Eurocanto will stamp himself as the Hayes family’s best chance of winning an incredible 11th Blue Diamond Stakes when the undefeated colt returns to the track at Caulfield on Saturday.
That’s the hope of co-trainer Will Hayes, who declared the son of Per Incanto the stable’s top seed ahead of a pivotal weekend for their two-year-old stocks.
The brothers Will, JD and Ben will saddle up key chances in four two-year-old races across three states on Saturday.
Eurocanto, who won the Listed Maribyrnong Trial at his only start during the spring, is $8.50 with Bet365 in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude for colts and geldings, although Hayes is confident he can challenge horses higher in the market.
The stable was pleased with the colt’s recent trial, which came after he was scratched in the barriers before the Blue Diamond Preview last month.
“For me personally, I still think he’s out number one seed,” Hayes said.
“He’s a terrific colt, he’s got a great attitude and I think it was just a freak accident when he went off in the barriers first-up.
“Subsequently he trialed at Flemington against older horses and he went very well.
“We’ve obviously got a grand final second-up in the Diamond.
“They are very similar, although he (Eurocanto) is probably a bit more tractable than Little Brose was as a young horse but they both have that X-factor.
“He (Little Brose) also hit the Diamond second-up so it’s funny how things can work.”
Eurocanto over the top!
Another swooper scores down the straight as @lindsayparkrace land the first 2YO winner of the season in Melbourne 🥇 pic.twitter.com/rJDqGnEtEh
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) October 4, 2025
The stable will unveil Brazen Beau filly Medicinal ($8.50) and Home Affairs filly Portinari ($15) in the fillies’ division of the Prelude.
Both fillies have upside but Hayes said they each need to earn their place in the Blue Diamond later this month.
“They are two lovely fillies and we love the way that they’ve trialed up,” he said.
“They’ve earned their opportunity at the level and off the back of the result, we’ll be placing them accordingly.”
Hayes confirmed that the lure of $2 million prizemoney in a restricted race was too hard for connections to ignore with untapped filly Jacaranda, who has traveled to Sydney for a tilt at the Inglis Millennium.
“It’s a restricted race with such good prizemoney so we thought we may as well go while we’re so well represented in the Melbourne race,” he said.
“She’s got a tendency to over-race which we saw in her first-up run so we’ve applied the elastic cross-over noseband and we’ve seen some great results with that in her trackwork.
“She has high ability but she can be her own worst nightmare.
“In terms of the form, it looks a very even race so for $2 million, we thought we’d chance our arm.”
