MAKYBE DIVA STAKES

(GROUP 1)

MARCH’S Group 1 Australian Cup winner Grunt bounced back to his best at Flemington to land his third win at ‘Headquarters’ as winner of Saturday’s Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes.

The Mick Price-trained O’Reilly four-year-old horse took on 11 others over 1,600 metres as the Irish-bred Kings Will Dream was sent out favourite.

Angled into clear running by Damien Oliver, Grunt worked up to the leader before breaking clear at the 200 metres marker to win by two lengths from Kings Will Dream, with Jon Snow taking third ahead of Kementari.

“He’s in everything,” said Mick Price. “If we go three weeks till the Turnbull then you go to the Caulfield Cup but if you go the Underwood and Caulfield Stakes you’ve got to go the Cox Plate. I’d be a bit concerned how he would get around Moonee Valley, so I don’t really know which way we will go.

“I think he would be a beautiful staying horse and it wouldn’t worry me if we ended up in a Melbourne Cup, with a lighter weight, I think about 54kgs.

“It didn’t hurt Rekindling to be lightly raced so I’ll take a line off that rookie Joe O’Brien and maybe he’ll end up in a Melbourne Cup at the end of this preparation.”

encryption unlocks danehill

A winner of the Group 3 Black Opal Stakes as a juvenile, the James Cummings-trained Encryption rediscovered that form to break some egos in the Group 2 Danehill Stakes and set himself on a target towards the Coolmore Stud Stakes on Derby Day. By Lonhro out of the four-time Group 1 winner Guelph, Craig Williams crafted a clever ride down the ‘straight six’ that saw Encryption take a gap on the outside rail in the closing stages, hitting the line a neck in front of the Fastnet Rock colt Thorondor and the Tavistock colt Tavisan.

“He’s a really cool horse and has a lovely nature about him,” said Cummings. “The team has put in a lot of work to get him to produce third up like he did last preparation. It was really impressive to see him burst through the pack like he did although it was creative the way he got there. We put the blinkers on and agreed that if he went well up the straight then we would give strong consideration to keeping him fresh for the Coolmore (Stud Stakes).”