I’ve been busy of late and missed posting photos from a couple of race meetings, however will play some catch-up over the next couple of days. This time of year 2yo racing becomes very significant as we head to the Blue Diamond Stakes at the end of February.

Caulfield on Australia Day is Blue Diamond Preview day and we saw quite a few hopefuls produced for their race track debut. However it was a couple of raced horses that won both previews.

COHESION

Godolphin with the pure numbers of horses coming through their system always produce 2yo contenders at this time of year. They have the luxury of being able to switch them between Melbourne and Sydney. Cohesion is one that has transitioned from Sydney after having his first start in the Breeders Plate back in October, where he was beaten 5L by Capitalist.

Ridden by Ben Melham here, he jumped well, led early and was never headed. A very professional performance, covering the 1000m in 57.68. As is common with 2yo racing the horse with the best racing manners often wins and it was the case here. A convincing win, but certainly not something that screams back me now in the Blue Diamond.

The horse to follow is Weatherley, who bombed the start and had a chequered run throughout, but still managed to finish 6th, beaten 2.7L. However I suspect he’ll start well under his right odds next time round, a horse to follow but perhaps just watch the next start.

SWORD OF LIGHT

The fillies Preview, produced a full field and again it was one with race experience that was successful. Sword Of Light had previously raced at Echuca prior to Christmas and had been a dominant winner there.

Here she settled just forward of midfield early and commenced a run at about the 500m mark. She was able to hit the front, just inside 200m mark and recorded a 1.2L win. Her time was 57.50s, so just in front of the colts, although not a lot in it and the colts went harder earlier in their race.

ZAMZAM

Moonee Valley on the 29th of January saw a small group (there were a few defections possibly due to the unsettled weather during the day) contest a 1000m race. Godolphin’s Gridelin started a short priced favourite at $1.65 (poison odds for a 2yo at it’s first start). However she was no match for the David Hayes/Tom Dabernig trained Zamzam, an expensive daughter of Redoute’s Choice ($920k at the Inglis Easter sale last year). She was in the back half of the small field, but was able to round up the leaders easily and record a dominant 2L win. Once she hit the front, up went the ears and she pretty much switched off, so there seems to be some upside there. I’m sure she will also enjoy getting out to the 1200m trip of the Blue Diamond.

There’s no real stand out amongst these three, but I look forward to seeing Zamzam when she goes about again.