NEWCASTLE’S richest race is on Gosford sprinter Diamond Diesel’s radar.
Trainer Adam Duggan has pencilled in three feature events for the sprightly eight-year-old gelding in a new campaign, culminating with the $1m The Hunter (1300m) at Broadmeadow on November 16.
A winner at three of his last five starts, Diamond Diesel will contest an Open trial over 1050m at Royal Randwick on Friday.
Diamond Diesel made a brilliant entry into open company by spanking his rivals in the Listed Civic Stakes (1400m) on heavy ground at Warwick Farm on June 26 before finishing seventh to subsequent Hawkesbury Rowley Mile winner Cepheus in the South Grafton Cup (1610m) on July 14.
Duggan has wiped away the latter disappointment and vowed not to run the gelding at 1600m again anytime soon.
“He just didn’t manage the distance,” Duggan said on Tuesday of Diamond Diesel’s Grafton performance.
“He pulled hard in the first half of the race, and that didn’t help.
“But I’ll keep him to sprint distances from now on.”
Duggan has done a tremendous job with the gelding, winning eight races with him for TCR Racing (Derek Tam and Peter Coffey) since he returned to Australia and joined his Gosford team after only one start in Hong Kong, finishing seventh over 1200m at Sha Tin in June, 2021.
Duggan gave the gelding a short let-up after returning from Grafton, and is happy with his progress.
“I didn’t want to put him out in the cold, so I kept him at the stables for a week and a half,” he said.
All going well, Duggan is eyeing the $300,000 Group 2 Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill Gardens on September 14 as the beginning of Diamond Diesel’s new campaign.
“I’ve also got the Alan Brown Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill on October 12 in mind, and then The Hunter at Newcastle the following month.
“Diamond Diesel has won at both Rosehill and Newcastle, so they’re tracks he knows well.”
Not surprisingly, Duggan is hoping for a wet spring.
“Whilst Diamond Diesel has won four times on good tracks, he has an advantage on wet ground, especially when it’s heavy,” he said.
. Duggan takes another ex-Hong Kong horse Border Control to Canterbury on Wednesday, hoping to turn around his first-up flop.
Border Control, with whom he has won four races (including a Benchmark 72 Handicap, 1100m at Canterbury in February), contests a similar race over the same distance, and Dylan Gibbons has the mount.
The seven-year-old resumed when last of seven runners (behind Headwall) over 1000m on the Kensington track on August 14.
“Border Control drew near the outside in the small field, and never got into the race,” Duggan said.
“That was his first start on a heavy track, and I’m hoping we will see a decent improvement at Canterbury back on firmer ground.”
. Wyong trainer Allan Kehoe was the sole provincial winner at Tuesday’s Tamworth meeting.
He landed the Class 3 Handicap (1200m) with $12 chance Lord Bob, ridden by apprentice Shannen Llewellyn.
A six-year-old by Office Bearer, the lightly-raced Lord Bob has won three races; the first at his home track in July last year in a Maiden Plate (1350m).
Story John Curtis, August 27, 2024 - Pics Bradley Photos
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