Blue Diamond Stakes favourite Extreme Choice will make his next Autumn Carnival appearance in the Group 3 $150,000 Chairman’s Stakes (1000m) at Caulfield on February 6.
Blue Diamond Stakes favourite Extreme Choice will have his next start in the Chairman’s Stakes at Caulfield. Photo by Steve Hart.
Trainer Mick Price has elected to give Extreme Choice just one more lead up run into the Group 1 $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on February 27, giving him a three week run in to the Autumn Carnival two year old feature.
Thus bypassing the traditional path of running in the Group 3 $200,000 Blue Diamond Prelude (C&G) (1100m) at Caulfield on February 13 a fortnight before the main event.
“I didn’t see a need to be banging him around in the (Blue Diamond) Previews and Preludes. If I run on the sixth it gives me three weeks into the Blue Diamond,” Price told Racing.com’s Racing Ahead on RSN.
Extreme Choice was an impressive debut winner in the $500,000 Inglis Nursery (1000m) at Randwick on December 12 with Sydney jockey Glyn Schofield in the saddle but Damien Oliver was in charge when the Not A Single Doubt colt kept the smile on Price’s face with a pleasing hit out in the jump outs at Caulfield on Tuesday morning.
“Damien Oliver trialled him here at Caulfield and he went really well,” Price said.
“He didn’t trial like a runaway two-year-old which we’ve already seen from him so I didn’t need to see him trial like that but he should be very, very hard to beat Saturday week. I think it will be a nice run into the Blue Diamond.”
Extreme Choice’s Inglis Nursery win saw him jump to the top of the market order for the Blue Diamond Stakes at Ladbrokes.com.au and is currently the $6 favourite just ahead of the Peter and Paul Snowden trained Defcon.
But that could change after Saturday with the first starter Defcon the raging tip to win the Group 3 $150,000 Canonbury Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill and if that happens he will seriously challenge Extreme Choice for Blue Diamond Stakes favouritism.
Early Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes market order at Ladbrokes.com.au: $6 Extreme Choice, $7 Defcon, $10 Calliope, $15 Cohesion, Hell Of An Effort, Manuel, Weatherly, $17 Astern, Concealer, So Serene, $21 El Venetian, Mount Panorama, Tessera, Power Trip.
