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Can Hayasugi pull off another feat not achieved since Sepoy?
Hayasugi proved in the Blue Diamond that she is not your average two-year-old filly.
The Clinton Mcdonald-trained youngster had probably demonstrated that beforehand, winning the Group 3 Blue Diamond Preview and Group 2 Blue Diamond Prelude, but she confirmed it with her pattern-defying win in the $2 million Group 1 at Caulfield on February 24.
It was a Diamond clean sweep that had been achieved just once previously by a filly, Midnight Fever, 37 years ago and not since colt Sepoy in 2011.
Hayasugi will be looking to further emulate Sepoy when she runs in this Saturday's $5 million Group 1 Golden Slipper at Rosehill.
Sepoy is the most recent of the five Blue Diamond winners to also win the Golden Slipper.
That Peter Snowden-trained colt became the first since Courtza, the most recent filly to achieve it, following Bounding Away (1986), Manikato (1978) and John's Hope (1972).
They are among 40 Diamond winners to have run in the Slipper with three others finishing second and five third, which means 27 – or 67.5 percent – have failed to place.
Since Sepoy, 10 Diamond winners have run in the Slipper with Earthquake's second and Samaready's third the only top-three performances.
But Hayasugi at least goes into Saturday's race with a peak Timeform rating comparable to the high-profile unbeaten colts that have hogged the headlines.
The daughter of Royal Meeting ran 113 to win the Diamond, which is effectively a 117 performance by a male horse given the four-pound clip for fillies owing to their 2kg weight allowance.
Storm Boy's peak rating is the 116 he ran to win the Magic Millions 2YO Classic on January 13, while Switzerland went 117 to win the Group 2 Todman Stakes on March 9.
Hayasugi's Diamond number is the same mark afforded to Lyre, the previous filly to win the Diamond, in 2019, which she followed up with a fourth placing in the Golden Slipper won by Kiamichi in a rating of 118.
That is the base number for any Golden Slipper winner this millennium, so Hayasugi has to improve at least five pounds to be any sort of winning chance.
But, she has done that in all three starts this campaign – elevating from her spring peak of 92 to 97 in the Preview, then 108 in the Prelude and 113 in the Diamond – and like, Diamond Day, her loyal fans are getting a price to find out.
Hayasugi, who won the Diamond as a $15 chance, drifted to $17 after Tuesday's barrier draw, which is greater than the SP of Diamond winners in the Slipper bar Daumier, who ran fourth at $21 two years ago, in the past 15 years.
