It wasn’t Gavin Bedggood’s intention to have Diamonds Inthe Sky at the races this season, but an inviting opportunity at Sandown this Wednesday prompted the Cranbourne trainer to give her one last run as a five-year-old.
The former Peter Moody-trained mare will have her first start for Bedggood in the $55,000 Evergreen Turf Handicap (1000m).
The daughter of Zoustar is the highest-rated runner in the eight-horse field but will carry 58.5kg, which is just 1.5kg above the most lightly-weighted runner in the race after Wiremu Pinn’s 2kg claim.
“She’s definitely not screwed down but she’s forward enough to go there and run well,” Bedggood said.
“If she trialled (on Monday) at Cranbourne she would have trialled on a Heavy 8, that probably would have knocked her around, but she can go there and use it as a second trial and I still think it’s a race she can be highly competitive in.”
Diamonds Inthe Sky came to Bedggood a winner of four of her 20 starts, three of those wins coming in metropolitan grade.
Her one try at Stakes grade resulted in a fifth placing, beaten less than 2-1/2 lengths by Probabeel, in the Group 3 Cockram Stakes (1200m) in 2021.
Diamonds Inthe Sky’s best result from five first-up runs is a third placing in a Bendigo maiden at her second start, but a soft win in an 800m jumpout at Cranbourne on July 17 has Bedggood optimistic she can enhance those stats at Sandown.
“She’s got no fresh form but I would think off her jumpout the other morning, in that grade, she should be around the money,” Bedggood said.
“She’s a bit unassuming, she just does her thing, she’s pretty quiet and never really jumped out of the ground in her work, but I was pretty taken by her jumpout.
“It wasn’t the fastest trial of the morning or anything, but I just liked the way she did it.
“I was really happy with the way she trialled and more so the way she pulled up and came through it.”
