t have a Blue Diamond winner close up in his pedigree but his relation River Dove did win the Oakleigh Plate on this day 14 years ago. He is a descendant of Simon’s Shoes, ancestress of Sadler’s Wells, Fairy King and Nureyev.
Meanwhile the 2010 Oakleigh Plate was won by Starspangledbanner whose half-brother Will’s Bid lines up for the Hayes stable. He is a descendant of acclaimed matriarch Eulogy from the Elvstroem, Haradasun and Highland Reel branch of this wonderful family.
And the 1995 Oakleigh Plate winner Khaptingly also has a relative running; Sheer Madness who is out of a city winning Flying Spur half-sister to the Singapore Group winner Spanish Bay.
The unbeaten Formality is a son of the star Singapore mare Jolie’s Shinju from one of America’s most prolific families, that which descends from the great mare La Troienne.
Tulip is another to boast illustrious relations, her fourth dam being the influential Fanfreluche who has really made her mark in this part of the world via her descendants Flying Spur and Encosta de Lago.
The second foal for Group Three winner Pane In The Glass, Roomooz is a descendant of Imperatrice, grandam of one of the true greats of the turf, the immortal Secretariat.
New Zealand mare Desert Gold, famous for her 19 streak winning run in the early 1900’s, is ancestress of Blondie whose dam is a city winning half-sister to the Group Three sprinter Commanding Hope.
Blondie is one of four 2017 Blue Diamond runners raced by their breeders whilst of those who went through the sales the highest priced runner is Pariah ($700,000 Easter) whilst the cheapest is $40,000 Melbourne Premier purchase Sheer Madness.
One of the least likely Blue Diamond pedigrees belongs to that of Property whose first two dams are unraced whilst his third dam Desert Orchid was a more than handy hurdler!
Hailing from a good European family, Azazel is out of an imported full sister to French stakes winner Alnamara, in turn dam of Group Three winner Alnadana. His grandam is a half-sister to Sakhee, winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Jukebox is a son of speedy stakes winning Rory’s Jester mare Jestatune, daughter of another juvenile stakes winner in Umatune who also produced the Perth Group One winner Ihtsahymn.
Aspect is out of the five times winning Lonhro mare Innishbeg (half-sister to stakes winner Tina Melina) whilst Catchy is out of the three times Group winner Cats Whisker.
Bred on a 3 X 4 cross of Lunchtime, Taking Aim is out of the stakes winner Girl Hussler and his third dam Clever Zoe was also fast; a Group One placed stakes winner.
A half-brother to Listed winner Haybah, Muraahib is out of the city winning Exceed And Excel mare Sultah, half-sister to three stakes winners including VRC Derby hero Rebel Raider.
Spoils has as his dam the stakes placed General Nediym mare Fortune Of War, half-sister to the Group winners Sertorius and Clifton Red. This is quite a versatile family having had a Melbourne Cup runner (Sertorious) as well as a Golden Slipper winner in Tontonan.