KEY POINTS:
Just how far Sydney's equine influenza-hit 2-year-olds are lagging behind their Melbourne counterparts will be highlighted on Saturday when Caulfield hosts the first of its Blue Diamond lead-up races.
The Blue Diamond Preview for fillies has attracted 13 starters, all but three with race experience, although the colts and geldings' division is light on for numbers with just five juveniles paid up for when acceptances were taken.
The preview races begin in earnest the countdown to the Blue Diamond Stakes, Melbourne's richest 2-year-old race which is now less than a month away.
But while the Victorian youngsters, who were unaffected by equine influenza, are stepping up their campaigns, most of Sydney's new crop are just beginning their racetrack careers.
Of the 16 acceptances for the two juvenile races at Randwick on Saturday only fillies Belle Soleil and Miss Monashee have raced before.
Mark Morrissey, form expert for Colin Tidy's betchoice.com.au, said the lack of exposed Sydney form made the Golden Slipper puzzle particularly cryptic this year.
"We would normally have put our Slipper market out six weeks ago.
"For late January, the whole 2-year-old situation is very murky compared to what it normally would be.
"We've seen two very good ones so far, Burgeis and De Lightning Ridge, but I've no doubt there are a stack of good ones to come out late.
"Normally we would have seen the top half-dozen before Christmas."
Four-time Slipper winning trainer Clarry Conners will start two youngsters at Randwick, Fleeting Quality and Princess Quality.
He will also be the only Sydney trainer with a 2-year-old runner at Caulfield.
- AAP
