Marie's Diamond shines in The Listed Paradise Stakes at HQ
Sat 06 Jun 2020
Winner 17 of the year: MARIE'S DIAMOND - THE LISTED PARADISE STAKES (Mark Johnston) and ridden by Silvestre Se Sousa, at Newmarket.
The turf season is back in Britain and so are #Team MPR! Our first runner back on the grass yesterday, was a fine winner, in the shape of the game Marie's Diamond. He belied his odds in a strong renewal of the Listed Paradise Stakes, a race usually run at Ascot, from what was truly a masterclass of a ride by SDS.
They bounced out of the stalls from stall 7, moved across to bag the rail and never saw another horse right to the 1 mile finishing post: An impressive 4 lengths ahead of the 2nd horse. He really does have such a game attitude and pricked his ears as he crossed the line, as you can see here:
The coverage from ITV Racing was superb yesterday, as their team worked remotely. We were delighted to have been asked to take part in a 'Zoom' chat before the race with Ed Chamberlin, in fact, syndicate manager Mike Prince was the only ownership representative from the race to be interviewed and as if by magic, we won!! To watch Mike celebrating from home was fantastic!
Mark was very gracious in his post race interview, giving credit to Mike for deciding to use the far rail 'golden highway' and to boss the race from the front. We thank him also for saying "I’m not sure where we go next. I’m sure the Middleham Park boys will be looking through the book now. They are very good at spotting foreign races and are good people to train for." Read the full story here: https://www.attheraces.com/news/2020/June/05/marie's-diamond-sparkles-in-paradise-stakes.
That was his third stakes win and his fifth in total. This morning, as part of his feedback to owners, Mike said: "It was certainly a career best and Timeform have settled on a rating of 114 and it’ll be interesting to see what the handicapper rates him on Tuesday. He’d have to carry a penalty in Listed races so it makes sense to ply his trade in Group races next. In the UK there is only a programme published for June at the moment, with a couple of nice options in there."
A truly thrilling experience to watch and the social media reaction afterwards has been phenomenal, so thank you to everyone for their good wishes. We are all thrilled and are very grateful to Mark Johnston and his team and to Silvestre for his third win riding The Diamond.
Many congratulations to his owners. He has given them so much fun, ever since winning on debut as a 2yo at Leicester. They have been to The Breeders Cup with him, took a trip to the German 2,000 Guineas and enjoyed the winners champagne at The Curragh when he won the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes! Some reactions from them here:
Well done everyone and thank you for your loyal support.
Watch the full replay here: https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/the-racing/race-replays/2020/06/05/#betway_paradise_stakes_listed
The official photos can be seen here: https://www.hoycubed.com/gallery/Race-4/G0000gJGK.MUMk48/C0000aQT7JBEh3g8