News

Is Blue Diamond a mere Formality?

4th Feb 2017

Fastnet Rock’s outstanding season with juveniles continued, Uncle Mo made further inroads into Australian racing and Time Thief sired his first Group winner Down Under.

That was the primary wrap of black-type racing in Australia today as Inglis graduates dominated the feature races in Sydney and Melbourne, on the eve of their sales season beginning.

Fastnet Rock filly Formality surged into Blue Diamond contention with a dominant victory over the boys in the Group 3 Chairman’s Stakes (1000m) at Caulfield.

Trained by David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig, Formality is a regally-bred juvenile by the star Coolmore stallion Fastnet Rock out of dual Singapore Group 1-winner Jolie’s Shinju.

She remains undefeated from two starts and ended the day a $6.50 equal favourite for the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes alongside Jukebox, who won the $250,000 Restricted Listed Inglis Premier at Caulfield 35 minutes earlier.

The pair replaced Catchy as Blue Diamond favourite, another Fastnet Rock 2YO from Coolmore Australia’s 2016 Easter Yearling Sale draft, the same one Formality was offered in before being purchased for $120,000.

“Fastnet Rock is having an exceptional season with his 2YOs, with both Formality and Catchy performing at a high class level now,’’ Coolmore Australia’s Michael Kirwan said.

“Both fillies were graduates of the Coolmore Australia Inglis Easter draft of 2016 and we have a lot to look forward to in the next three weeks with the Blue Diamond at this stage.’’

At Randwick, Inglis Classic graduates Man From Uncle (Uncle Mo x Derelique) and In Her Time (Time Thief x Hell It’s Hot) won the two feature races, the Group 3 Eskimo Prince Stakes and Group 2 Breeders Classic respectively.

For up and coming sire Uncle Mo, who also stands at Coolmore Australia in the Hunter Valley, it was his second Stakes Winner in Australia from limited runners.

A champion American stallion, Uncle Mo’s other Stakes Winner here is Man From Uncle’s stablemate Moqueen, both of which Anthony Cummings puts the polish on.

3YO Man From Uncle (ex Derelique) cost Cummings $35,000 at the 2015 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale from the Fairhill Farm draft.

And In Her Time (Time Thief x Hell It’s Hot) gave both her sire and dam their biggest wins to date when she made it three consecutive wins for her trainer, Newcastle’s Ben Smith.

It was the first Group 2 winner for both Time Thief and Hell It’s Not.

In Her Time didn’t make her reserve when offered by Kanangra at the 2014 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

Her Dream Ahead half-sister is being offered by Kanangra as Lot 112 at this year’s Classic Sale, which starts next Saturday night and runs until late Monday.

To view the Classic Yearling Sale catalogue, click here.