KEY POINTS:
The Blue Diamond has been Dwayne Dunn's lucky race and he has kept his unbeaten record in Victoria's premier juvenile event intact aboard Sleek Chassis.
The filly was one of five runners in the race yesterday from the David Hayes stable and gave Dunn his third successive Blue Diamond victory.
Dunn had his first ride in the 1200m race when he won it on the Mark Kavanagh-trained Undoubtedly in 2005.
Last year he linked up with Hayes, then in his first season back from a 10-year stint in Hong Kong, to win it on Nadeem.
"David talked me into riding this filly some time back," Dunn said. "We do a lot of work with these babies at home [Lindsay Park in South Australia] and it is fun to see where they end up."
Hayes now has the record for the most Blue Diamond victories with four. His late father Colin won it three times giving Lindsay Park seven victories in total.
As he did last year, Hayes led in the quinella with Sleek Chassis scoring by 1 1/4 lengths from Zizou with the Greg Eurell-trained Shrewd Rhythm three-quarters of a length away third.
Hayes other runners were Cecconi (fifth), Press The Button (sixth) and Chinamora (seventh).
"I'm looking forward to getting to Sydney," said the champion trainer in reference to the $3.5 million Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill on March 31.
Hayes, who won the 2006 Golden Slipper Slipper with his Blue Diamond runner-up Miss Finland while stablemate Churchill Downs was third, is likely to have multiple runners this year.
The John Hawkes stable unveiled a potential Golden Slipper contender when Shaft scored a brilliant debut win in the Silver Slipper at Rosehill.
Shaft delivered a strong burst 100m from home to hold off Husson Lightning by half a length while the favourite Murtajill was a short head away third. Before the race, betting agencies rated Shaft a $26 chance while the Inglis Classic winner Danehill Smile was the $4 favourite.
- AAP
