Platinum Diamond (NZ) Sparkles in Castletown Stakes

A stylish come-from-behind performance in Friday’s $80,000 Listed John Turkington Forestry Castletown Stakes (1200m) at Otaki saw Platinum Diamond (NZ) (Hello Youmzain) become the eighth Karaka 2024 graduate to win a black-type race as a two-year-old this season.

Platinum Diamond was offered by breeders Beaufort Downs in Book 2 of Karaka 2024, where she was bought by Lisa Latta Racing Stables for $90,000. She has had three starts for two wins and $66,975 in stakes, with the promise of much more to come as a three-year-old.

The Lisa Latta-trained filly has joined a quality group of stakes-winning juveniles this season. La Dorada (NZ) (Super Seth) has been the headline act, winning four of her five starts including the $1m Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) and the $550,000 Group One Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m). She was bought by Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis for $190,000 and has earned $1.06m.

Intention (NZ) (Bivouac) and Too Sweet (NZ) (Satono Aladdin) were Group Two winners of the $175,000 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1100m) and $225,000 Eclipse Stakes (1200m) respectively. Intention was a $65,000 purchase from Book 1 of Karaka 2024, while Too Sweet was bought out of Book 2 for $50,000.

Field Of Play (Deep Field) was a $500,000 purchase from Book 1 and banked A$333,100 from only three starts this season, headed by a smart win in the A$350,000 Group Three Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) at Caulfield.

Bona Sforza (Written By), Do You Just (So You Think) and Towering Vision (NZ) (Circus Maximus) have all scored stylish wins at Listed level, and Platinum Diamond followed suit on Friday.

Fourth on debut at Hawera in early May, Platinum Diamond has come on in leaps and bounds since then and has won both subsequent starts. She scored by three-quarters of a length at Wanganui on May 31, where some beaten runners could have been considered unlucky after being hampered by wayward rivals. On Friday the filly scored an even more decisive victory that left the beaten brigade with no excuses.

Platinum Diamond was patiently ridden by visiting Brazilian jockey Bruno Queiroz, settling second-last for most of the race. Queiroz asked the filly to warm into her work after rounding the home turn, then angled her to the outside of the favourite Country Salon (NZ) (Darci Brahma).

Platinum Diamond sprinted past that rival in the straight, going clear to win by a length and a quarter.

“I was very confident before the race,” Queiroz said. “This is a nice horse. She was travelling very well all the way. I just waited until the straight, and then she flew home.”

Latta has been delighted with Platinum Diamond’s progress this autumn and early winter.

“She’s really going the right way,” the Awapuni trainer said. “She was a late foal, a December foal, and we’ve just waited on her and given her time. Every start, she’s got better and better.

“Bruno was very confident today. I didn’t really have to give him instructions. He said, ‘I’ll just win.’

“There are some great owners in this filly. Neville McAlister has been with me for a long time and puts a huge amount of work into finding these horses. Kevin and Wendy Dixon and Trevor Tomlins, from the South Island, are in the ownership too. It’s great to get this result for them.”

Platinum Diamond is the second stakes winner from the first New Zealand crop of Hello Youmzain. The Cambridge Stud shuttle stallion holds a clear lead in the first-season sires’ premiership.

Four weanlings by Hello Youmzain will go through the ring during the NZB National Weanling Sale at Karaka on Thursday. A notable member of that quartet is Lot 78, a filly whose dam Tinkalicious (NZ) (Nadeem) won six races headed by the Group Three Cuddle Stakes (1600m).

Vendor	Beaufort Downs Ltd
Purchaser	Lisa Latta Racing Stables (Manawatu-Whanganui)
Breeding	Hello Youmzain – Spritz
Sale	Lot 980, Karaka 2024 Book 2, $90,000
Breeder	Beaufort Downs Ltd
Owner	N J McAlister, K T Dixon & T D Tomlins