Exceed And Excel filly rumbles at Caulfield

Boom filly Earthquake looks on track to provide Exceed And Excel with his second G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner following her dominant win in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude for fillies at Caulfield, Australia, February 8.

In 2009, Exceed And Excel colt Reward For Effort finished second in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude before claiming the G1 Blue Diamond at his next start. Earthquake will get her chance to emulate her paternal half-brother in the $1 million juvenile feature on February 22.

Sent out a short odds-on favourite in the Blue Diamond Prelude, Earthquake sat outside the leader and wobbled around the home turn before sprinting well clear of her rivals to record an easy victory.

A homebred for Darley, Earthquake is out of G3-placed Marauding mare Cataclysm, a half-sister to Stakes winners El Cambio and Complicate and the dam of Listed winner Palomares. Cataclysm has a yearling filly by Commands, foaled a Sepoy filly last Spring and is now back in foal to Sepoy.

Now the sire of 80 Stakes winners, of which 34 have won at Group level, Exceed And Excel is standing the 2014 breeding season at Dalham Hall Stud at a fee of £35,000 alongside his triple G1-winning son Helmet who stands at a fee of £8,000.