Little separates, Earthquake and Rubick, both were dominant in winning their respective Preludes leading into the $1 million Blue Diamond Stakes back at Caulfield in two weeks.

Both ran identical times for the 1100 metres of 1min 03.71, each is unbeaten after two starts and they didn’t begin as well as expected, in both instances the races could have been lost at the start.

The interest centred on both juvenile races was the main attraction, those that left air conditioned grandstands to stand in the boiling temperatures got their money’s worth.

Those that took the short odds of $1.55 about Earthquake were in for an early shock when she simply walked out blowing the start.

She was no odds on shot when the field settled down; Eloping was leading with Top Sight on her outside, the odds on favourite in the centre.

Once Damien Browne let the favourite down, at the top of the straight, we witnessed a class act; she put the field away with ease, going to the line with her ears pricked.

All eyes were on her in the post parade; she stood out, a beautiful bay with black points, all quality as we have seen from the Darley trained team of Peter Snowden, and his son Paul.

She will derive great benefit from her first start in the anti clockwise direction; furthermore, she had not raced since the middle of November.

“She’s got talent, I was surprised when she wobbled around the corner a bit, it was class that won the day,” said Peter Snowden.

“I always like to see them do it twice, if they can do the same or better than the first run, you know they have got talent,” he added.

Earthquake - A class act