Caulfield Blackbookers March 14 – Horses to follow from Peter Young Stakes Day

The highlight was the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes, an important lead-up toward the Australian Cup and there were several notable performances worth following in the coming weeks.

Here are our blackbookers and horses to follow from the action.

Was well beaten as the 3rd horse, finishing five lengths off the winner, Big Wigs, who fought it out with Miss Chanel. But the Godolphin galloper may be worth a forgive and follow as he was posted wide no cover for the entire race and did use up a heap of fuel early on when going 21.12 seconds from the 1000m to the 600m. He was able to hold off the rest of them at the end to hold the minor prize. The Tony & Calvin McEvoy-trained galloper was first up after an early two-year-old crack last year that saw him place 4th on debut behind the subsequent Blue Diamond (1200m) winner, Streisand, before winning his Maiden at debut and should have scope for improvement at his next start. 

Nice performance by Apulia to fill the exacta behind Birdman in the feature of the day, the Peter Young Stakes. The Team Hayes galloper was second up and coming off a 5th behind the same horse in the Blamey Stakes (1600m) when resuming. He settled back in the small field and was forced to swing out very wide as they cornered, while Birdman gained the split and found the perfect ground in the straight. Apulia kept coming and made ground on the winner over the last 200m. The pair are both likely to head to Flemington for the Australian Cup in a fortnight and he might be one to consider for the Group 1 feature at a bit of value. 

It was all one way traffic in the VOBOS Platinum Guineas with Salty Pearl proving too good for her opposition with a dominant win. Further back in the field, Storm Leopard produced a bit of an eye-catcher by running 5th. The son of Ghaiyyath was tackling his hardest assignment to date after taking out two of his four starts to kickstart his career and was forced back from the wide barrier then was held up from the 500m until the 200m before getting out and finishing off with the fastest last 200m and the 6th fastest of the entire meeting, just behind what some of the sprinters produced earlier in the meeting. Mark him down as one to jump on in similar or easier company at his next couple of starts.