SUMMER racing got serious at Caulfield on Tuesday with the running of key lead-up races for the 2010 Caulfield Festival of Racing including the first two races of this year’s Arrowfield Stud Blue Diamond series.

Over 5,200 patriotic race-goers witnessed brilliant performances from two extremely promising juveniles in the two-year-old Blue Diamond previews while there were also outstanding winning efforts from horses who have already established themselves as quality performers with promising futures ahead of them.

Having his first race start, Innocent Gamble got the Arrowfield Stud Blue Diamond series underway by winning the colts and geldings division of the previews in impressive fashion by ¾ length and was magnificently ridden by champion hoop, Damien Oliver.

Trained by Mark Riley, Innocent Gamble is by 2004 Caulfield Cup winner Elvstroem and is a full brother to quality three-year-old, Viking Legend.

Riley, who has been associated with many fine gallopers such as Mookta (won 1993 Oakleigh Plate) and currently trains talented horses like Gold Salute and Gold in Dubai, is of high praise for his newest star and is adamant this is the best horse he has trained.

“I think he’s a superstar this horse,” Riley said. “He’s the best horse I’ve ever had. He’s still got a lot of improvement in him. He’s still immature so he’ll be a better three-year-old but it’s hard to pass up a race like the Diamond when you’ve got a precocious horse like him,” Riley added.

Riley’s only previous Blue Diamond Stakes experience was as an apprentice jockey when he rode Copper Rocket in 1981. Copper Rocket, who finished ninth, was trained by his father Martin.

The training combination of Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra provided the winner of the Blue Diamond preview for fillies and the performance of Crystal Lily was breath-taking.

The filly, by Stratum, became a little fractious in the barriers and needed to be vetted before the start before jumping well and putting paid to her rivals half way down the Caulfield straight to claim victory by three lengths.

Owner David Moodie from Contract Racing Pty Ltd bred the filly who he hopes will deliver him a third winner in the Blue Diamond Stakes. Moodie has owned previous Blue Diamond Stakes winners in Hurricane Sky (1994) and Paint (1996).

“She was pretty impressive,” Ellerton said. “I said to David I think she has improved markedly on the Spring and she was pretty much a raw product then and she showed today that she has come back a real racehorse,” he added.

Crystal Lily will be the fifth horse that Ellerton has saddled up in the Blue Diamond Stakes joining Lord Dane (2000), Spectatorial (2001), Coupe (2002) and Nediym’s Glow in 2006 with Spectatorial being his best result to date, finishing third behind True Jewels.

Both horses, now Arrowfield Stud Blue Diamond Stakes bound, rocketed into contention for the ‘final’ on 20 February with Sportingbet Australia ‘winding’ Innocent Gamble in from $31 to $14 and Crystal Lily from $26 to $8 and now second favourite behind the Peter Snowden-trained Secession.

With the two-year-old races run and won, all the attention turned to the two Listed three-year-old races, the Sportingbet Zeditave Stakes (for colts and geldings) and the Kevin Hayes Stakes (for fillies).

Denman, who was pre-post favourite ($3.10) for The Age Caulfield Guineas in October, was resuming from a spell after a campaign that yielded three Group race victories including the Group 1 Golden Rose at Rosehill.

The Darley-owned son of Lonhro was sent out the $1.60 favourite on Tuesday and rightly saluted but not before an interrupted passage in the home straight had his connections and those who backed on him holding their collective breaths.

Trainer Peter Snowden confessed to being slightly concerned coming to the home turn but the services of jockey Kerrin McEvoy helped to allay any fears he had once they straightened for home.

“Kerrin did the right thing, he just bided his time and gave himself some options…. I was going in a different direction to what he was for a while but he won, that’s the main thing, and won well,” Snowden said.

As the son and grandson of two of racing’s true legends, Lonhro and Octagonal, another Group 1 victory as a three-year-old will only serve to enhance Denman’s future as a potential stallion.

Snowden is undecided which race will be Denman’s next start but he is sure it will be at Caulfield on 6 February in either the Wellington Racing Club Stakes (3YO Listed, 1400m) or in the Group 1 Sportingbet Orr Stakes over 1400 metres.

Whichever way the trainer chooses to go, he believes Denman has a good programme in front of him with two-week breaks between each run leading into the Group 1 Australian Guineas on 6 March, which is his main target this campaign.

Another rising star in the ranks of quality three-year-olds is the Peter Moody-trained Set For Fame – sending an emphatic message to all that she may well be !

By Reset, Set For Fame returned to racing impressively by winning the Kevin Hayes Stakes by 2 ½ lengths on Tuesday and running the second fastest final 600 metres for the day in 33.61 seconds (Crystal Lily ran 33.47).

Set For Fame’s Spring Carnival campaign was prematurely ended when she suffered a bleeding attack in the Tranquil Star Stakes at Caulfield on 19 September which meant she could not race for the mandatory stand-down period of three months.

Set For Fame has now raced five times for two wins and two seconds and joins her stable-mate Black Caviar and Denman as three of the most exciting young horses competing throughout the upcoming Festival Of Racing.

Moody has earmarked the Group 2 Angus Armanasco Stakes (1400 metres) at Caulfield on 20 February as the next run for this star filly before deciding if he will ask her to compete on the Group 1 stage and take on the males in the Australian Guineas at Flemington – and a mouth-watering showdown with Denman.

The Australia Day meeting set the scene and whet the appetite for what promises to be a memorable Festival of Racing at Caulfield, which commences on 6 February with C.F. Orr Stakes Day. Arrowfield Stud Blue Diamond Stakes Day follows on 20 February and the Caulfield Festival of Racing concludes with Futurity Stakes Day on 27 February.

MELBOURNE RACING CLUB MEDIA RELEASE