Dubious on target for G3 Blue Sapphire

Tuesday 15 October 2019, 2:07pm

The Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington is the main spring aim for three-year-old colt Dubious who will be out to show he is on target for the Group One sprint when he runs in the Blue Sapphire Stakes.

The Group Three Blue Sapphire (1200m) for three-year-olds is one of the feature races on Wednesday's Caulfield program which includes the Group Three Coongy Cup, Group Three Ladies Day Vase and Listed Ladbrokes Village Stakes.

Dubious was a dual stakes winner during his juvenile season and was runner-up in the $2 million Magic Millions Classic in January to Godolphin-owned filly Exhilarates who is among his Blue Sapphire rivals.

After a fourth placing in the Vain Stakes in his season return in August, Dubious bounced back with a close second to Dalasan in the Group Two Danehill Stakes (1200m) last month at Flemington.

Trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace have pinpointed the Blue Sapphire as the right lead-up to the Coolmore (1200m) on November 2.

"He has trained really well since the Danehill," Eustace said.

"It looks to be a competitive race, probably a bit more competitive than a lot of years.

"There's three or four genuinely good horses in him, Brooklyn Hustle and Exhilarates and they are probably all looking to head towards the Coolmore.

"But we couldn't be happier with him."

Eustace said Dubious had excuses for his Vain Stakes performance in which subsequent Group One Golden Rose winner Bivouac beat him by just over six lengths.

"He pulled up with a foot abscess after the race," Eustace said.

"And then second-up you couldn't knock him.

"He bounced back from missing a bit of work. He led them up and was only beaten by Dalasan who is a very good horse.

"We were very happy with the run."

Mark Zahra, who claimed a Group One double at Caulfield on Saturday aboard Super Seth in the Caulfield Guineas and Cape Of Good Hope in the Caulfield Stakes, takes the ride on Dubious.

Exhilarates was the $3.90 favourite on Tuesday ahead of Brooklyn Hustle ($4.80) and Dubious ($5.50).

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »