Diamonts are a girls best friend
Fri 31 Jan 2025
Winner 4 of 2025: DIAMONT KATIE, trained by Karl Burke and ridden by Clifford Lee. ‘Bet Boost At bet365 Fillies' Novice Stakes’ over 6f at Chelmsford City.
As sayings go, notebooks should be on hand when a jockey travels across the country for just one ride. And it was well worth the travel for Clifford Lee from Middleham. After a very pleasing debut at Southwell, where she stayed on well, finishing fourth, we were hopeful and confident for a good run, seeing her taking a big step forward.
After a good start from draw 1, Clifford was keen to make good use of her experience and control the race from the front. She responded well to her jockey at the top of the straight, and pulled clear a furlong from home to win comfortably by 1.5 lengths, eased down. An impressive victory, on only her second start.
Watch the full race replay here: https://www.racingtv.com/results/2025-01-30/chelmsford-city/1800
Timeform rated her maiden victory with a p72: "Duly found some improvement from debut to get off the mark in cosy fashion, more professional this time and bossing things from the front; soon led, ridden over 1f out, edged right, kept on; open to further improvement."
A delighted Clifford Lee spoke to Racing TV after the race: "A very good performance today. She was very green on her debut, and we just got going too late. She took a bit step forward from her last run, Diamont Katie was very professional today, travelled well and picked up nicely when turning for home. A comfortable success in the end, I struggled to pull her up. Well done to her owners."