Roll The Dice aiming to gatecrash the Blue Diamond party
This Saturday’s meeting at Caulfield shapes as a potentially defining day for Roll The Dice Racing with the syndicator’s first ever runner in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) set to be joined by one of the leading chances in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m),
A joint purchase with Mick Price Racing and bloodstock agent Jeremy Rogers, Guest House (Home Affairs) will be out to deliver a third victory in the Blue Diamond for his trainer and a first elite–level success for Home Affairs (I Am Invincible), whose speedy son Kinnaird laid down an early marker in the Eclipse Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Ellerlise on New Year’s Day.
The Coolmore resident is set to have two runners in this year’s Blue Diamond field and the pair will be eyeballing one another in the gates, with Guest House assigned barrier three and the twice-raced Tulloch Lodge maiden Lady Moscato directly to his inside.
Given the propensity for runners from the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable to take up the lead, a high-stakes speed battle could play out but in light of the resistance Guest House showed when he was restrained when finishing second in the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m), Jamie Melham may have no option but to bend to her mount’s will.
That is certainly the view of Roll The Dice’s director of racing and communications Steve Travaglia, who is fervently hoping the robust colt or their Oakleigh Plate contender Hedged (Capitalist) can take the syndicator’s tally of Group 1 wins to three on Saturday.
Globe’s (Charm Spirit) freewheeling triumph in last year’s Might And Power Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and Krone’s (Eurozone) Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) win in 2021 were both achieved against the odds, whereas victory for Guest House would not come as a major surprise given his position on the second line of betting behind his Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained stablemate Big Sky (Bivouac).
As with any athlete, however, the ability to peak on the grand occasion is what separates the champion racehorses from the merely very good ones and Travaglia does not underestimate the importance to their burgeoning business of winning one of Australian racing’s most coveted contests.
“It would obviously be massive for us to win a Blue Diamond, especially with our first runner in the race,” he told ANZ News.
“We’ve been going very well but any syndication company will tell you that you need to win these big races to really succeed and grow your business. It’s great to win Listed and Group 3 races but you can’t go too long between drinks in Group 1s, because you can be forgotten pretty quickly in this game.
“So we’re very keen to pick another one off on Saturday, and we think we’ve got a good chance with Guest House. He just can’t afford to make the same mistakes on Saturday that he did in the Prelude, because he’ll have no chance of winning the race.
“He’s proven in the past that he doesn’t like being held up, and he can get too aggressive if you try to restrain him. As long as he jumps well and nothing crosses him, I would imagine he’ll be out in front from that gate. He had his final gallop at Cranbourne on Tuesday morning, he’s always been a good track worker and all the reports from the team are that he’s right where he needs to be.
“When there’s not much between these two-year-olds, it often comes down to which horse is able to get things right on the day. I’d say there are at least ten winning chances in the race, Unit Five looks pretty ‘bomb-proof’ and Closer To Free was very professional on debut. So they’ll both be tough to beat and the chances certainly don’t end there.
“We’re just happy to have one of the leading hopes on such a big day, we bought this colt with a view to having a runner in a race like the Blue Diamond and it’s nice that the plan has paid off. We always thought he would be up and running as a two-year-old, if you look at him in the mounting yard you’d think he was at least three.”
At $270,000, Guest House was the second most expensive purchase Travalgia and the Roll The Dice team made at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale behind Wolf Gap (Palace Pier), the $$280,000 buy who made a winning debut for Anthony and Sam Freedman at Warwick Farm on Wednesday afternoon.
Travalgia also believes that the Shalaa (Invincible Spirit) filly they bought at the same sale for $60,000 will furnish into an accomplished performer in time, given the prowess she has shown in her jump–outs to date.
The as-yet-unnamed filly is trained by Gavin Bedggood, who will saddle up Hedged in the other sprint feature on Saturday’s lucrative Caulfield card.
It is fair to say that, given his sometimes maddening inconsistency, the five-year-old has not always been the punters’ pal, so taking the $5 generally on offer in the early markets is perhaps fraught with risk. In his defence, however, barring a below-par effort when beating just one rival home in the Standish Handicap (Gr 3, 1200m) Hedged has acquitted himself very creditably this preparation, with a pair of stakes wins beside his name in the form guide.
The fact that he is being asked to carry the topweight of 59 kilograms would suggest that this is not necessarily a vintage renewal of the Oakleigh Plate, but on the basis that you can only beat what is put in front of you, Travalgia gives the enigmatic performer a fighting chance of making his Group 1 breakthrough.
“He’s maybe a slightly maligned horse but he’s been going really well this prep,” Travalgia told ANZ News.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I envisage he would be carrying topweight in an Oakleigh Plate, so I’m still scratching my head how that has happened. But that’s the cards we’ve been dealt, and we couldn’t be happier with his form heading into the race.
“Caulfield’s probably not his favourite track, I’d be much more confident if the race was held at Flemington or Pakenham. But for a horse who has been known for his inconsistency, other than his poor run down the Flemington straight, he’s been racing really consistently this campaign. We’ve had some inquiries about the Quokka, so hopefully he can run well on Saturday because we’d love to take him over to WA for a big–money race like that.
“It looks a very open Oakleigh Plate, if Sam and Anthony’s three-year-old filly [Point Barrow] turns up, then she’s probably going to be very hard to beat with just 50 kilos on her back. To give a horse like that nine kilos is going to be a tough ask for Hedged, but with her racing style she’ll probably need some luck which you don’t always find at Caulfield. Hedged doesn’t like to be cluttered up between horses, so if we can get a nice clean run then we’re in with a good chance.”
The success they have experienced with Hedged persuaded the Roll The Dice crew to invest in his three-quarter brother on the Gold Coast at the start of the year, with the Yulong-bred Written Tycoon (Iglesia) colt set to join his elder sibling at Bedggood’s yard once he has been broken in.
“It wasn’t only the fact that he was a three-quarter to Hedged that we decided to buy him,” said Travalgia.
“He’s a lovely colt by a champion stallion. He’s quite different to Hedged in some ways, but he still had the same lovely walk on him which is what we liked about both of them. We thought we’d have to pay a bit more for him, we thought he was worth between $350,000 to $400,000 so I reckon we got him for a pretty good price at $330,000.”