The beaten Blue Diamond Stakes favourite Field Of Play (Deep Field) will continue his racing career in Hong Kong.
Co-trainer Trent Busuttin confirmed on Monday the Blue Diamond Prelude winner was going into quarantine ahead of his flight to his new base in Hong Kong instead of heading up to Sydney for a potential tilt at the Golden Slipper Stakes.
“We’d like to have him around, but when they are owned in Hong Kong it’s always on the cards one way or the other,” Busuttin said.
“It looked like we might get to Sydney, but the owner decided to go up to Hong Kong. He’s a very good horse and he’ll go well there.”
It is understood Field Of Play will be trained in Hong Kong by Ciaron Maher’s former training partner Dave Eustace.
Field Of Play won his first two races at Moonee Valley and then in the Blue Diamond Prelude at Caulfield, where he beat the ultimate Blue Diamond winner Devil Night (Extreme Choice).
Connections paid a $55,000 late entry fee for him to race in the Blue Diamond, where he finished sixth as the $4 favourite after failing to cope with the hot conditions.
“On the day, he just couldn’t cope with the heat,” Busuttin said.
“He was beautiful and relaxed when I saddled him up, but as soon as he got out in the sun and the heat and away from the fans set up in the stables, he was really sweating, and he was like he’d already run his race.”
The Blue Diamond form looks the strongest juvenile form of the season, with the runner-up Tentyris (Street Boss) since winning Gr.2 Todman Stakes (1200m) in a race where the third horse from the Diamond in Tycoon Star, ran a close-up fourth in his Sydney debut.
Field Of Play is by three-time champion Hong Kong sire Deep Field and out of a winning I Am Invincible mare. He was sold by Nick and Nicky White’s Kaha Nui Farm in Book 1 of Karaka 2024, where he was knocked down to Jamie Richards and Andrew Williams Bloodstock for $500,000.