Everything old is new again. After the unauthorised appearance of a Squizzy Taylor tribute act at Caulfield, the Melbourne Racing Club’s Australia Day weekend program will return to its traditional home at Sandown.

The meeting’s main point of interest has long been the opening heats of the Blue Diamond series, originally known (confusingly) as the Sandown Blue Diamond Preludes, later rebranded as the Blue Diamond Previews to distinguish them from the (Caulfield) Blue Diamond Preludes.

The Previews were moved to Caulfield in 1997, with Sandown a handy back-up venue in 2006, 2015, 2023 and again this year.

There was another blast from the past last year, when the Clinton McDonald-trained Hayasugi took the Preview for fillies en route to a clean sweep of the Blue Diamond series.

Hayasugi joined Rancher (1982), Midnight Fever (1987), Bel Esprit (2002) and Sepoy (2011) as a winner of a Preview, a Prelude and the Blue Diamond Stakes. (The races now known as Previews were first run in 1982.)

Seven other Preview winners have gone on to win the Blue Diamond — either getting beaten in the Prelude in the interim, or skipping it. They are Bounding Away (1986), Zeditave (1988), Knowledge (1997), Reaan (2008), Reward For Effort (2009), Miracles Of Life (2013) and Daumier (2022).

Only three youngsters have been beaten in the first race of the series then bounced back to win the main event — Courtza (1989), Lady Jakeo (1993) and Nadeem (2006).

There’s no doubt the idea behind the Preview/Prelude/Diamond progression — running two-year-olds once a fortnight into their grand final — is not as fashionable as it was.

That might be why last year Hayasugi started at progressively longer prices despite continuing to win. She was $5.50 in the Preview (as a maiden), $8.50 in the Prelude and a ludicrously generous $16 in the Blue Diamond.