Those who fancy unbeaten Russian Revolution colt The Instructor as a Blue Diamond chance will take confidence from what Daumier was able to do last year.
Daumier won the colts and geldings Blue Diamond Preview, the race that The Instructor won at Sandown on Thursday, before going on to win the Group 1 Blue Diamond.
The Instructor posted a Timeform rating of 105 in the Preview, which was two pounds superior to what Daumier went in that race, albeit that being the Epaulette colt’s first start in a race whereas The Instructor had broken his maiden at Pakenham.
But, Preview winners who go on to win the Diamond typically rate higher than the figures posted by both Daumier and The Instructor.
Bel Esprit (121 in the Preview) and Sepoy (117), two of the best two-year-old colts of the 21st century, might not be fair comparisons but Daumier’s Preview number was still the lowest figure posted by any of the six horses who have won a Preview and the Diamond since 2000.
Reward For Effort went 110 in the Preview before elevating to 122 in the Diamond a year after Reaan ran 112 in the Preview and won the Diamond in 116.
Miracles Of Life is the only Blue Diamond Fillies Preview winner to go on and win the Diamond since 2000 and she went 113+ in the Preview before rating 118 in the Diamond.
Spirit Of Boom filly De Sonic Boom went 103 to win the fillies Preview at what was her first trip to the races. That is the same mark that Miss Roseiano and Dosh went to win the two previous editions of the fillies Prelude.
The highest-rating fillies Preview winner since 2000 was Rostova, who posted a mark of 116 – which she matched in the Prelude – before finishing unplaced in Reward For Effort’s Diamond, while Ponton Flyer matched Miracles Of Life’s number and subsequent Golden Slipper winner Crystal Lily went 110.
The Instructor, who is trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, consolidated his place on the second line in TAB’s Blue Diamond market, tightening into $5, while De Sonic Boom is an $11 chance.
Favourite, at $4.50, is the Peter and Paul Snowden -trained King’s Gambit, who resumes in Saturday’s Canonbury Stakes at Rosehill, which will be his first start since posting a 106 Timeform figure when an effortless winner of the Listed Debutant Stakes at Caulfield in October.