Flemington pair chase Blue Diamond start

With Ollivander safely tucked away in the Blue Diamond Stakes, training partners Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra are hoping Bionics can join his stablemate in Victoria’s richest two-year-old race.

The pair run in the colts and geldings division of the Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

Flemington-based Zahra said Bionics, who returns from a promising spring campaign on Saturday, only has to perform well to take his place in the Blue Diamond at Caulfield on February 24.

Bionics ran second on debut at Moonee Valley in October before finishing fourth behind Run Naan at Flemington in the Maribyrnong Plate in November.

“He’s still doing a few things wrong,” Zahra said.

“We were going to put the blinkers on him.

“He worked in them on Wednesday morning and he worked well, but we’ll give him the run around the corner and if he runs well we’ll run him in the Diamond and then put the blinkers on him.

“He’s got to run well on Saturday to keep going that way.”

Ollivander goes into Saturday’s race having won on debut at Caulfield in December before returning to the track with a second placing behind Long Leaf on January 27.

Zahra said Ollivander felt the effects of that race, run under warm conditions, but had freshened up well for Saturday’s assignment.

“He’s been terrific and we’re just trying to keep him in one piece for the Diamond,” Zahra said.

“He’s going well and he looks good.”

Zahra described Ollivander as bombproof although he’s a little concerned with barrier two in the 14-horse field.

“He’s always a bit slow away, so hopefully he jumps better on Saturday and can be more forward than normal,” Zahra said.

“Bionics though has good gate speed and hopefully he doesn’t do too much wrong.”