Diamond Days is set to head off on his summer holidays now, following a five-race campaign this season that saw him make his debut over fences, as well as run a couple of times over hurdles. 

The club's six-year-old was given an extended break of 244 days at the end of last season, following his debut campaign for the Coral Racing Club. His first run in his second campaign under rules came over hurdles, with a firm eye on giving him a chance over fences soon after. He showed plenty of encouragement that day, coming home in third place and picking up some prize money for his Owners for the Day.


Diamond Days poses for Coral Racing Club members at a Venn Farm Stable Visit

We didn't have to wait long for Diamond Days to make his chasing debut as just over a month later he journeyed to Lingfield for his first effort over the bigger obstacles. He was faced with a tough test that day, facing off with well fancied horses trained by Chris Gordon, Dan Skelton and a well-fancied favourite for Fergal O'Brien. After making a couple of jumping errors on his way round, which was to be expected given that it was his first attempt at chasing, he stayed on strongly in the run in to finish a close fourth, almost stealing a place on the podium on the line but ultimately falling just short.

WATCH: Freddie Gingell tells us how it felt to go close on Diamond Days at Lingfield last November

There was good reason to think that he would take to chasing as the season went on as he's a big, strong type, but as is so often the case in racing, it wasn't quite so simple. Diamond Days ran two more times over fences in the following months, finishing fifth on both occasions before Joe made the call to send him back over hurdles to try and get a spark back in him. However, on what would turn out to be his final run of the season, he was pulled up by regular partner Brendan Powell, after being tailed off on ground that wasn't to his liking. 

Diamond Days will now head out to the field for summer as he enjoys a break following a tough season, and hopefully he'll be raring to go towards the end of summer and into the start of autumn as we look forward to next season with him. Check out what Joe Tizzard had to say when we caught up with him earlier in the week: 

"It’s been a head scratcher of a season with Diamond Days, I thought he was a well handicapped horse but things just haven’t gone right for him. His best run was probably his reappearance, when he was third at Fontwell, but he never kicked on from that. We’ve tried him over hurdles and fences without luck, but I still don’t think he’s a bad horse.

We’ll call it a day for the season now, we were hoping to get one more run into him, but the last few weeks have been dry and the ground has gone against him. I wouldn’t want to jar him up on decent ground.

He’ll be turned out for his summer break now, we may get him back into the main yard a couple of weeks earlier so we’re ready to go when the ground is right for him, but he’ll have a good summer holiday. I still think he’s a well handicapped horse, and working out horses like this is a challenge we’re up for!"