Carte Diamond returns home 13 Dec 2007
Racing Victoria
A traumatic couple of years in Australia for popular English trainer Brian Ellison ended on Wednesday night when his courageous galloper Carte Diamond finally headed home to Yorkshire.
Carte Diamond had been in Victoria since October 2005 and hasn’t raced since finishing ninth in that year’s BMW Caulfield Cup behind Railings.
The now six-year-old was almost fatally injured when he crashed through the running rail and impaled himself on a steel upright at Flemington’s Breakfast with the Stars, just a week before the 2005 Emirates Melbourne Cup.
His life threatening injuries proved the start of a nightmare Aussie experience for Ellison and his family.
Carte Diamond remained in Australia and survived another near death experience after a severe bout of colic during his recuperation on the Mornington peninsula.
Carte Diamond was then set for another tilt at last years Melbourne Cup, but a tendon injury again forced his withdrawal, despite Ellison’s protestations that the galloper was fit to run.
Wind the clock forward another year and tragedy again struck the Ellison clan when their other stayer Bay Story, who ran second in this years Perth Cup, was put down after breaking his hind leg in The Lavazza Long Black (2800m) on Melbourne Cup Day.
Carte Diamond will return to England for a tilt at a number of the UK’s premier summer staying races, while Ellison will be praying for a change of luck and perhaps prepare for another visit to Melbourne.
http://www.thoroughbrednews.co.nz/sp...cing/?id=32724