The Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra trained Ollivander can secure a trip to Sydney for the Inglis Classic if he performs up to expectation in the Listed $150,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) for the colts and geldings at Caulfield on Saturday.
Ollivander, above is one of the main fancies in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview for the colts and geldings at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Ollivander was a $70,000 yearling purchase from the 2017 Inglis Sydney Classic Yearling Sale which made him eligible to run in the $250,000 Inglis Classic (1200m) at Warwick Farm on February 10.
The Charge Forward colt was an impressive debut winner in an 1100m two year old Plate at Caulfield on December 16 and co-trainer Simon Zahra said that the youngster has definitely shown improvement heading into his second race start in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview.
“He’s always shown us good ability and he’s really held together well and matured up well while he’s been in work,” Zahra said.
“He’ll go to this race and then maybe the Inglis race in Sydney and then maybe the Blue Diamond if he can hold up.
“They’re the targets but we’ll just see how he comes out of this run and then decide from there what we do.”
The Group 1 $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on February 24 is the big carrot dangling in front Ollivander for his Autumn campaign.
Ollivander has had a freshen up since his Caulfield win and will return to the race track with a jump out win under his belt.
“He had a week at the farm, still in work but just on the grass during the day just to get him away from the stable,” Zahra said.
“We had him in a bit of a holding pattern and then he just had a nice jump-out the other day.
“He probably needed it as he was a bit above himself, so he’s tightened up nicely and come through it well.”
“I think he’s probably improved from that debut run.”
“I know he might not have beaten much in the jump-out the other day but he did it pretty comfortably.
Ollivander was out of luck at the barrier,, coming up with the outside gate in the eight horse field and jockey Chris Symons will be looking for all the favours in the run from that outside draw.
“From that gate he probably just needs a few things to go right, but he’s a nice horse,” Zahra said.
Early betting for the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview at Ladbrokes.com.au has Ollivander well in contention at $4 behind the joint $3.40 favourites Run Naan and Long Leaf.
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