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I would have thought this race was the chance for those who purchased a horse at the Doncaster Sales to win a nice little pot and at the same time educate a horse for a jumping career. It doesn’t look as if either aim was met by the victory of Diamond Harry. Hopefully, the loophole allowing horses to run in the race more than once will now be closed.
How on earth do you come to that conclusion, Stilvi?
1) the horse WAS purchased at Doncaster Sales
2) the horse IS being educated for a future career over timber ~ it was his second run, so of course he was still learning! Horses don’t have one run and come out of it as experienced racehorses!
The training of Diamond Harry to win this race for the second year in a row was no less than a stroke of genius. Do you have any idea how difficult it even is to get a horse to a targeted race by keeping it sound/virus free, etc?
Where do loopholes come into it? Any horse that hasn’t already run on the flat, over hurdles or in steeplechases under rules is qualified to run in four bumpers [the type of race this is] or five if the fifth one is a Championship race (ie Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown).
What a bizzare and bitter post from you.
I agree with SL – genius training performance (though I would say that!) rather than exploiting a loophole – and what a ride from Timmy Murphy – came from the back last year but took on board that it was hard to come from off the pace on the desperate going, so took up the running from an early stage.
From the RP:
Interestingly, Diamond Harry was kept for this race because he was only four when he won it in 2007 and connections reasoned that if he had gone straight over hurdles he would have had to have won something like the SunAlliance to have bettered this prize money. Hurdling beckons next season, however, and he looks a horse with a future.
Due credit to Nick Williams – a trainer with an abundance of grey matter, and an adept placer of his horses.
Diamond Harry – by Sir Harry Lewis ex a Strong Gale mare and related to Drumlargan
Over fences in the autumn of ’09 please
Thank you for confirming this race was not an afterthought. Love to hear a reaction from the DBS. The idea that connections were prepared to waste a whole season for the sake of one bumper race. Unbelievable.
How has the season been wasted? The horse is still fit and well and can go hurdling next year. He’s still only 5. Why not criticise the connections of all the other 5yo’s in this race for wasting a season by leaving their horses standing in a field.
Due credit to Nick Williams – a trainer with an abundance of grey matter, and an adept placer of his horses.
Seconded. There’s a serious brain in the man, and if that extends to biding his time with a youngster as much as he has with Diamond Harry, all power to him.
I always like to see what he’s up to with the big summer handicap chases, too – it’ll be a fantastic achievement if he could land another Lord Mildmay or Bet365 Chase with the slippery Kings Brook in the coming months.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Thank you for confirming this race was not an afterthought. Love to hear a reaction from the DBS. The idea that connections were prepared to waste a whole season for the sake of one bumper race. Unbelievable.
30k prize money? Well done I say…
JohnJ.
Stilvi – yet again you are showing a complete lack of understanding when it comes to horses. Perhaps yo ushould get involved in Greyhound racing instead. No whips, and the dogs run every week.
I always like to see what he’s up to with the big summer handicap chases, too – it’ll be a fantastic achievement if he could land another Lord Mildmay or Bet365 Chase with the slippery Kings Brook in the coming months.
gc
Kings Brook is due to go to Newton Abbot again in a bid to win the same valuable summer handicap for the third year in a row. One or two of his owners are trying to persaude the trainer to run him in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot en route!
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