Equal favourite Plague Stone has drawn nicely at barrier six in the Group 1 $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

Long Leaf, above, is one of four Lindsay Park trained 2yos in the 2018 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Long Leaf, above, is one of four Lindsay Park trained 2yos in the 2018 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

The James Cummings trained Plague Stone made up good ground from the back when second to Written By in the Group 3 $200,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) for the colts and geldings at Caulfield on February 10 and will get a good run off the pace again.

Cummings will also saddle up Encryption who has drawn barrier fifteen in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes.

Last year’s winning jockey Craig Williams will ride Kinky Boom who was out of luck at the barrier draw with fourteen but could move in three spots when the final field of sixteen is rubber stamped at scratching time on Saturday morning with three of the four emergencies drawn inside of the Tony MvEvoy trained filly.

McEvoy will also saddle up Run Naan, barrier two, and Oohood, barrier ten and he also has two of the four emergencies, Aristocratic, barrier seventeen, and Roobeena, barrier thirteen.

The Lindsay Park Team off David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig had mixed results for their four runners in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes barrier with Ennis Hill, barrier four and Long Leaf, barrier seven, drawing in close while Qafila, barrier sixteen, and Enbihaar, barrier nineteen, drew out wide.

Late entry Lady Horseowner also drew a wide gate at twelve with Nikita Beriman taking the ride again after partnering the Greg Eurell trained filly to two wins from two starts in a 1000m two year old fillies Plate at The Valley and in the Group 3 $150,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) for the fillies at Caulfield on January 27.

Connections of Written By will be disappointed with barrier eighteen in the original draw after the Written Tycoon colt put himself into Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes contention with an impressive win in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Prelude for the colts and geldings.

Leading Victorian trainer Darren Weir’s only Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes runner, Native Soldier, will jump from the outside gate in the capacity sixteen horse field after drawing twenty in the original draw.

Betting for the 2018 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes at Ladbrokes.com.au: $7 Long Leaf, Plague Stone, $8 Kinky Boom, Oohood, $9 Ennis Hill, $10 Written By, Prairie Fire, $17 Native Soldier, Run Naan, $21 Enbihaar, Encryption, Lady Horseowner, Qafila, $34 Ollivander, Crossing The Abbey, $41 More Than Exceed, Grand Symphony, $101 Aristocratic, Roobeena, Melveen.

Final field and barrier draw for 2018 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m)

# Last 10 Horse Trainer Jockey Barrier Weight
1 11×1 LONG LEAF David & B Hayes & T Dabernig Kerrin McEvoy 7 56.5kg
2 1×1 WRITTEN BY Grahame Begg Jordan Childs 18 56.5kg
3 11×35 RUN NAAN Tony McEvoy Andrew Mallyon 2 56.5kg
4 31 PRAIRIE FIRE Mick Price Mark Zahra 1 56.5kg
5 120 OLLIVANDER Mathew Ellerton & Simon Zahra Chris Symons 3 56.5kg
6 32×2 ENCRYPTION James Cummings 15 56.5kg
7 56113 NATIVE SOLDIER Darren Weir Brad Rawiller 20 56.5kg
8 2×2 PLAGUE STONE James Cummings 6 56.5kg
9 2 GRAND SYMPHONY Robbie Griffiths Jye McNeil 5 56.5kg
10 11 ENBIHAAR David & B Hayes & T Dabernig Cory Parish 19 54.5kg
11 1 KINKY BOOM Tony McEvoy Craig Williams 14 54.5kg
12 11 LADY HORSEOWNER Greg Eurell Ms Nikita Beriman 12 54.5kg
13 41 ENNIS HILL David & B Hayes & T Dabernig Stephen Baster 4 54.5kg
14 4×126 CROSSING THE ABBEY Tim Hughes Luke Nolen 9 54.5kg
15 14x QAFILA David & B Hayes & T Dabernig Dwayne Dunn 16 54.5kg
16 2×32 OOHOOD Tony McEvoy Luke Currie 10 54.5kg
17e 3×332 ARISTOCRATIC MISS Tony McEvoy Jamie Kah 17 54.5kg
18e 2×1 MORE THAN EXCEED (NZ) Phillip Stokes Dom Tourneur 8 56.5kg
19e 2×65 ROOBEENA Tony McEvoy 13 54.5kg
20e 61 MELVEEN Henry Dwyer Damien Thornton 11 54.5kg

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.