Blue Diamond Preview Fillies 2024 Tips, Betting Odds, Past Winners & Results

The Melbourne Racing Club stages the Group 3 Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies) at Caulfield Racecourse in late January. 

The trip for the race is 1,000 metres and the racers are two-year-old fillies whose connections are seeking a slot in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude the following month or the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes for those fillies equal to taking on the colts and geldings.

   

Blue Diamond Preview Fillies Race Details

Date: 26/1/24

Time: TBA

Racecourse: Sandown

Race Distance: 1000m

Conditions: TBA

Prize Money: $200,000

How To Bet On The Blue Diamond Preview Fillies

Our Top 3 Recommended Online Bookmakers To Bet With For The Blue Diamond Preview Fillies:

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Blue Diamond Preview Fillies Betting Tips

1. TBA

2. TBA

3. TBA

When Is The Blue Diamond Preview Fillies: 26/1/24

What Time Is The Blue Diamond Preview Fillies: TBA

Where Is The Blue Diamond Preview Fillies: Sandown Racecourse

How To Live Stream The Blue Diamond Preview Fillies

To live stream the Blue Diamond Preview Fillies, TAB Account Holders can watch the race live.

More Details About The Blue Diamond Preview Fillies

The MRC will caution punters to use caution to avoid confusing the Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies) with the Blue Diamond Prelude Fillies.

Well, two races with almost identical names, plus the lead-up races with the same name for the boys and you have five Blue Diamond races, all at Caulfield, not to mention that just about every other race at the course is called the Caulfield Something or Other.

Fortunately, we here at Pro Group Racing will keep it all sorted for you. We are too unskilled to type Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies) every time we mention the race, so for the balance of this article, we will shorten the name of the race to Blue Diamond Preview in most instances. We are confident that our astute audience will remember that we are reporting about a race for fillies.

The running conditions for the Blue Diamond Preview are set weights plus penalties with a total prizemoney pool of $200,000.

The 2022 winner was Miss Roseiano. She collected the $120,000 first prize, beating highly touted Written Swoosh by Written Tycoon half a length. She jumped for $14, so kudos to any who took her, especially since two-year-olds can be tough to rate.

She produced a second in the Blue Diamond Prelude, but in the Blue Diamond Stakes, she fell to 10th. She has not placed in six jumps since the second in the Prelude.

History of the Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies)

The race made its debut in 1982.

It was originally called the Blue Diamond Prelude (Fillies) and was run at Sandown Racecourse. There is still a race named Blue Diamond Prelude, but it is a different race and it carries a Group 2 grade and is 100 metres longer.

In order to avoid confusion, the MRC changed the name to Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies) in 1996.

As is typical for MRC races, the race has changed grades, distance and venue often.

It was graded as Listed from inception through 1987. It rose to Group 3 in 1988 through 2005, when it was demoted back to Listed from 2006 through 2014, rising once again to Group 3 in 2015.

The first two years offered a trip of 1200 metres, with 1000 metres being the length since 1984.

Honestly, we do not know where the race was run prior to 1988, when it was recorded as jumping at Sandown until 1997. That year, it went to Caulfield to stay until 2006, when it returned to Sandown for one jump.

The next eight jumps were at Caulfield Racecourse. Following a 2015 encore at Sandown, the race has stayed at Caulfield since 2016.

Venue for the Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies)

Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne is one of the primary metro tracks in Australia. We would place the venue below Flemington and Randwick, but equal to Rosehill and above Warwick Farm and Moonee Valley.

Twelve Group 1 races are staged throughout the year during the spring and autumn carnivals. Eight Group 2 and 19 Group 3 races round out the Group offerings-more than Flemington.

The race for which the track is known around the world is the Group 1 Caulfield Cup.

For sprint races such as the Blue Diamond Preview, the racers start just off the course proper from a chute that handles sprints out to 1200 metres. That chute is at the southeast side of the course.

The gallopers then navigate one turn of the tri-oval shaped trace, and then finish in front of the stands at the north side of the course.

Inside barrier draws offer only a slight advantage, as there is just one turn and the runners start riding out for position near the beginning of the home straight.

Racing History of the Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies)

The first winner of the Blue Diamond Preview was Olive Branch.

Checking her lines, we saw only a few of the names that we recognised. Olive Branch had an Australian dam and that’s about it. The rest of her lines were mostly northern hemisphere ancestors. She left little by way of a racing record and those years did not supply much information.

She supplied three foals, all mares, none of which left any racing statistics. We mention her only because she won the first race.

The winner from 1983 was Worth.

She was by Luskin Star out of Valour, so we might have expected more of her as a racer, but it appears her claim to glory is winning this race.

Her contributions as a breeder were five fillies and three colts, including a 1986 colt by Bletchingly, but none of Worth’s progeny were worth much and out of the lot, we found only one race win.

The first notable to win the race was 1986’s Bounding Away.

A grey by Biscay, her grandsire was Star Kingdom, so it did not surprise us to discover that Bounding Away earned almost $1.5 million from just 22 jumps.

Records credit her with six Group 1 wins, from nine total wins, including the Golden Slipper Stakes and the Blue Diamond Stakes. She was the Australian Horse of the Year for the 1985/86 season and she was trained by T. J. Smith.

Bounding Away was disappointing at stud, we suppose. Just two named foals, both fillies, one unraced and the other unknown.

Luskin Star must have made a habit of hanging around the Caulfield stalls, because he supplied another Blue Diamond Preview winner in 1987’s Midnight Fever.

She made just 13 jumps, but made the most of them, with eight wins and two placings for a bit above $542,000 in earnings. She won the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes, three Group 2 and two Group 3 races.

As a breeder, she supplied an impressive 11 foals, served by the likes of Bletchingly (twice), Danehill (twice), Last Tycoon and others of that quality. Eight of the 11 earned some stakes, although nothing truly noteworthy.

Scarlet Bisque from 1988 was an okay type.

She made just 22 jumps for eight wins and two placings to earn above $500,000. Her best win was the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate. She won the A J Moir Stakes when it was still Group 2 and had some high finishes in major races.

Her lines were similar to those of Bounding Away from 1986. They shared Biscay for a sire.

Her offspring, six in all, three by Rory’s Jester and three by Flying Spur all made it to the turf. Four produced some stakes wins and the other two were unplaced out of a combined 44 jumps.

The 1990 winner of the Blue Diamond Preview was a notable runner named Triscay.

She was by Marscay/Biscay/Star Kingdom on her sire’s side of the table. She won almost $2 million, with two Group1 wins in 1990 and two in 1991.

As a breeder, she was known to consort with some of the better stallions, including Last Tycoon, Danehill and Redoute’s Choice. Her best was the 1994 filly La Baraka by Euclase. La Baraka earned more than $640,000 and only jumped 10 times for six wins.

After Triscay, we skipped ahead to the next better galloper we found.

It was Tennessee Morn.

She was destined for the sheds from the outset, it seems, as she made just eight jumps for three wins and three placings, which suggest that she might have been a good racer had she been raced.

Her bigger contribution came as the result of being paired with Magnus to produce Malaguerra that won almost $2 million. There were a few other stakes winners, including Don’t Get Excited by Elvstroem.

The next winner we examine is 1997’s Scandinavia.

She notched four wins from her 17 jumps, although the best win with which we can credit her is the Group 2 QTC Cup.

She had Snippets for her sire, with lines to Vain, Wilkes, Northern Dancer and others of that ilk, from which Thoroughbred racing received 13 foals. Her best was Magnus by Flying Spur that won almost $1.3 million. Three others, one by Flying Spur and one by Exceed And Excel produced six-figure stakes earnings.

We have skipped ahead to 2002 because none of the winners left anything worthwhile in terms of racing or breeding.

That year, according to the records, the winner was given as Bardego Barathea. Nowhere could we find proof of this filly’s existence, so we will turn the matter over to the expert sleuths at the home office and let them sort it.

The 2003 winner was Halibery.

Bred for breeding purposes, she made only 10 jumps, winning four and placing in one for $507,000 in earnings. We suspect that any connection in the world would appreciate a horse that earned $50,000 every time it lined up.

Unfortunately, none of her offspring amount to much and we could only find one win out of eight foals, even though notables such as Elvstroem, Encosta De Lago, Medaglia D’Oro and Flying Spur were engaged.

The year of 2005 featured the Blue Diamond Preview being declared “No Race” after the stewards determined that two of the racers burst through the barrier fragments of seconds before the gates opened. The ruling was that those two had a flying start, which is okay in some races, but not this one.

We cannot recall another instance of this, at least not at the Group level.

From 2009, we have Rostova, having found it necessary to skip over some fillies that did nothing as racers or as breeders.

Rostova experienced Group 1 success when she won the 2010 Robert Sangster Classic. She had a Group 2 win as well, but her main contribution to the sport of racing was being the daughter of Testa Rossa and the dam of 2016’s Anaheed by Fastnet Rock that won over $1.5 million.

Crystal Lily, winner of the Blue Diamond Preview in 2010, was a better type that won almost $2.7 million from 15 jumps for four wins and seven showings. Her lines included connections to Redoute’s Choice, Snippets, Danehill, Canny Lad, Bletchingly and Star Kingdom, so she had the DNA to suggest success. Her big win was the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes. Crystal Lily’s career was cut short when she had a heart attack while doing track work at Flemington.

The 2013 winner was Miracles Of Life.

She had eight wins and four placings from 17 jumps to earn a bit above $1.5 million. She deserves mention simply for being the daughter of Not A Single Doubt, but she supplied Group 1 wins in the Blue Diamond Stakes and the Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville.

She was nothing at stud.

Eloping from 2014 won over $1 million, but never had anything above Group 3 grade as any of her seven wins. Her foals did not do much. A 2019 filly by I Am Invincible won four races and about half a million dollars.

The winner from 2015 was Fontiton.

She earned about $400,000 from six jumps for three wins. She won both Blue Diamond lead-ups, the Preview and the Prelude, but she could not complete the Blue Diamond hat trick by winning the Blue Diamond Stakes.

She supplied two foals, one by Snitzel that won almost $600,000 and one by Written Tycoon that was more pauper than tycoon.

Catch Me, a 2016 foal by I Am Invincible, seems to have been caught several times, making just five jumps for two wins.

The Blue Diamond Preview went to A Beautiful Night in 2020. She is now retired but has yet to produce any offspring.

Finally, the 2021 winner was Dosh.

Her two wins came at Group 3 level and she only raced six times, with two placings and $300,000.

She is now retired at the ripe old age of four and has yet to supply progeny.

Conclusion

For the most part, the winners of the Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies) have been two-year-olds that never went on to win a lot or even to win better races.

There were a few Group 1 winners and a few that supplied some better offspring, but two-year-olds can be unpredictable and there is no guarantee that a good racer at two will go on to climb the ratings to win the better races. Conversely, there are two-year-olds that seem hopeless until they get older and start winning at three, four and five years of age.

Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies) Past Winners