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Blue Diamond Plans For Calliope

3 minute read

Classy filly Calliope will lead the Godolphin stable’s attack on next month’s $1.5 million Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield.

Exosphere
Exosphere Picture: Racing and Sports

Trainer John O’Shea has drawn up his short list of Blue Diamond contenders from the vast Godolphin team of two-year-olds with Calliope and Cohesion among the juveniles he has selected to target Melbourne’s richest two-year-old race.

Calliope, a daughter of Exceed And Excel from the stakes placed mare Melponeme, sits high among the best two-year-olds to race so far this season after her impressive debut win in the Listed Gimcrack Stakes (100m) at Randwick in October.

Running right up to her winning trial form, Calliope looked a real professional sprinting to a 1.8 lengths win in the Gimcrack as an odds on favourite.

She beat subsequent Sydney winner Jeanneau and the smart Slumber Party to attain an initial Timeform rating of 109, currently the highest rating of any juvenile filly to race in Australia so far this season.

Only three colts - the unbeaten star Capitalist, brilliant Melbourne speedster Extreme Choice and her Godolphin stablemate Astern – have returned higher Timeform figures this season.

Calliope is yet to trial again in public but O’Shea has the benefit of being able to stage his own ‘trials’ at Godolphin’s private Osborne Park complex near Sydney.

He plans to give Calliope a jump out late this week before sending her to Melbourne where she is scheduled to resume in the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) for fillies at Caulfield on January 26.

O’Shea also has a Blue Diamond campaign mapped out for the Lonhro colt Cohesion, who is already based at Godolphin’s Flemington stable and will run in the colts division of the Blue Diamond Preview on Australia Day.

Cohesion was an easy Randwick trial winner in September before he debuted against Capitalist in the G3 Breeders Plate at Randwick (1000m) on October 2, finishing fourth.

O’Shea also has Melbourne plans for his three-year-old star Exosphere.

Exopshere is working up to a barrier trial later this month in Sydney but is set to resume in Melbourne in the $750,000 Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (1000m) at Flemington on February 20.


Racing and Sports

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