An Intriguing race for two-year-olds to open proceedings at Randwick on Saturday, with all but three of the 14 acceptors making their career debuts.
Headline acts include a $1,700,000 I Am Invincible filly and a $950,000 Inglis Premier sale-topper, also by Yarraman Park Stud's reigning champion stallion.
The $1,700,000 Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained filly Kundalini and the $950,000 Chris Waller-trained colt Mojave Desert have attracted little interest in early betting on the race. Both trialled impressively in the same heat at Rosehill on July 12.
Few have missed the trials of Godolphin's Encryption colt, Fleetwood. It may show he finished fourth in both; however, he has still to be let off the leash.
Another to impress at the trials is the Bjorn Baker-trained Rockabilly Rebel. The Street Boss (USA) filly is out of the Group II MVRC Sunline Stakes winner Text'n Hurley (Hard Spun).
The best of the first starters looks to be the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Coincide. The $320,000 Invader colt gave the highly-rated Barber the race of his life on debut. The half-brother to Frankel's dual Group 1 winner Converge had little luck when given a kind ride in the closing stages when unplaced behind the same horse in the $1,000,000 Golden Gift at Rosehill.
Also making his debut is the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Don Corleone, who is out to give Extreme Choice his first two-year-old winner of the season.
Bred by Gilgai Farm, Don Corleone was the third most expensive lot at the 2021 National Weanling Sale when knocked down to China Horse Club/Newgate Bloodstock for $650,000.
Gilgai topped that sale with the I Am Invincible x Ocean Jewel colt Dagon, a $1,000,000 purchase for Ciaron Maher Bloodstock.
Don Corleone has trialled three times, winning the opening event at the official 2yo barrier trials at Randwick last September.
He is a half-brother to four winners, including The Drinks Cart (Unencumbered), who placed behind Rothefire in the Group 1 JJ Atkins Stakes.
Don Corleone's dam Snitzu, a daughter of the recently departed Snippetson, won four and was second to Hussousa in the Listed Gimcrack Stakes and placed in the Group III BJ Mclachlan Stakes and Listed Calaway Gal Stakes.
Snipzu's dam Pilgrim is a half-sister to Arkady. A homebred for John Denoon, Arkady won the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill. That was the culmination of four consecutive wins, which began with a welter at Rosehill, then the Listed Underwood Cup, and Queanbeyan Cup.
Arkady proved his Ranvet win was no fluke when Octagonal edged him out in the Group 1 Mercedes Classic (Tancred Stakes).
Denoon won the Ranvet a decade previously with Arkady's sire Myocard.
Extreme Choice had 31 live foals in his third crop, and his two juvenile runners for the season include Make a Call, who finished fourth in the Listed Breeders' Plate at Randwick.
