Golden Rose hopeful Diamond Tathagata showed that he is in for a bright 2017 Spring Carnival campaign with a narrow but impressive Randwick barrier trial win today.
Diamond Tathagata, above in blue and yellow colours, is being set for the Golden Rose at Rosehill. Photo by Steve Hart.
The Mark Newnham trained Diamond Tathagata with Tommy Berry in the saddle was able to lead all of the way in the 900m trial on the Randwick course proper and hold off the well performed Chris Waller trained Comin’ Through by a short head with the mighty mare Winx finishing on strongly into third place.
Diamond Tathagata, still a two year old for another week, was able to beat the older horses and Newnham was very pleased with the effort.
“He is a nice strong colt and we couldn’t have asked for anything more today racing against older horses. The idea was just to give him a nice gallop and he had that,” Mark Newnham told Racing New South Wales News.
“With colts, you want to see them keen and competitive. He jumped really quickly from the gates to put himself right there, was relaxed and was keen to put his head down on the line. You want to see them have a bit of desire.
“He is a lot bigger and stronger than he was as an early two year old.”
Diamond Tathagata showed that he had plenty of ability with a win in the Group 2 $200,000 Skyline Stakes (1200m) at Randwick during the 2017 Sydney Autumn Carnival and Newnham is keen to get the rising three year old into the Group 1 $1m De Bortoli Wines Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill on September 23.
Newnham is still working out a Spring Carnival program for Diamond Tathagata but will work around giving him two lead up runs into the Golden Rose.
“We’ll just see how he comes out of the trial before we decide anything. The Golden Rose is still a while away yet but he’ll probably need two runs going into it,” Newnham said.
The Listed $150,000 The Rosebud (1100m) at Rosehill on August 12 and the Group 3 $150,000 San Domenico Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill on August 26 are two options Newhham is looking at.
The lightly raced Diamond Tathagata made it into the field for the Group 1 $3.5m Longines Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill but never threatened to finish seventh to She Will Reign and then was well beaten again when twelfth to Invader in the Group 1 $1m Inglis Sires’ (1400m) at Randwick on day one of ‘The Championships’.
Early betting for the Golden Rose at Ladbrokes.com.au has Diamond Tathagata listed as a $34 chance while the James Cummings trained Kementari sits at the top of the market order at $9 just ahead of Blue Diamond Stakes winner Catchy at $11.
Early market order for the Golden Rose at Ladbrokes.com.au: $9 Kementari, $11 Catchy, $13 Pariah, $15 Invader, Tulip, $17 Merchant Navy, Trapeze Artist, $21 Addictive Nature, Alizee, Ardrossan, Menari, Shoals, Siege Of Quebec, $26 Champagne Cuddles, Marble, Taking Aim, Verinaillo, $34 or better the rest.
