Marie's Diamond wins the Listed Pomfret Stakes

Sun 28 Jul 2019

MARIE'S DIAMOND, the likeable 3 year old, made all to hold off his older rivals, to win the feature Listed Pomfret Stakes at Pontefract today over 1 mile. Silvestre De Sousa gave a masterclass of a ride, as he broke well from stall 4, to sit at the head of the field. Moving over to the rail, he set an easy going tempo, with SDS kicking on as he was joined 2 furlongs out. Marie's Diamond showed his very game attitude to knuckle down, drop his head just that little bit lower and grind the challenger into submission to take the win by 3/4 of a length.

He has now won over all distances between 5 furlongs and a mile, with this being his 5th win. Not bad for a €35,000 yearling purchase to have now earnt just under £200,000 of race prize money (including a 'Plus 10' bonus) for his syndicate. In fact, having taken his owners to the Grade 1 Breeders Cup, the German 2000 Guineas, Royal Ascot, a Group 3 win at The Curragh on Irish Oaks day and 2nd in two Group 2 races at the Qatar Goodwood Festival and at The Curragh on Irish Derby day, as well as 4th in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, you could say that he is the definition of syndicate ownership at the top table - and he is still just a 3yo!

Racing TV: "What a likeable horse - the oh-so tough Marie's Diamond beats his elders to land the Listed Pomfret Stakes under Silvestre de Sousa for the relentless Mark Johnston at Pontefract." Says it all really and the race was chosen as their 'Moment Of The Day.'

Timeform have rated his run as a career best 112. Watch the finish here: https://twitter.com/ponteraces/status/1155494317429075969?s=20. View the official photos here: https://www.onlinepictureproof.com/officialphotographersonline/albums/Pontefract/722773_315795/browse/?start=15

His syndicate manager Mike, who made the entry for this race says: "He has a couple of mile entries at Goodwood coming up in August, so we'll see how he comes out of the race and make (yet another) cunning plan..!"

Thank you to Mark Johnston for keeping him in tip top order and very well done to his owners, who quite rightly are very proud of their colt this evening.