Caulfield Blackbookers January 31 – Horses to follow from Saturday racing at Caulfield

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

Castellar produced one of the most impressive performances of the day when scoring in Race 2 and is clearly a horse on the rise. The Gavin Bedggood-trained galloper has now won four of 12 and settled into a perfect three-wide trailing position under Craig Williams before being eased out approaching the home turn, where he quickly put the race to bed, scoring by a two length margin. He did that without being fully extended, a sign there is plenty more to come. That came after his eye-catcher at Flemington first-up and with only two runs under the belt this time in, he can take another step forward when tackling harder grade at his next few. 

It might pay to forgive Hedonist for his run in Race 3. The Tom Dabernig-trained galloper started as a firming $2.45 favourite but was a bit fired up early when racing keenly and sitting exposed in the lead. He laid out rounding the home turn and in the early stages of the straight and was picked off by Two Wolves but did stick on well to fill the runner-up podium. The son of Headwater had previously won at Warrnambool. The four-year-old has now finished runner-up in three of his past four in city races and does look to have a Saturday win in him sometime soon. 

Nice performance by Damask Rose in the Group 3 Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes for the mares. The former Kiwi was one of a number in the field that were resuming and was a tad slow out of the blocks before working up to tuck into a midfield position. The leader, and eventual winner, Wrote To Arataki was able to get enough of a mid-race breather from the 800m until the 400m before setting up a winning break, with Damask Rose clearly the pick of those from further back, closing off with the fastest last 200m and the second fastest of the entire meeting. The former Kiwi is yet to win in five starts since coming over but was unlucky in the Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) and the Toorak Handicap (1600m) last spring and should measure up when stepping up in trip at her next couple of runs.