The late withdrawal on Friday morning of unbeaten Bivouac colt Big Sky from the $2million Group I MRC Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) has taken a key contender from the mix, but with a full field of 16 it's a race packed with intrigue.
The Real Diamonds in a Rhinestone World - will this year's winner become one of the greats?
Who is the authentic juvenile gem and who are the cut-glass pretenders in the 2026 G1 Blue Diamond Stakes field? It's tough to narrow down the chances, but here we go!
Top Tip: GUEST HOUSE
Guest House was fantastic in the Prelude after everything went wrong.
The son of Home Affairs had no right to finish off as well as he did after completely blowing the start, slipping, becoming unbalanced, firing up and over racing while stuck wide for the trip.
Yet he was resolute over the final stages of the 1100m to hold out the fast finishing Merson Cooper Stakes winner Eternal Warrior, though he couldn't catch the winner who did everything right.
It was a performance that screamed class. The colt can only be advantaged by the race experience and the step up to 1200m.
The Price/Kent trained Guest House was a $270,000 MM Gold Coast purchase for Mick Price Racing and Breeding / Roll The Dice Racing / Rogers Bloodstock, from the draft of Newgate Farm.
Price seems to rate Guest House the better of his two Blue Diamond chances, the other being the unbeaten favourite Blue Sky and the trainer is an old hand at this 2YO racing caper.
Guest House is the sixth foal from the dual stakes placed Stratum mare Flamboyant Lass (placed in the G2 BD Prelude at two) Every foal a winner!
Her first was the Maribyrnong Plate runner up Nitrous ( by Deep Field exp HK where he raced successfully)
Then came the 6 x winner Command Approved ( Spirit Of Boom), daughter Lovebird ( by Home Affair's sire I Am Invincible) an $850,000 yearling and winner in just four starts, plus sons by Pierro and Capitalist who have both won races.
The mare produced a 2024 filly by Stay Inside, missed to him in 2025 and was then covered by Storm Boy.
Her dam Flamboyance placed six times in fourteen race starts without winning but as a rare daughter of the brilliant but fertility challenged Snippets son Snowland she had precious value as a broodmare - and lived up to that promise with the full brother to Flamboyance Attention winning the G2 BRC Sires Produce the best among her five winners. They included a promising daughter of Snitzel who died young and Elegant Diva ( Written Tycoon) who had a filly by Stay Inside in 2024 and another by In The Congo in 2025.
This is the family of the Vain mare Vain Deb, dam of the tough and talented Pasikatera ( five stakes wins, black type producer), and stakes placed Dance With Deb (died at four)
It's the tribe of the US- bred Gooree Park import Palm Beach Deb by Buckpasser's stakes winning son Akureyi (half brother to G1 Yorkshire Oaks winner and Blue Hen Awaasif grand dam of the legendary Arc winner Lammtarra)
The damline of Guest House goes back to the Menow daughter Dynamo ( family 8-c) the ancestress of champion racer and sire Majestic Light, descending from Cherokee Rose II - also ancestress of Storm Cat, Royal Academy, Be My Guest, Jaipur, Earthlight, Shadow Of Light, Venetian Sun etc etc
This family produces great two year olds!
Guest House is bred
Danehill x 4m x 4m
Danzig 5m,5m x 5m,6m
Canny Lad 4f x 5f
Vain x 5f,4f
There's a lot of great things going on in the pedigree of Guest House but there are a few eye catching factors that pedigree nerds will find particularly satisfying.
Firstly the nick between Stravinsky's dam Fire The Groom by Blushing Groom and the colt's fifth dam Morning Bird by the mighty Swaps, His sire Khaled is from the family of Blushing Groom, while her dam Beguiling is a very close relation of Blushing Groom's sire Red God.
Swaps is also closely related to I Am Invincible's tail male ancestor Green Desert.
Green Desert descends from Tulle by War Admiral out of Judy Rae ( Beau Pere x Betty Derr) while the dam of Swaps, Iron Reward is by Beau Pere out of Iron Maiden ( War Admiral x Betty Derr)
This ties in with the duplicated Canny Lad who sex balances these lines - his sire Bletchingly is out of a daughter of Relic by War Relic and dam Jesmond Lass carries Beau Pere son Beau Cheval.
Red God and Beguiling were by Nasrullah out of Menow daughters and on both sides of the pedigree this is reinforced by Menow's grandson Buckpasser by Tom Fool - also the tail male ancestor of Snippets.
Fourth damsire Akureyri and damsire Stratum both reinforce the 22 family / Djebel cross that is found in Fire The Groom. Home Affairs carries a double of Wild Risk on his damline, not only strong in the 22 blood but sex balancing Ksar, Djebel’s grandsire - and one of these lines comes through Le Fabuleux who is a relative of Vain's sire Wikes.
Meanwhile the Mr Prospector son Miswaki is key, sex balancing that sire as carried by Blue Hen Rolls through her close relation Exigent, the third dam of Home Affairs, both grand daughters of the great matriarch Fanfreluche. Fire The Groom also descends from a Mr Prospector mare.
The dam of Guest House has no Mr Prospector blood so this is a dynamic introduction for her. She does have a daughter of the great sire Buckpasser through the Danzig son Polish Precedent, thus replicating the same cross carried by Danehill, and Miswaki is out of a Buckpasser mare - so that sex balancing line to his son Akureyri is very important!
This pedigree creates sex balanced linebreeding to Blue Hen Thong through her son Thatch and his full sister Special, the dam of Nureyev.
And so it goes on. What a brilliant pedigree. De beers (sorry) will be flowing and the hospitality will be generous if Guest House and Jamie Melham can bring home the Diamond!
The pair should get a great run from barrier 3.
Next Best : ALIBABA
The big Baba is back in town after his Sydney trip where he should have ( in my mind at least) won the Inglis Millenium. He unleashed an epic run from last, weaving through traffic, to hit the line hard in third behind undefeated Golden Slipper fancy Fireball.
Fourth run in - is this a step too far? The colt is doing eyecatching things on his raw talent, but he’s not your typical professional unit of a two year old.
He is a striking colt that makes you look twice, possessing the combination of athleticism, presence and quality that good horses have and which are evident from the earliest age.
And since I've been a Baba-backer from day one I'm not jumping ship now - particularly as Reaan, Sleek Chassis, Nadeem, Little Brose, Tagaloa and Lyre all won this race at their fourth start.
Alibaba placed in the Merson Cooper on debut beating Eternal Warrior, who ran home very well in the Prelude for third. He won the Blue Diamond Preview second up despite racing greenly.
Ken Keys, who now trains in partnership with daughter Kasey, has never had a G1 winner.
The Keys are fine trainers and have had much success turning inexpensive yearlings into stakeswinners.
Could Alibaba deliver them the breakthrough?
Bred by Yulong, Alibaba was a modest $115,000 Inglis Classic purchase for his trainers.
His pedigree is a fascinating variation on the successful practice of inbreeding and linebreeding the Best In Show family - this is what powers his big engine!
Baba's dam is the winning Written Tycoon daughter Rowsthorn. A stunning type bred by Woodside Park, she was a $220,000 Inglis Premier purchase for Yulong in 2018.
Rowsthorn raced only three times, saluting on debut at two over 1000m in Adelaide.
Alibaba is her second foal and a full brother to her first - the talented filly Strideaway who was one of the better and tougher 2YOs in Perth last season.
Strideaway was competitive against the glamour filly and eventual WA 2YO Of The Year Talkanco, and notched up two wins and two placings from her five starts, culminating in a close up third in the rich Perth Magic Millions Classic RL. She had beaten the MM winner Do I Feel Lucky at their meeting the start before.
The mare produced another colt by Lucky Vega last spring, and was then covered once more by Alabama Express.
Rowsthorn’s dam was the winning Good Journey (Nureyev) daughter Balmodena, a three quarter sister to Written Tycoon's very good colt Masthead (twice G2 placed, third in the Blue Diamond and fourth in the Golden Slipper) and his sister Written Dash who won the G3 Typhoon Tracy Stakes and became a multiple blacktype producer.
Balmodena, whose four foals to race have all been winners, is also a half sister to the stakes winning filly Diamonds (Rich Enuff).
They were two of seven winners from their dam, the winning Redoute's Choice daughter Balsamico, a three quarter sister to Listed winner Fullazz - the dam of So You Think's G1 Rosehill Guineas hero and excellent young sire D'Argento - and a half sister to stakes placed Admirelle, the dam of Snitzel's champion 2YO Colt Sizzling.
Alibaba's prolific family descends from daughters of the Without Fear filly Estate Label, a true matriarch of the famed Lindsay Park stud, who stood her legendary sire.
Estate Label left daughters Battonage, Laudemio, Loving Cup, Prunotto, and Vintage Dance who all bred on with success.
Alibaba's branch of the family descends from the stakes winning Alzao daughter Laudemio.
There is extremely consistent production of fast and durable black type performers from this family, which traces to the imported mare Chand Beebee (fam 5)
Chand Beebee by Royal Hampton was bred by Queen Victoria, and foaled in 1890.
The blueblooded little filly left the Royal Stud for the long sea voyage to Sydney beside her dam Missy Baba, tasked with not only surviving the perilous journey, but with vastly improving the colonial racing stock.
Chand Beebee did both and she proved to be a fine producer, particularly of fast and classy fillies.
Her best daughter Chantress won the Newmarket Handicap, while Bee Bee won the Maribyrnong Plate and Baw Bee the AJC Breeders Plate.
Then - at the venerable age of eighteen - the old girl sprung a big surprise when she foaled a colt, Piastre, who went on to win the 1912 Melbourne Cup!
Notable descendants of Chand Beebee are many but they include the great champion Amounis ( Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup, two Epsom Hcps), Garrio (Cox Plate), Gold Script (NZ Champion 2YO and 3YO). Wenona Girl (Golden Slipper, 11 Group One wins),Farnworth (AJC Champagne Stakes, 2nd Golden Slipper), Anyone Home and Umah (Karrakatta Plate winners) and Live It Up (Flight Stakes) - ancestress of champion mare Response and her Golden Slipper winning daughter Estijaab, also G1 placed filly Tupakara.
The 2011 G1 Golden Rose winner Manawanui (Oratorio) was a product of this tribe, and one current high profile performer from Alibaba's immediate family is the G1 winning miler Attrition (Churchill).
Alibaba is bred
Redoute's Choice 2m x 4f sex balanced
Northern Dancer 5m,5m x 5m
He is a horse with quite the hothouse pedigree! And it's all about the immortal Blue Hen Best In Show and her dam Stolen Hour.
Best In Show's half sister Stolen Date is the ancestress of Alibaba's sire Alabama Express, and the line comes through Seasonal Pickup, a daughter of Nijinsky's three quarter brother The Minstrel.
The grand dam of Alabama Express Rekindled Applause is a granddaughter of Waajib by Try My Best, son of Best In Show's daughter Sex Appeal by Buckpasser.
How awesome a nick is this for Redoute's Choice with his Nijinsky x Alibhai (family of Waajib) x Best In Show damline, indeed the cross has given us the 3 x G1 winning sprinter, Everest champion and cult hero Giga Kick.
Then we have Written Tycoon - Try My Best In beast mode through his breedshaping son Last Tycoon, and Good Journey - his grandam Minnie Hauk by Sir Ivor is a full sister to Redoute's third dam Show Lady, plus his damsire Private Account brings in a lot more La Troienne ( Buckpasser etc)
Alibaba's ancestress Sherry Label was bred to Blue Hen Friar's Daughter 5mx 5m x 4m via her son Dastur by Solario (sex balanced ) and his half brother Bahram.
Written Tycoon's ancestress Viveza was bred x 2 to Solario and carries Bahram as the broodmare sire of the great Precipitation.
Lunchtime, Canny Lad's damsire replicates this pattern and importantly Royal Applause carried by Alabama Express strongly reinforces it.
Alibaba is linebred to Blue Hens Special sex balanced through Fairy King and Nureyev, and to Black Ray via Khaled and his relations Blushing Groom and Mill Reef - a variation on the same speed inducing nick that Guest House carries.
Alibaba carries duplications of both Nijinsky and The Minstrel, and of My Babu sex balanced - including two lines to his prepotent son Milesian.
Again, the barrier gods have treated Baba a bit unkindly but hopefully he and Froggy Newitt will get a clearer run to the post than they did in Sydney - and we will get to see that big booming finish!
Alibaba and Froggy have drawn barrier 17.
Roughie: STREISAND
She is just what you expect from a Magnus - tough, professional and genuine. She didn’t win the Preview in any earth shattering fashion - but she won it with determination. That’s what the Magnus breed do - they just go out there and get the job done.
This attitude takes a two year old far. It took the Magnus daughter Enbihaar into second place in the 2018 Blue Diamond behind the rampaging Written By after she too had won the Fillies Prelude, and I like that Streisand is getting the blinkers fitted here for her grand final which comes at her fifth start.
Many two year olds would find it beyond them but being by Magnus out of a Zoustar mare from a tough NZ family - it's the right recipe.
Zoustar is going to be an absolutely unbelievable broodmare sire, there is just no doubt about it.
The reverse cross, Zoustar over Magnus mares has produced the fine females Mizzy (G1 winning sprinter) and multiple stakes winner She's Got Pizzazz.
Streisand was picked up for a modest $100,000 by Shane McGrath Bloodstock / Clinton McDonald Racing at Inglis Premier from the draft of Northmore Thoroughbreds.
Bred by Eldon Park Stud, the filly was originally a $22,000 purchase by Northmore Thoroughbreds and Waterford from the Yarran Thoroughbreds draft at the Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale - and she has already earned more than $330,000 in her four starts.
Streisand is a member of the small penultimate crop sired by the much - missed Magnus, and she attempts to become the fourth filly to win the Diamond in the last ten years.
Trainer Clinton McDonald has drawn favourable comparisons in terms of mental and physical toughness between Streisand and his ill fated Blue Diamond winning filly Hayasugi, though he describes her as having “a bit more bitch about her” than the sweet tempered Hayasugi.
Well - we don't mind a bit of temperament when there's talent to back up the attitude, and it seems this lass was rather well named!
Streisand is the second named foal and first stakes winner out of the winning Zoustar mare Zouper Star, a half-sister to the Listed winner Best Yet To Come. Her first foal is also a winner
Zouper Star foaled a colt by Star Witness in 2024, a colt by Nicconi in 2025 and was then covered by Street Boss.
Newhaven Park will offer Lot 458, the half-brother by G1 Blue Diamond Stakes and G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Star Witness at the upcoming Inglis Premier yearling sale.
Zouper Star's stakes placed dam Simply The Best was by the grand old sire Kingdom Bay, a grandson of Biscay from NZ's famed Eulogy family
Kingdom Bay has the historic distinction of being the first NZ bred stallion to be crowned champion NZ Sire.
A crack miler who twice placed at G1 level in Australia, he was twice a Group winner and beaten by a head in the G1 Manawatu Sires Produce as a juvenile.
He was a great sire of two year olds too, but the Kingdom Bays won over all distances and they were tough as old boots, if not tougher.
Kingdom Bay is buried beside Foxbridge and Alcimedes at Trelawney Stud. If you want toughness and legs of steel in a juvenile racehorse, he provides it.
Streisand's next dam Chickero by the fine broodmare sire Pevero won twice at two and was fourth in the G1 Matamata Sires Produce, and was a multiple black type producer among her five winners
Her dam Our Chick was by “the Star Kingdom of NZ “ Pakistan II, and his daughters sit on the damline of many fast G1 performers today.
The next sire on the damline is the Royal Charger son Knight's Romance who sired no less than three individual daughters to win the G1 Telegraph Sprint while another won the ARC Newmarket / Railway double!
This family goes back to the imported Trebelli II ( a G1 producer by today's reckoning) and through her to the Irish Derby heroine Tragedy (7-e) and Gibside Fairy, whose four daughters founded nearly all branches of the 7 family.
Streisand is bred
Danehill 3m x 4m
So this is all about the 7 family - Danzig, Bletchingly and Rockefella, plenty of it in Forli (x 2 in Zoustar) particularly via the super speed influence Mieuxce.
The ancestress of Zoustar Queen Ingoda was by the great Comedy King (Melbourne Cup etc) and he is very closely related to Streisand's ancestress Tragedy.
The tie in with Magnus is his ancestress Dollaquick bred from a Rockefella/ Mieuxce mare, this is the source of so much of his family's incredible speed - Lunchtime also boosts the 7 nicks and he is a linebreeding subject here, as are Star Kingdom / Biscay, Royal Charger and his son Turn-To, Vain's sire Wilkes (sex balanced) and Mr Prospector (sex balanced).
Streisand the diva once said: “When I was young, I wanted nothing more than to see my name in lights”
Streisand the filly with partner Ben Melham will launch from barrier 12.
A star is born?
Blowout: CHAYAN
This I Am Invincible filly ran out of her skin on debut to finish runner up to Streisand in the Prelude.
Her half sister by Zoustar, offered by Ridgeport Holdings, sold for $525,000 at Perth MM Sale today (Thursday) to Sheamus Mills Bloodstock topping the sale.
This was a great result for her breeder Ridgeport Holdings as they purchased her dam Lubiton, in foal to Zoustar, for $400,000 from the 2024 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Now, if Chayan can win or place in this G1 that will look like a real bargain!.
Lubiton had no foal last year after missing to Brave Smash, but is now safely back in foal to Chayan’s sire I Am Invincible.
Chayan was a $250,000 MM Gold Coast purchase from the draft of Longwood Thoroughbred Farm (AA) for Eric Koh / Falcon Racing, and is trained by Annabel and Rob Archibald.
She is the fourth foal and first black type earner from her G3 Tesio Stakes winning dam whose first two to race are both winners.
This is a huge second up task for the filly - history is against her and a lot of the “Vinnies” take a little time - but his best 2YO performers are out of mares with big Classic genes - Galileo, Zabeel, Sunday Silence - and he gets that here.
But he also gets Snitzel, the sire of Chayan's talented dam Lubiton - and when is that ever going to be a drawback when we get to these high pressure G1 juvenile contests?
Lubiton was one of only three foals and the only progeny to see a racetrack from the unraced Zabeel mare Rosa Stellata, in turn a daughter of the fantastic racemare Camino Rose by Sea Road.
That tough girl started her career in Brisbane and won five races at two - and trained on to win the G1 Coolmore Classic / Queen Of The Turf double - having placed in both the previous year! She also won the Tristarc Stakes at Caulfield.
Camino Rose was the best runner sired by Whiskey Road's G3 winning son Sea Road, a good sire but a far better broodmare sire - that suggests his superstar Camino Rose packs a nice genetic punch there as the third dam of Chayan.
Her daughters are breeding on in accordance. Camino Rose is the grand dam of the G3 winning filly Twitchy Frank and the stakes placed Extra Two as well as Lubiton.
Chayan's unraced fourth dam Monarose was by the Tudor Minstrel line speedsire Lord Silver Man - a member of the famed stallion making Manto family whose current star is Written Tycoon.
Chayan's is the immediate family of stakes winning sprinters Hard To Catch and Perth galloper Fabergino who won at G2 level in Melbourne and was fourth in a G1 Lightning Stakes.
It descends from the Todman daughter Ashton Lass and goes back to the AJC Oaks winner Crossfire (7-d) - yep, family 7 again!
Many great racehorses descended from Crossfire, one being Manikato's grandsire Matrice. Another branch of this family gives us the fastest horse on the planet, Ka Ying Rising!
Chayan is bred
Danzig 4m, x 5m
Canny Lad 3f x 5f
Lunchtime 5f x 7f, 5m sex balanced
Sir Ivor 5f x 7f , 5m sex balanced
It's a seriously power packed filly pedigree.
Chayan and Lachlan Neindorf will go back from barrier 15 and look to be storming home late.
Sub / Super Blowout: EUROCANTO
There's no denying it, he’s a bit of an immature hothead this fellow - and that doesn’t win you many big two year old races.
But the son of Per Incanto has got plenty of talent. A crossover noseband goes on after his wayward effort in the Prelude, having been scratched at the barrier in the Preview - but he did come with a barnstorming finish on debut to beat Streisand.
He may settle a lot better second up over 1200m too.
Eurocanto was a $250,000 buy for Lindsay Park Racing at the MM Gold Coast from the draft of Evergreen Stud Farm (AA)
He is the second foal from unplaced Savabeel daughter Shespending, a full sister to Listed Lonhro Plate winner Tilianam and three quarter sister to G2 winner Splurge from one of Waikato Stud's best families.
Her stakes placed dam is by Pins, her grand dam ( the G1 placed Splashing Out) is by O'Reilly and is both a multiple stakes producer and a three quarter sister to champion racehorse and G1 sire Sacred Falls.
It's the magic Waikato recipe that has delivered time after time.
Centaine's in there too. This branch of family 34 goes back to the imported mare Cassia.
Eurocanto is bred
Sir Ivor 5f x 5m
This is why I particularly love his pedigree for this race - his third dam is bred 4f x 4m to Better Boy's legendary son Century.
Century was the raging favourite for the Blue Diamond of 1972, blazing in undefeated from four starts.
Century and the Wilkes colt John's Hope staged an epic battle down the straight, with John's Hope prevailing by a nostril. He would go on to win the Slipper in Sydney while Century took the VRC Sires.
Century's sire Better Boy and his damsire Rego are a great match with Per Incanto's damlines - and Better Boy also sired the ancestress of Savabeel.
Through O'Reilly's sire Last Tycoon a sex balance of Try My Best is created.
This cross has produced Per Incanto's G1 winner Belclare and G1 placed juvenile Saracino, and of course he is the damsire of the world's fastest horse Ka Ying Rising by O'Reilly son Shamexpress!
His G1 winner Gringotts is out of a Savabeel mare, G1 performer Evaporate has Sava as his second damsire and G1 juvenile winner Dal Cielo is out of a Centaine daughter.
Eurocanto is linebred to Never Bend, Round Table, Bull Lea and Grey Sovereign.
The Hayes boys won the Blue Diamond with their Per Incanto colt Little Brose in 2023 - he now stands alongside his sire at Little Avondale Stud in NZ.
Can they stage another Diamond heist here?
Eurocanto and Luke Currie will be riding their luck from barrier 18
