After a very nice barrier trial in Sydney, there was a lot of attention going the way of the Peter & Paul Snowden-trained High Octane (+210) and the colt showed why in the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (C&G), as he glided past his rivals and recorded a smart debut victory at Caulfield.
The son of Deep Field settled midfield and appeared to lose his way a little bit on the home turn, but as the field turned into the straight, he travelled up to the leaders and put them away within 100m.
After hitting the front, High Octane wobbled around and raced greenly late, but he always had the measure of his stablemate and runner-up Holmes A Court (+2200), who held on for a stable quinella.
Innervisions (+280) led the field up to the home corner but started to struggle at the 200m mark and just held on for third place ahead of Let'sfacethemusic (+1400).
Peter Snowden was on course at Caulfield, and he was very happy with the performance of his colts post-race.
“Absolutely, they both went terrific,” Snowden said of Holmes A Court and High Octane.
“There isn't a lot between them in their work at home. I thought there would be more in the finish of a race but I though both colts ran exceptionally well.
“He'll (High Octane) improve a lot, he only had the one trial coming into this, he got lost a fair way out and wobbled on that corner but showed his class late.
“He's a talented horse and no doubt he will take good benefit from this run.
“They will go the traditional way now. They will go both go to the Prelude in two weeks' time and then from there go into the (Blue) Diamond if their run says their good enough, hopefully they will be there.”
Mark Zahra made the trip up to Sydney to trial the winner, and he spoke about that in his post-race interview.
“I went up there (Canterbury) to trial Bodyguard but as you know, Pete (Snowden) always has a lot of two-year-olds and I was lucky to get on this guy,” Zahra said.
“I think they looked at the noms of this race and thought they would use at another trial and he could win anyway, but he came up an easy money favourite, so I thought ‘alright we'll see how we go'.
“He's a beautiful horse to ride, obviously he is an expensive colt, so you would expect him to be a good type.
“I was just gonna have him where he wanted to be today and you see in his trial that he was back chasing, but today I was just able to bounce into a spot, but I travelled like the winner all the way.”
High Octane is the +400 favourite in the Blue Diamond Stakes futures market with online bookmakers.