The NZ Bloodstock Spring WFA Championship is set to conclude with the running of the G1 Caulfield Stakes (2000m) on Saturday.

With It’s a Dundeel (NZ) now out of contention, the Championship winner is a foregone conclusion with Atlantic Jewel (Fastnet Rock) holding an unassailable lead.  In prior legs of the Series, the Fastnet Rock mare won the Memsie Stakes and was runner-up in the G1 Underwood.

ATLANTIC JEWEL may have scared many away with Saturday’s feature race only attracting a small field of six runners, but it carries plenty of quality with the field winning a total of eight Group 1 races between them.

The star attraction has won 9 out of her 10 starts.  Mark Kavanagh’s mare resumed after a long injury lay-off in the G1 Memsie Stakes before claiming the G2 Stocks Stakes and then going down to (It’s a) Dundeel in the G1 Underwood Stakes.

Atlantic Jewel’s biggest opposition may come from last year’s Melbourne Cup winner GREEN MOON (Montjeu).  The international import won the G1 Turnbull Stakes and G1 Melbourne Cup last year.

The Lloyd Williams owner stayer has had two runs this campaign for an encouraging fifth in the G1 Memsie Stakes followed by a ninth in a slowly run G1 Underwood Stakes.

Team Williams stablemate in MASSIYN (Zamindar) disappointed at his Australian debut in August when finishing last at Moonee Valley but carries strong European form and has G1 jockey Hugh Bowman engaged.  He raced just six times for the Aga Khan in Ireland.

Mark Kavanagh also has two runners in the event with SUPER COOL (Fastnet Rock) a worthy second-stringer to the race favourite.  The gelding was the winner of the G1 Australian Cup over the same distance earlier this year when beating the older horses at weight-for-age level as a three-year-old.

After running a fast-finishing third in the G1 Memsie Stakes fresh up, Super Cool was badly held up in the final stages of the G2 Dato Chin Nam Stakes and the G1 Turnbull Stakes.  With a change of luck and leading jockey Glen Boss aboard, he should prove competitive in the small field on Saturday.

The other Group 1 winner engaged is the Chris Waller trained FORETELLER (Dansili), a European-bred galloper who won the G1 Ranvet Stakes in the autumn and the G1 Makybe Diva Stakes last month.

The son of Dansili was another unsuited by the slowly run G1 Underwood stakes where he got a long way back and failed to make up ground.  Foreteller was a G2 winner of the Peter Young Stakes at Caulfield earlier this year over 1800m.

Filling the field is the David Hayes galloper SPACECRAFT (Galileo).  He finished a close second to Fiorente in the G2 Dato Chin Nam Stakes at Moonee Valley two starts ago.  Although looking out of his depth in the quality line-up, he is trained by a master trainer in David Hayes who is enjoying a good run of form.

Last Thorn Park stallion Ocean Park (NZ) (Thorn Park) won the G1 Caulfield Stakes last year on the way to the NZ Bloodstock Spring WFA Championship.  The New Zealand trained runner then went onto win the G1 Cox Plate at his next start, a race many of this year’s runners will be targeting as well.

The four-race New Zealand Bloodstock Spring WFA Championship has seen horses compete for $1.37 million in prizemoney and $25,000 worth of trophies that will be presented to the Championship  winner on Saturday.