Hurdler prepares for Festival (From Gazette & Herald)

Hurdler prepares for Festival

Bollin Eric, Ryedale's much-celebrated Classic winner, has sired his first foal - and by Royal appointment.

Tim Easterby's former stablestar, winner of the 2002 St Leger at Doncaster, has produced a bay colt foal out of Lunabelle, bred by none other than Her Majesty the Queen.

The foal, whose dad was a winner over hurdles and fences, was born at the Royal Stud in Sandringham and is reported to be a good-sized individual, who is doing well.

Bollin Eric, who carried the colours of his owner-breeders, Sir Neil and Lady Westbrook when he was in training with Easterby, is now owned by the National Stud, where he covered his first book of mares last year.

He is currently standing at Wood Farm Stud in Shropshire, at a fee of £2,000, and is booked to around 60 mares this season.

Carte Diamond, who is poised to represent the Gazette & Herald's Ten To Follow at the Cheltenham Festival in four weeks, has started his preparation under Norton trainer Brian Ellison, who is resisting the urge to race him in the meantime.

"He doesn't need it. It's Cheltenham for him next, though we'll probably take him to Southwell for a racecourse gallop about 10 days before the Festival," he says.

The JCB Triumph Hurdle is the target for the classy four-year-old, who has done Ellison - and owner Ashley Carr - proud since he was bought for 110,000 guineas out of Mark Johnston's Middleham stable.

Within a month of him arriving in Ryedale, Carte Diamond gained a runaway victory on the Flat in the November Handicap at Doncaster in the hands of Kieren Fallon. Before the month was out, he had added another success to his credit, this time over hurdles at Newcastle.

"He'd only had a fortnights' schooling before he ran over hurdles for the first time, but he jumped like a handicapper from the first," says Ellison, who does not try to disguise the fact he had never been as nervous before a race as he was when Carte Diamond attended Gosforth Park.

"We knew he was a good horse, with a Flat rating of 104, and I also knew that if he won, we could be looking at a future Triumph Hurdle winner. But, no matter how well they've schooled at home, it's not every highly-rated Flat horse that takes to hurdling, and I was well aware that if he was one of them, we'd be taking him home, gelding him and putting him away until next Flat season."

As it was, Ellison's Triumph Hurdle dreams were activated by an impressive win over Iron Man. "People forget what a good performance that was," says Brian. "The runner-up is a high-class horse."

Although Carte Diamond was beaten on his next outing at Lingfield, Ellison was quick to defend his charge. "The ground was bottomless, and he just couldn't handle it. And he struggled so much, it made him choke, which is what can happen with some horses."

Given a little time to recover, Carte Diamond travelled to Musselburgh three weeks ago. Although the ground was to the horse's liking, Ellison took no chances after the previous incident and equipped the horse with a tongue-strap. He duly won in style, beating the well-regarded Credit.

"Now we know he goes in the tongue-strap, we'll put it on him again in the Triumph," says Ellison.

Having been given a short freshening-up period since winning at Musselburgh, Carte Diamond is now on his build-up to the Festival. "He's going out twice-a-day, morning and evening," explains his trainer, "You never know if you're going to get held up for a few days for whatever reason and I'd sooner get him super-fit while I can and then ease off him a little bit before the race to allow him to freshen-up."

Brian Harding, who has struck-up a good rapport with Carte Diamond, will be in the saddle again at the Festival - but only if perennial champion Tony McCoy rejects it. "The owner has asked McCoy to ride - he knows Cheltenham like the back of his hand - and Brian knows the score. He'll ride if McCoy doesn't."

Ellison aims to have more than one runner at the four-day meeting. Torrid Kentavr, Lewis Island, Zibeline, King Eider and Hue are also pencilled in for Festival duty on what promises to be an exciting meeting for the Norton trainer.

Don't Call Me Derek, who has won both his races over hurdles without breaking sweat, is looking increasingly unlikely to run at the Cheltenham Festival. And, if that happens, trainer John Quinn will not be too disappointed.

"Cheltenham is tough and can spoil nice horses, and this is a decent horse, who has a bright future in front of him provided we look after him," said the Settrington handler.

Don't Call Me Derek holds one entry at the Festival, in the Fred Winter Novices' Handicap Hurdle. But the weights for that race are published next week, and horses who have not had the obligatory three runs before this Saturday will not be qualified for a handicap mark, and therefore will not be able to run.

"The only chance we've got of getting a third race into him this week is at Haydock on Thursday," Quinn explained earlier this week, "and the way the weather is, that meeting might struggle. If it's on, we'll run 'Derek' to give us the Cheltenham option, but I'm not too worried either way."

Previously trained in Newmarket by Stuart Williams, Don't Call Me Derek was purchased at the autumn sales and looks a good buy.

"He's a great big horse, who had been well looked after before he came to us, and we've also got the option of returning him to the Flat next month," said Quinn.

Pay Attention, who has taken to hurdling like the proverbial duck to water, made it four wins out of five starts this season at Towcester to confirm herself a talented recruit to the winter game - and a star performer for owner, Ryedale Partners.

Trained by Tim Easterby, Pay Attention gained her latest success in a £10,000 event, powering home in the hands of David O'Meara.

Her only defeat came at Doncaster last month when she went down fighting in third place under a 10lb penalty in one of the better novice hurdles run this season.

Demand for tickets for the hugely-popular Malton Racing Association Grand National Ball is growing daily and anyone keen to attend should endeavour to make immediate arrangements and not run the risk of being left in the starting stalls.

MRA secretary Noel Scaling, the chief organiser of the black-tie event, which is the main racing social event of the year in these parts, is already anticipating another sell-out for the April 9 showpiece, held as usual at York Racecourse.

"Hardly a day seems to go by that I'm not receiving a phone call or mail from people booking tickets, which is encouraging," says Noel.

This year's ball will again support the Injured Jockeys' Fund, but racing's best-known charity will be a joint-beneficiary with Racing To Help, which is the industry's newly-founded organization to aid the tsunami appeal fund.

Anyone wanting tickets - at £45 each - should contact Noel Scaling as soon as possible on 07855 228757.

Updated: 11:09 Wednesday, February 23, 2005