Diamond Dealer

The journey to this point has not been entirely smooth. Dan Skelton, one of Britain's most prolific trainers, has described Diamond Dealer as an absolute flier at home — the sort of horse that leaves you excited on a Tuesday morning. The problem has been converting that promise on a Saturday afternoon. A race at Ludlow ended in chaos after interference left the horse lit up and badly off course. Fast, dry ground at Haydock found it out. A breathing problem then derailed a promising start to this campaign. A wind operation followed, and since then the results have been striking.

Skelton's yard at Alcester has sent out 194 winners this season alone, which tells you this is one of the sharpest operations in the country. Getting a horse like Diamond Dealer tuned up and firing is exactly what they do well. Jack Quinlan has been the regular rider in nine of the pair's outings together, winning once from those nine — a modest 1-in-9 record that suggests the partnership is still finding its feet, or that the horse has been learning on the job.

Where Diamond Dealer really comes alive is at Kelso, the Scottish track tucked just below the border. Two wins from four races there — including a victory just four weeks ago in March — makes it a genuine course specialist. Some horses simply suit a particular track, whether it is the shape of the turns, the nature of the ground, or something harder to quantify. Whatever Kelso offers, Diamond Dealer finds it deeply agreeable. Most of its races have come at Class 4 level, a solid mid-tier, where it wins 3 in every 11 — exactly 27% — which matches its overall career average almost perfectly.

Still active and last seen racing 27 days ago, this is a horse on an upward curve in the second half of its career, finally healthy and answering the questions its trainer always believed it could.