A tardy get away couldn’t stop Gypsy Diamond saluting for the punters in the Group 3 $200,000 The Daily Telegraph Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) at Randwick today.

Favourite Gypsy Diamond wins the Group 3 Carbine Club Stakes on Day 1 of The Championships. Photo by Steve Hart

Gypsy Diamond was the last horse to leave the barriers but quickly made up ground for James McDonald to settle on the fence just worse than midfield.

The John O’Shea trained filly who started the short price $2.70 favourite handled the wet conditions well and kept making up ground as McDonald started to weave his way through the field from the 600m mark.

McDonald finally got a split in between runners at the 200m and pushed the filly through to beat Casino Dancer ($26) by two lengths with Rock Sturdy ($6) a further half length away in third spot.

O’Shea had originally wanted to run Gypsy Diamond in the Group 1 $3m The Star Doncaster Mile (1600m) today but was forced to take on the three year olds after not gaining a run after being the second emergency for the feature race on the first day of ‘The Championships’.

Today’s win was Gypsy Diamond’s third from thirteen starts with the majority of them being in Group company.

“It was a really good effort. Things didn’t quite go to plan early but as James does, he never panicks and he got the job done,” O’Shea said.

“She has been going well all prep and she loves being at Randwick.”

McDonald is riding on a high and today’s win on Gypsy Diamond was a replica performance of his winning ride on Mossfun at Rosehill last week when that filly missed the start and went on to win the Group 1 $3.5m Tooheys New Golden Slipper (1200m).