The three year-old filly travelled smoothly in fourth place and then surged to
the line to win the 1200 metre maiden at Ballarat by a length and a quarter.A $20,000 purchase from the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale from the Watson Bloodstock draft, Grand Diamond is the first winner for Grand Excess, a half-sister by Exceed and Excel to Group III winner Stand Tall and stakes-winner Seul Amour.
Grand Excess is from Champion 3YO Filly Grand Archway, who won both the VRC Oaks and Australian Oaks among her four Group I victories, so Grand Diamond may well appreciate a little further than the 1200 metres of this win.
Grand Diamond is the first winner of the new season for Wandjina, but is also his ninth first crop winner.
A Group I winning son of Snitzel, Wandjina excelled as a three year-old over a mile, placing in the Caulfield Guineas in the spring and then winning the Group I VRC Australian Guineas in the autumn, so we can expect to see his progeny come into their own over the next 12 months.
He stands this spring at a fee of $22,000.
