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
- Number of 2020-22 Runs: 1
- Number of 2020-22 Wins: 1
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 a summer out at grass, he came in for the new 2019-20 Season having fully recovered from the previous season’s injury and had his debut run in a National Hunt Flat Race at Warwick on Classic Chase Day, Saturday 11th January. He raced prominently throughout and eventually finished a creditable third, beaten 5 ¾ lengths by the Olly Murphy-trained Here Comes McCoy. He has had one other run since in a NH Flat race at Kempton Park on Friday 7th December where he went one better, finishing second on this occasion (beaten 2 ½ lengths) where he tracked the leader’s throughout, came wide off the home bend and responded well to pressure when ridden – and did actually get this head in front when there were six in a line at 3f out but Hoi Polloi came from off the pace and just got his head in front in the last few strides which was unfortunate for our chap.
He came back into work at the end of May and had been working very nicely alongside Verdana Blue (who was 3rd in the Ebor at York in August) which can only be a positive!
The plan for the upcoming 2020-21 Season is for him to go hurdling and, on the evidence of his schooling at the end of last summer and since he's been back in, he looks quite the natural.
He is entered to have his debut over hurdles at Warwick’s first meeting of the 2020-21 Season in either a 2 mile 5 furlong novice hurdle race on Monday 21st September or over a 2 mile distance on the Tuesday 22nd. Nicky is favouring the second of the two options at the moment as he is keen to start over a shorter distance initially but, no doubt he will wait to see what the declarations look like for the Monday and make a decision then.
