UNIT FIVE STAYS IN THE HUNT FOR A MAGIC MILLIONS TWO-YEAR-OLD CLASSIC / BLUE DIAMOND DOUBLE

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Unit Five, who won the $3 million Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic in such an emphatic fashion at the Gold Coast two weeks ago, remains in contention to complete a Two-Year-Old Classic / Blue Diamond double after trainer Ciaron Maher allowed the colt to stand his ground at the third acceptance stage for the Group 1 contest which will be decided on February 21 at Caulfield.

Sixty-three acceptors remain, vying for a place in the $2 million feature race.

Another Maher trained runner’s name, that of Tornado Valley (who gave Maher the quinella in the Two-Year-Old Classic) was missing from the list of third acceptances, as was the name of that third place finisher in the Classic, the Gai Waterhouse and Adrain Bott trained By Choice.

Waterhouse and Bott do however have still Shiki moving forward towards the Blue Diamond. Unit Five and Shiki are the only two runners from the Classic Field still eyeing a start in the Blue Diamond.

The countdown to the race will continue with interest in the short-term focusing on the Mick Price and Michael Kent (Jnr) trained Big Sky in the Chairman’s Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.

The son of Bivouac is currently second favourite for the Blue Diamond Stakes on the back of the demolition job he did on the opposition when making his debut over the 1000m trip at Flemington on the same day that Unit Five was claiming all of the glory, cash and bragging rights at the Magic Millions at the Gold Coast.

Price and Kent (Jnr) are in the enviable position at this stage of also having the current Blue Diamond favourite, Guest House, in their stable. Like Big Sky, Guest House has only had one start to date and, again like Big Sky, the colt’s first run produced a notable debut win at the restrictive odds of $1.85.

There is obviously plenty to still play out before the Blue Diamond Stakes field is finalised … not least, awaiting the respective decisions of the connections of the two Blue Diamond Preview winners … Rubi’s Choice (The Fillies Preview winner) and Alibaba (the Colts and geldings Preview winner) … as to how they will react to the option facing them.

Ballot exception is granted to both Blue Diamond Preview winners but, as neither of these runners were in the original nominations, connections will have to pay a late entry fee of $55 000 to book a place in the Blue Diamond field.

The Tony and Calvin McEvoy trained Maona Spirit, who was nominated, is another runner who is ballot exempt for the Blue Diamond courtesy of her win in the Geelong Diamond. She is unbeaten in two starts.

The Ben, Will and JD Hayes training partnership lead the nominations in terms of runner representation with eleven runners

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