The Anthony Freedman trained filly Lyre ran up to her Blue Diamond Prelude win to storm home to win the Group 1 $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield today.
Lyre, above, storms home to win the 2019 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.
Winning jockey Luke Currie made the most of the late call up ride and after settling Lyre in the second half of the field from barrier five, was able to find his way to the outside after heads were turned for home.
Lyre defied a betting drift from $5.50 to start at $7.50 to overhaul the $41 outsider Lankan Star to record a neck win with Free Of Debt ($31) holding on for third after hitting the front at the 250m mark.
The James Cummings trained Athiri was sent out as the equal $4.80 favourite and also ran on from the back to claim fourth position while the other equal favourite Loving Gaby ended up in sixth spot.
Lyre threw herself into hot contention for the Blue Diamond Stakes with a solid win in the Group 2 $200,000 Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Prelude (Fillies) (1100m) at Caulfield a fortnight ago and Freedman said that the filly had continued to improv over the last couple of weeks.
“She really had made that necessary couple of lengths improvement,” Freedman said.
“It is more about them not losing it backwards and she clearly didn’t go backwards and went on with it.”
“She was great today and the ride worked out very well, a bit further back than I wanted, but all’s well that ends well.”
Lyre has firmed in dramatically in the betting from $26 to $6 for the Group 1 $3.5m Longines Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill on March 23.
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