The road to the Blue Diamond is paved with big dreams and their reality is put to the test this Saturday when the babies of both sexes step out in the 1000m Blue Diamond Previews and if you love a filly with a big pedigree read on!
We're looking at the G3 Fillies race, where a field of 14 will face the starter and the punter will be faced with the eternal conundrum of the youngster with exposed form / experience vs the unraced.
We have five in the first category with only one of them having registered a win and that is the Queenslander Lady Of Five (Hanseatic)
Streisand (Magnus) is twice stakes placed in two starts. Ghana's Akan (Street Boss) launches from the red hot Maher stable and Gin Twist (Home Affairs) is one of two representatives for Team Hayes. Leopard Shark (Churchill) has trialled well after a debut placing at Cranbourne.
Among the unraced is a feast of quality and all eyes will be upon several royally bred lasses on debut.
They are the $1m yearling Queen's English (Snitzel), La Gitana (Home Affairs) and I Am Aria (I Am Invincible).
But none of them is the favourite! There's been an avalanche of support for Ciaron Maher's well bred Harry Angel filly Angels Fury off the back of three scintillating jumpouts. This electric girl is surely bred to be a quality sprinter - but I'm a little wary of how it all translates under race conditions and barrier 10 is not ideal.
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A very hot day with the dreaded northerly blowing on Saturday is going to ensure testing conditions for the babies. Over the 1000m they'll have it right in their faces from the duration - it's going to be tough for the leaders and those racing without cover.
Plus we have no clue as to the preferred racing pattern of many of these!
Top Pick: LA GITANA
Lindsay Park is one of so many properties severely impacted by the Longwood bushfire, with the tragic loss of a number of horses part of that horrific event. We all felt the sadness of that news.
Racing people are by necessity stoic and forward looking characters and it goes without saying that Team Hayes and Lindsay Park will bounce back better than ever - this youngster can get her racing career off to a winning start and be part of that process.
La Gitana is bred to go very quick and go early. She is the tenth foal from the fine producer Hips Don’t Lie who was also outstanding on the track.
Bred by Trelawney and Whakanui Studs in NZ, and purchased at Karaka by James Bester for $200,000 in 2007, the precocious daughter of Nureyev's champion sprinting son Stravinsky was a star from day one.
Trained by David Hayes, Hips Don't Lie started thirteen times and won five races, three at 1000m, one at 1100m, and once at 1200m.
She won her first two starts over 1000m in the early spring of 2007, resuming with a win in the Talindert Stakes 1100m before a close up sixth in the Blue Diamond, and then was the distant runner up to the runaway champion Amelia's Dream in the G2 Silver Slipper. Hips Don’t Lie won the G3 Riesling and was a gallant 7th on the bottomless track in Sebring's Golden Slipper.
Her final victory came the following November when she blasted down the Flemington straight in the Schweppes 1000. Her final race came two starts later in Perth where she was somewhat out of her league in the legendary Takeover Target v Apache Cat G1 Winterbottom Stakes showdown of 2008.
Five, yes five of the Inglis Easter yearlings out of Hips Don't Lie have sold for $1 million or more - the full sisters Lake Geneva, Irish Sea and Sia by Fastnet Rock, and their half sisters Humming ( I Am Invincible) and the promising 3YO Shinjina (Snitzel).
Hips Don't Lie has the enviable record of nine to race for nine winners. Her best to date are her Fastnet Rock juvenile stakes winners Ennis Hill ( dam of G2 winning 2YO filly and G1 placed 3YO Learning To Fly by Justify) and Lake Geneva who placed in both the Blue Diamond and Golden Slipper.
Hips Don't Lie had two sons by “The Rock.”
Acrobat was retained by Coolmore after he didn't meet his $1 million reserve. Winner of the Inglis Millenium RL in race record time at his only race start, he is a popular young sire with his first runners on the track this season.
La Gitana at $400,000 was a (relative) cheapie by this family's unreal commercial standards when purchased by mum's original owner Bester from the Coolmore draft at Inglis Easter in 2025.
Hips Don't Lie has missed to a few of her coverings through the years, but this marvellous old girl is still going strong at twenty years of age and produced a filly in 2025 to the much-missed supersire Wootton Bassett.
Will La Gitana make it ten from ten for her dam- I think she surely will and sooner rather than later!
Hips Don't Lie was from the winning Centaine mare Procure, dam of nine winners with another two valuable daughters being the G2 placed Acquired by O'Reilly ( dam of Snitzel's G2 winning colt Splintex at stud in WA and SW Invictus Salute), and Ocean Of Tears by Minardi, grand dam of G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes winning colt Ozzmosis (Zoustar) who has commenced stud duties at Newgate Farm.
Procure's immediate family is dripping with black type - notable among its juvenile stakeswinners is Procure's half sisters Western Music (grand dam of top Perth 2YO Simon Said) G1 placed Tristachine (producer) and future G1 NZ 1,000 Guineas winner Rhythm (producer) as well as
Weatherly, and the future G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Griff.
This incredibly prolific running family descends from the WA bred elite producer Bibiana Girl, a full sister to Born Rich, the dam of Karrakatta Plate heroine Born Priceless. Their half sister Rich Haul also became a multiple stakes producer.
The two full sisters were by the beautifully bred G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Beau Sovereign by Sovereign Edition,who for many years was a leading sire in WA.
It is Bibiana Girl’s Gimcrack Stakes winning daughter Getting There by another WA legend and Nasrullah tail male descendant in Jungle Boy, who has founded the fantastic damline to which La Gitana lays claim.
Throw in the blood of Centaine to that mix and it's a heady brew.
Interestingly one of the early favourites for this year's Karrakatta Plate, the cracking colt He's A Maschino ( Maschino) romped in on debut at Ascot recently and is a member of this tough and brilliant tribe, as are - G1 winning Testa Rossa daughter Rostova and her G1 Manikato Stakes placed daughter Anaheed, NZ G1 Railway Sprint winner Imananabaa, G1 Galaxy placed The Heavyweight and the grand old WA speedsire Zedrich.
La Gitana’s ancestress Miss Holborn by the Irish bred sprinter Holborn was the lynchpin which founded this ever reliable tribe of winners, but further back the female line is that of Coveshaw who was the dam of one of Melbourne's great WFA racehorses of the 1940s, Attley. He counted the Caulfield Guineas, Underwood Stakes (twice), CF Orr, Memsie and Futurity Stakes among his 13 majors!
You know with these bloodlines La Gitana is a good chance to handle the heat better than a lot of them, and she’ll love the firm deck.
But let’s get to the other side of this genetic equation and it’s pretty spectacular.
La Gitana will be looking to add to the success of her sire Home Affairs, who has the favourite Kinnaird in the Karaka Million at Ellerslie on Saturday.
La Gitana is bred
Stravinsky 4m x 2f sex balanced
Danzig 5m x 5m
Mr Prospector 5m x 5f sex balanced
Nureyev 5m x 3f sex balanced
Blue Hen Fire The Groom 5m x 3f
I love La Gitana's sex balanced inbreeding to Nureyev’s champion sprinter Stravinsky and his G1 winning dam Fire The Groom and the way it enhances her linebreeding to Home Affair's ancestress Fanfreluche, especially through her grand daughter Exigent - the sex balanced duplications of Northern Dancer, Native Dancer, Mr Prospector and Wild Risk thus created is a recipe for superior class and speed.
She is also strongly linebred (sex balanced) to My Babu.
Lugging Bit fitted, hopefully this stylish looking filly will find her feet quickly, travel with cover and absolutely fly over the last 100m. I like that she's had three jump outs ( won two coming in) and a trial.
She will be beautifully educated from this stable and should be nicely switched on when the gates open.
“La Gitana” is a lovely name, which in Spanish means “gypsy woman.” Let's hope this young lady can get her caravan off the start line like it's an F1 Ferrari.
La Gitana and Luke Currie jump from barrier 3.
Next Best: QUEEN'S ENGLISH
She’s got the posh pedigree to do justice to the name, being one of the last daughters of breedshaper Snitzel from the freakish Encosta de Lago daughter English who won the G2 Riesling and was a narrow runner up in Vancouver's Golden Slipper at two, before training on to a magnificent WFA career.
At three English beat Black Heart Bart to win the G1 All Aged and went so close to beating the legend Chautauqua in the TJ Smith at four. At five she triumphed over the Stradbroke winner Impending in the G1 Doomben 10,000, and through her 27 start career also collected two G2 Challenge Stakes and placed in a further two G1s for earnings of just under $4 million.
This filly is the third foal from English. Her first is Eton ( I Am Invincible) a $1.5 million Inglis Easter colt.
The second foal from English is highly promising colt King's English, full brother to this filly - who was purchased for $700,000 by David Ellis at Inglis Easter 2024. Carrying the famous Te Akau silks he bolted in by six lengths at his third start and his first on a good track in NZ, having placed twice on soft - before resuming with a win this month.
Last season she gave birth to a filly by Newhaven Park's dual G1 winning Savabeel son Mo'unga.
Queen's English is bred
Northern Dancer 5m,5m x 4m, 5m
Danzig 4m x 4m
Encosta de Lago is Snitzel's number one nick with 9 stakes winners bred on the cross including his 2025 Golden Slipper winning filly Marhoona, G1 winning NZ 2YO colts Sword Of State and Summer Passage and dual Aussie G1 winning juvenile colt Invader.
Queen's English has closed off stylishly to win both her trials over several of her rivals here. Anthony and Sam Freedman are great trainers and you know this filly will be faultlessly prepared for her debut.
Queen's English and Lachlan Neindorf will jump from barrier 4.
Roughie: GIN TWIST
On a bit of a royal garden party theme here with the Queen’s English and the Gin Twist!
This is the second of the Hayes runners, and she's stepping out after a close up third on debut at Pakenham.
Gin Twist was a $220,000 buy for Lindsay Park Racing from Book One at the 2025 MM Gold Coast sale consigned by Newgate Farm (as agent)
This is another daughter of Home Affairs ( I’m in the fan club ) from the good Beneteau filly Twist Tops who won the Inglis 2YO Classic RL and placed in the G2 Magic Night as a juvenile. This filly is her fifth foal and of her three to race two are winners with , Sports Legend by Deep Field a winner in Oz and HK.
Gin Twist is the first filly to race from her dam whose 2026 yearling is a full brother, and he sold for $200,000 to GAO Sanxiong at this year's MM Gold Coast.
Second dam Imtops by the Snippets son High Rolling was a very speedy six time winning short course specialist and a half sister to the dam of G1 Australasian Oaks winning filly Irish Darling, (dam of Northern Meteor's 2YO stakes winner Fighting Sun) and to the dam of stakes winning 2YO NZ filly Dragon Maiden.
Their dam was the Sir Tristram daughter Evening Line.
We then go back to Balmereve by the great Balmerino, a full sister to the Cox Plate placed King Delamere from the fine racemare Battle Eve ( Battle Waggon) and a half sister to NZ's legendary WFA galloper Commissionaire who jockey Jim Cassidy once described as “the gutsiest horse I have ever ridden”
This is great family, Colonial family 2 tracing back to Yatterina.
The first born foal of the important colonial sire Yattendon, she was exported to NZ aged two and became one of the most famous horses ever to have raced in the Shaky Isles, clocking up more than 60 wins over all distances! She then became a superb broodmare.
A few of the memorable females from the Yatterina tribe include Miss Pennymoney, Merlene, Lady Jakeo, Rom's Stiletto, Sweet Aroma, Queen March, All Gold, Mrs Onassis and Kapiston.
Gin Twist is bred
Danehill 4m x 4m
Danzig 5m,5m x 5m
Canny Lad 4f x 5f
The talented Redoute's Choice son Beneteau died too young and is the big key here, adding a third line of Fanfreluche through Flying Spur's close relation Encosta de Lago who sired his dam, the full sister to superstar filly Alinghi.
Gin Twist is also linebred to Lunchtime, Sir Ivor and Never Bend, all sex balanced.
Gin Twist and Luke Nolen will fly from barrier 5.
