COOLMORE DOMINATES DIAMOND BETTING

24th January 2007

Coolmore dominates Diamond betting

Battle lines are being drawn and a fascinating scenario is developing around the Group One Blue Diamond, even before the first of the lead-up races, taking place at Caulfield today.

ENCOSTA DE LAGO colt Cecconi, ‘talking horse’ of the all-powerful David Hayes juvenile team, steps up to the plate in the Blue Diamond Preview for colts and geldings. And at least one intrepid punter will be watching the action with a more than passing interest, having single-handedly cut the colt’s Blue Diamond price from $31 to $15 with a bet of nearly $300,000 to $14,000 with TAB Sportsbet on Tuesday.

Cecconi is rumoured to be the most talented youngster in the Hayes stable. Now bear in mind that Hayes has won just about every two-year-old race of any significance this season bar the Breeders Plate and Magic Millions, in both of which races he provided runner-up Husson Lightning. So the Encosta colt has a lot to live up to if he is to justify the stable’s huge opinion of him.

If he does win, three things will happen. Firstly, the Blue Diamond will probably have a new favourite. Secondly, Encosta de Lago will consolidate his lead over Redoute’s Choice in the race for Champion Sire honours in Australia this season. And thirdly, Encosta de Lago will join barnmates Tale of the Cat and Johannesburg in the lead on the Juvenile Sires list by individual winners.

DANEHILL DANCER, another barnmate of Coolmore sires Encosta de Lago, Tale of the Cat and Johannesburg, currently boasts the Group One Blue Diamond favourite in the form of juvenile daughter Danehill Smile, backed from $15 to $4.50 favourite on Tuesday.

Perpetrators of the Australia-wide plunge, however, are not even sure of a run for their money, with trainer Anthony Cummings not prepared to make a Diamond decision until after the $500,000 William Inglis Classic at Randwick on February 10th.

“The Silver Slipper, at Rosehill the same day as the Blue Diamond, is one possibility, as is the Kindergarten Stakes at Warwick Farm a week later”, warned Danehill Smile’s trainer.

Cummings has made no secret of the high regard in which he holds the daughter of Danehill Dancer, easily Danehill’s most successful dual-hemisphere sire-son. Nor has Betchoice spokesman Mark Morrissey, who expects Danehill Smile to run a clear favourite for the Blue Diamond if she starts.

“You can’t fault Danehill Smile’s form”, said Morrissey. “She is the only filly to defeat Mimi Lebrock, who beat Royal Asscher and Cinq Rouge in Sydney, then won the Magic Millions from Husson Lighting.”

Danehill Smile is one of three juvenile winners already this season for Danehill Dancer, breathing down the neck of Tale of the Cat and Johannesburg – and, if Cecconi wins today, Encosta de Lago – on the score of individual two-year-old winners.

ROCK OF GIBRALTAR, like Encosta de Lago and Danehill Dancer, also boasts three individual two-year-old winners already this season, led, of course, by current Group One Golden Slipper favourite Murtajill. And the Rock, too, could join Tale of the Cat and Johannesburg – and possibly Encosta de Lago – in the four-winner pole position if daughter Superfly wins today’s Widden Stakes at Randwick.

Superfly has run only twice for two Listed stakes-placings, so a visit to the winner’s enclosure is certainly overdue. As indeed it is for another Rock of Gibraltar filly, Gamble Me, stakes-placed on debut (ahead of Cecconi, no less) in the Merson Cooper, behind Encosta de Lago filly Press the Button, rated by Glen Boss the best two-year-old he’s ridden all season.

Consider Superfly and Gamble Me, both already stakes-placed, likely to have won ‘ordinary’ maidens and you have to count Rock of Gibraltar unlucky not already to have five juvenile winners to his name. There are sires – indeed so-called ‘supersires’ – who don’t yet have a single two-year-old winner this season, which casts a whole new light on the deeds of Encosta de Lago, Tale of the Cat, Johannesburg, Danehill Dancer and Rock of Gibraltar.

CHOISIR is another in the same category. His two winners, to be sure, include the very impressive Listed Gimcrack Stakes winner Hurried Choice. But he also has two clearly talented Listed stakes-placers in Maxisun (Breeders Plate) and Choisism (Maribyrnong Plate), so with a touch more luck he too could be up there in pole position with aforementioned barnmates, leading the two-year-old sires by winners.