Experience the excitement of racehorse ownership with our Cheltenham & South West Syndicate with three excellent Jump horses, including Diamond River. Membership includes a range of benefits including a complimentary two-year membership to Cheltenham, Exeter, Warwick, and Wincanton Racecourses.
- Trainer: Nicky Henderson
- Age: 5 y/o
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Race Type: Jump
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Description: Chestnut Gelding
- 2018/22 Runs: 5
- 2018/22 Placed: 3 (1 win)
Nicky Henderson dominated the Cheltenham Festival Champion Hurdle in the late 1980s with See You Then. More recently handled some spectacular jumpers, including Sprinter Sacre, Bobs Worth, Long Run, Binocular and Altior.
A very smart individual, Diamond River suffered a setback in the first season (2018-19) as a result of being kicked when out on exercise. It was a real shame as Nicky was very impressed with him in his early career work and thought he was certainly one of his smarter stores in the 2018-19 Season.
After finishing 3rd and 2nd respectively in his only two starts in bumpers (at Warwick and Kempton) the previous season, Diamond River came back into work in May with the intention of taking his chance in his last attempt in an bumper at Uttoxeter on Saturday 22nd August which fortunately, was a winning one, and impressively too! He went off 5-4 favourite and confirmed this by winning with plenty in hand. Jockey Nico de Boinville reported after the race that he ran quite greenly, particularly towards the end when he ran wide on the bend into the homestraight, but still did the business, winning by 3 1/4 lengths and no doubt will have learnt plenty to go forwards with for his career over hurdles.
His next run was back at Uttoxeter, this time over hurdles for the first time, he went off the second favourite to Topofthecotswolds, a proven staying chaser who reverted back to the smaller obstacles for this contest. Jumping off in second, DR looked to be racing quite freely down to the first but got out over it fine and stayed racing prominently for the large part of the race. Not always fluent at his hurdles, he made a mistake at the third last hurdle and Nico was careful to not be too hard on him, coasting home quietly to finish 5th, eventually beaten 6 1/2 lengths by the favourite. Afterwards, Nicky felt a bit of intensive work on his jumping would benefit the so he went to Henrietta Knight’s for 10 days to do just that. He has ran since in another Novice Hurdle at Kempton where this time and looked to jump a lot more fluently and was just a bit one-paced when they turned for home so got slightly left behind to finish an eventual 4th. He had dropped back in trip to 2 miles for this race and both Nicky and Nico felt that he could do with stepping up to at least half a mile further so he will plan to run over 2m4-5f next time out.
