Victory can be reward for a string of amazing comebacks

Jun 28 2008 The Journal

Geordie-born trainer Brian Ellison tells Doug Moscrop he believes this is his best chance to win the John Smith’s Northumberland Plate.

BOTH horse and trainer have had their health problems and they have bonded. The chestnut gelding with four white socks walks down to his paddock. Nobody leads him. He knows, though, the boss is following him.

Against all odds, Carte Diamond is alive and kicking. He has cheated death more than once and is racing fit again as he attempts to fulfil Brian Ellison’s dream of winning the Plate.

His trainer has also been on the sick list with a serious kidney problem that required a five-hour operation only a few weeks ago. He is also on the mend, having nursed his star performer back from those dark days when Carte Diamond came close to dying.

Bought out of Mark Johnston’s yard for 105,000 guineas during his three-year-old season, Carte Diamond had repaid some of his purchase price by the end of that campaign with a victory in the November Handicap at Doncaster. But it was always the plan as a four-year-old to go to Australia for a crack at the Melbourne Cup.

He ran in the Caulfield Cup and finished eighth after experiencing trouble early on. He lived to fight another day but never made it to the race that brings Australia to a standstill for a few minutes every November.

During a routine workout on the Flemington racetrack, he unseated his rider and crashed through a rail. He was impaled by a metal stake. “It went right through his inner thigh and out of the back end,” recalls Ellison. “Luckily, it came straight out and missed an artery. The vets had feared the worst but he survived.”

That was one great escape and another was to follow. This time it happened off the racecourse. He ran through a fence, spiked himself, and had a haemorrhage.

“His temperature soared and he was half an hour away from being cut open. Thankfully, his temperature came down in time.” He had survived again.

If that wasn’t enough of life-threatening scares, he also had a problem with his feet that restricted his movement and it was feared that it was a disease that could have cost him his life.

Carte Diamond finally returned to Ellison’s Spring Cottage stables in Norton, Malton, in December, more than two years since his departure Down Under. Now gelded, he made his comeback at Doncaster at the end of March.

Bearing in mind he had been off the track for 896 days, the seven-year-old was full of beans and even surprised his trainer by finishing a highly-creditable third to Soapy Danger. It was a step in the right direction for the big pot on the horizon, the Plate, and further encouragement was forthcoming when filling the same spot behind subsequent Royal Ascot winner Macarthur in the Ormonde Stakes at Chester. Considering the quality of the opposition and the fact he wasn’t suited by the sharp track it confirmed the promise he had shown at Doncaster and that his ability and enthusiasm was still intact.

It was a Group Three prize, though, and there was to be a downside to his excellent effort. When it comes to assessment, the handicapper rarely shows sympathy for a horse’s troubled past, especially when he returns seemingly as good as ever. He was raised 9lb to a mark of 106 and it didn’t please Ellison.

“In Australia they only touch the winner,” he said. “They leave alone the placed horses and that’s how it should be over here. All they are doing are trying to stop horses from winning. It’s ridiculous.”

Almost in the same breath, however, he referred to Carte Diamond’s last run in England before his disastrous trip to Australia. “When he finished second to Sergeant Cecil in the Ebor at York, he was off 105, yet ran the winner to a length conceding him 9lbs.”

Bearing in mind the progress shown by Sergeant Cecil, who went on to become the first horse to add the Cesarewitch to his Plate and Ebor triumphs in the same year, Carte Diamond had an impossible task that day.

“He has it all to do under such a big weight in the Plate, but he’s in great form and I’m very, very hopeful.

“I would love him to win after what he has gone through and what we have gone through with him. He’s a fantastic horse, the best I’ve trained, and he is so tough.” Ellison is in no doubt that he has his best chance this year of capturing the Plate for he also saddles Tilt, third in the race last year and in the form of his life after another placed effort in the Chester Cup last month.

“I expect a big run from Tilt,” he said.

“He had a bad draw last year and used up a lot of energy coming from a long way back.

“Both horses are really well. They have been away for a couple of racecourse gallops and came through them in great shape. I couldn’t be happier with them.”