Sri Diamond wins Winter Derby
SRI DIAMOND turned the statistics on their head and defied the expectations of connections when he landed the ninth running of the Betdirect.co.uk Winter Derby by half a length under an inspired ride from champion jockey Jamie Spencer.
Although the six-year-old had an excellent record at the track, having won four of his last five starts on the Lingfield Polytrack, connections believed their chance was all but over when they learned he was drawn widest of the 14 runners.
"If only you could have seen their faces - there were some expletives," said winning trainer Sylvester Kirk after welcoming the 8-1 chance back to the winner's enclosure.
"This has been the plan for some time. He won over a mile and a half last time, and has come on since, but when I saw the draw I thought our fate was sealed."
The lack of pace early on helped Sri Diamond overcome the car-park draw and Kirk couldn't believe how soon he was in a challenging position.
He added: "They went no pace at all. Usually you use all your energy trying to get to the front round here, but he was up there in 50 yards without much effort at all."
Spencer's plan to take "the bull by the horns" paid off perfectly as plenty of the runners found themselves in all sorts of trouble after the winner had set sail for home in the final furlong,although runner-up Grand Passion, who came here off the back of his win in the Winter Derby Trial three weeks ago, had every chance.