Sword Of Light has stamped herself as a classy juvenile but whether the filly gets her chance to win a Blue Diamond Stakes remains to be seen.
The Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra-trained Sword Of Light raced to victory in Tuesday’s Group Three Blue Diamond fillies Preview at Caulfield but is not nominated for next month’s main event.
Sword Of Light
Connections would need to pay a $55,000 late entry.
Sword Of Light spaced her rivals on debut at Echuca but was then scratched at Flemington on January 1 when she played up in the barriers.
“It’s four or five weeks away,” owner David Moodie said when asked about the Blue Diamond late entry.
“She’s been through a lot. She got pulled out at Flemington so she’s had to barrier trial again and had to be re-educated again.
“She’s been through the ringer a bit, so it’s highly unlikely that she’d get to a Blue Diamond with everything she’s been through.
“We’ll just let the dust settle and see how she is.”
Moodie is adamant the filly has plenty of natural talent, shown by Tuesday’s win.
She stalked the three front-runners before peeling into the clear and sprinted to a 1/1-4 length win over Emphatically with Dream First hitting the line strongly for third, another half length away.
“She is a bit Crystal Lily-like I think. She defies the odds,” Moodie said.
“She’s clearly got ability.”
Crystal Lily won the 2010 Preview before going on to win the Golden Slipper.
Sword Of Light shares the third line of TAB’s Blue Diamond market at $11 after the Previews with Extreme Choice ($5) and Defcon ($7) still the favourites.
The colts and geldings Preview was taken out by Godolphin’s colt Cohesion who crossed to lead from a wide gate and had 1-1/4 lengths to spare on the line over Capannello with El Venetian three-quarters of a length away third.
“He’s not overly big but he’s very professional so that will hold him in good stead,” jockey Ben Melham said of Cohesion.
Cohesion has tightened from $18 to $15 for the Blue Diamond while the Paul Messara-trained colt Weatherly firmed from $15 to $11 after his luckless sixth.
Messara hopes to go to the Prelude next with Weatherly if he gets in the field and he would need to be a Blue Diamond late entry.
Weatherly’s jockey Craig Williams said everything went wrong for the colt, slipping at the start then over-racing back in the field.
“We didn’t win the battle today but he definitely hasn’t lost any admirers the way he went,” Williams said.
