From Sporting life.....
PROUD WARNER REMEMBERS CITY
By Keith Hamer, PA Sport
Terry Warner has paid tribute to his "little star" Detroit City, who died at Ascot.
The five-year-old grey suffered a ruptured valve on the right side of his heart while jumping the second flight in the Coral Ascot Hurdle on Saturday.
"For the two years we had him he'd been a wonderful horse to win eight races in succession, it was tremendous really. He won over £400,000 in prize money - he's been a little star," said Warner.
Those eight victories included the 2006 Triumph Hurdle, the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle, the boylesports.com Hurdle and the Cesarewitch on the Flat.
However, he disappointed in his last two races last jumps season and was treated for several ailments including stomach ulcers, a wind problem and back trouble.
Warner went on: "It's very sad. He was a nice horse and being grey, he gave us so much publicity.
"I had him at home for the last two summers and he was a Christian of a horse.
"In the field you could put your arm around him. He was not a vicious horse, he was very quiet really."
Warner considers himself fortunate to have had two public favourites grace his colours in Detroit City and Rooster Booster, the 2003 Champion Hurdle winner who died on the gallops in December 2005.
"I've just been considering how lucky I've been to own two such lovely greys in him and Rooster Booster," Warner continued.
"People do love greys. The public take these horses to their heart which is lovely.
"There have been others like Desert Orchid and One Man over the years and they've all been stars."
Warner explained what went wrong.
"It was his heart. We had a post-mortem done and it was a valve on the right-hand side of his heart that failed," he said.
"He actually died in the air. He didn't fall, he jumped the hurdle.
"Richard (Johnson) rang me and said he jumped the hurdle fine and all of a sudden his backend went and down he went.
"He said that he rolled over and when he got back to him to take off the blinkers he was dead. The vet confirmed that the horse was dead before he got there.
"It was very quick so he wouldn't have suffered and he wouldn't have known anything about it."
Warner bought Detroit City out of Jeremy Noseda's Newmarket yard in a private deal in July 2005.
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