Craig Williams has mortgage on Blue Diamond Preludes
CHAMPION jockey Craig Williams continued his assault on the Blue Diamond Preludes at Caulfield on Saturday when Property won the colts and geldings edition.
The Robert Smerdon-trained gelding (+440 at Palmerbet) was a quality winner last start in the Blue Diamond Preview, but its best run came on Saturday when the two-year-old sprinted hard down the outside.
Williams positioned the son of Starcraft three-wide with cover and once it got into the clear, it was all over in the straight.
“We got a beautiful run and I love the way he’s come from one run to another,” Williams said.
“He sprung the lids and got into a nice rhythm. I asked him to quicken at the top of the straight and he had a really good acceleration and was tough late.”
Williams, who has a nice selection of two-year-olds for the Blue Diamond feature was taken with the performance.
“He’s coming on in this preparation…wow! it was a really tough performance,” Williams said.
Property is yet to be nominated for the Blue Diamond Stakes and trainer Robert Smerdon will leave the decision to David Price (Price Bloodstock Management).
“Not my money, not my call,” Smerdon put it simply. “He certainly had to win today to warrant it, but it’s a lot of money.
“David Price will think about that it and make the call by Monday.”
Smerdon was asked whether he would line Property up in the Blue Diamond if he owned the talented two-year-old.
“I would, yeah,” he said. “It will be interesting to get Craig’s opinion. He said after his last win that he really felt he should be going to the race, but that’s another matter.
“There’s a couple of big decisions to be made in the next 48 hours.”
The eye-catching run of the race belonged to $3.60 favourite Pariah, which made good ground to finish second. The Snowden-trained colt will likely be heading to the Blue Diamond where it could spring a surprise on punters.
Wait For No One showed some cheek in finishing third. The Hayes/Dabernig-trained runner sat on the speed and fought gamely to return place odds of $3.80.