Plague Stone draws good gate in 2018 Blue Diamonds Stakes barrier draw

Equal favourite Plague Stone has drawn nicely at barrier six in the Group 1 $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

The James Cummings trained Plague Stone made up good ground from the back when second to Written By in the Group 3 $200,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) for the colts and geldings at Caulfield on February 10 and will get a good run off the pace again.

Cummings will also saddle up Encryption who has drawn barrier fifteen in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes.

Last year’s winning jockey Craig Williams will ride Kinky Boom who was out of luck at the barrier draw with fourteen but could move in three spots when the final field of sixteen is rubber stamped at scratching time on Saturday morning with three of the four emergencies drawn inside of the Tony MvEvoy trained filly.

McEvoy will also saddle up Run Naan, barrier two, and Oohood, barrier ten and he also has two of the four emergencies, Aristocratic, barrier seventeen, and Roobeena, barrier thirteen.

The Lindsay Park Team off David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig had mixed results for their four runners in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes barrier with Ennis Hill, barrier four and Long Leaf, barrier seven, drawing in close while Qafila, barrier sixteen, and Enbihaar, barrier nineteen, drew out wide.

Late entry Lady Horseowner also drew a wide gate at twelve with Nikita Beriman taking the ride again after partnering the Greg Eurell trained filly to two wins from two starts in a 1000m two year old fillies Plate at The Valley and in the Group 3 $150,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) for the fillies at Caulfield on January 27.

Connections of Written By will be disappointed with barrier eighteen in the original draw after the Written Tycoon colt put himself into Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes contention with an impressive win in the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Prelude for the colts and geldings.

Leading Victorian trainer Darren Weir’s only Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes runner, Native Soldier, will jump from the outside gate in the capacity sixteen horse field after drawing twenty in the original draw.

Betting for the 2018 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes at Ladbrokes.com.au: $7 Long Leaf, Plague Stone, $8 Kinky Boom, Oohood, $9 Ennis Hill, $10 Written By, Prairie Fire, $17 Native Soldier, Run Naan, $21 Enbihaar, Encryption, Lady Horseowner, Qafila, $34 Ollivander, Crossing The Abbey, $41 More Than Exceed, Grand Symphony, $101 Aristocratic, Roobeena, Melveen.

Final field and barrier draw for 2018 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m)

#	Last 10	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight
1	11×1	LONG LEAF	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Kerrin McEvoy	7	56.5kg
2	1×1	WRITTEN BY	Grahame Begg	Jordan Childs	18	56.5kg
3	11×35	RUN NAAN	Tony McEvoy	Andrew Mallyon	2	56.5kg
4	31	PRAIRIE FIRE	Mick Price	Mark Zahra	1	56.5kg
5	120	OLLIVANDER	Mathew Ellerton & Simon Zahra	Chris Symons	3	56.5kg
6	32×2	ENCRYPTION	James Cummings	–	15	56.5kg
7	56113	NATIVE SOLDIER	Darren Weir	Brad Rawiller	20	56.5kg
8	2×2	PLAGUE STONE	James Cummings	–	6	56.5kg
9	2	GRAND SYMPHONY	Robbie Griffiths	Jye McNeil	5	56.5kg
10	11	ENBIHAAR	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Cory Parish	19	54.5kg
11	1	KINKY BOOM	Tony McEvoy	Craig Williams	14	54.5kg
12	11	LADY HORSEOWNER	Greg Eurell	Ms Nikita Beriman	12	54.5kg
13	41	ENNIS HILL	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Stephen Baster	4	54.5kg
14	4×126	CROSSING THE ABBEY	Tim Hughes	Luke Nolen	9	54.5kg
15	14x	QAFILA	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Dwayne Dunn	16	54.5kg
16	2×32	OOHOOD	Tony McEvoy	Luke Currie	10	54.5kg
17e	3×332	ARISTOCRATIC MISS	Tony McEvoy	Jamie Kah	17	54.5kg
18e	2×1	MORE THAN EXCEED (NZ)	Phillip Stokes	Dom Tourneur	8	56.5kg
19e	2×65	ROOBEENA	Tony McEvoy	–	13	54.5kg
20e	61	MELVEEN	Henry Dwyer	Damien Thornton	11	54.5kg

The post Plague Stone draws good gate in 2018 Blue Diamonds Stakes barrier draw appeared first on HorseRacing.com.au.