Joao Moreira booked to ride Property in Blue Diamond Stakes

Hong Kong’s leading jockey Joao Moreira has been booked to ride Property in the Group 1 $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

Connections of Property, above in red white and blue colours, will pay a late entry fee to run in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Connections of Property, above in red white and blue colours, will pay a late entry fee to run in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Owners Price Bloodstock Management Ltd are expected to pay the $55,000 late entry fee for the jockey Crag Williams reject to take his place in Melbourne’s glamour two year old race of the 2017 Autumn Carnival.

Williams had ridden Property in both his Caulfield wins in the Listed $150,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview (C&G) (1000m) on January 26 and the Group 3 $200,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Prelude (C&G) (1100m) on February 11 and the Starcraft gelding was one of several youngsters Williams had in contention for the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes.

Williams ended up choosing Lindsay Park trained Catchy who is the ruling $5.50 favourite at Ladbrokes.com.au for the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes while ‘The Magic Man’ Moreira will ride Property who is marked at $8.

Moreira is a runaway leader in the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s jockey’s premiership with ninety-seven wins for the current season well ahead of Zac Purton on fifty-one wins.

Property was not in the original nominations for the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes but after two impressive wins in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview and Prelude and the recommendation from Williams to run on Saturday will see the Robert Smerdon trained two year old take his place in the final field that will be declared on Tuesday February 21.

“Craig said after his last win that he felt he should be going into the race,” Smerdon said.

The Darren Weir trained Limestone was omitted form the nominations for the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes but connections have decided not to pay the late entry fee even though the Helmet filly had been racing well with a win in the Group 3 $150,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies) (1000m) at Caulfield on January 26 followed by a close second to Catchy in the Group 2 $200,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Prelude (F) (1100m) (1100m) at Caulfield on February 11.

Early market order for the Blue Diamond Stakes at Ladbrokes.com.au: $5.50 Catchy, $6 Pariah, $7.50 Formality $8 Property, $9 Jukebox, $10 Tulip, $17 Chateau Griffo, Roomooz, $26 Azazel, Something Violet, Wait For No One, $34 or better the rest.

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.