SHOULD DIAMOND HARRY NOW BE SENT CHASING?

WHAT a nice dilemma to have. Often, a trainer is left scratching his or her head in frustration, wondering what on earth to do with a horse, desperately trying to find a way to get a race out of it.

Not Nick Williams, who will have woken up this morning with a smile still on his face and the happiest of choices playing on his mind.

For there is scarcely a jumps race in the calendar that he could not aim Diamond Harry at and expect him to go mighty close.

His six-year-old sent a shiver down the spine of connections of all the top staying hurdlers with the way he demolished the opposition in the brush hurdle handicap at Haydock and looks well worth his place at the top table.

He was racing off a BHA rating of only 149 but there was no disguising the enormous amount he had in hand of the handicapper as he cruised to victory, and races like the Long Walk Hurdle and Ladbrokes World Hurdle would surely be the stronger for his presence.

But anyone who saw him in the paddock will know his future lies over fences - he is a magnificent-looking animal with a size and physique tailor-made for chasing.

Much has been made of the high-class band of horses being aimed at the RSA Chase this season, yet Punchestowns and the like should be as afraid of him as vice-versa.

But that can wait, at least for now. Why not give him a crack at the top staying hurdlers? If he is not quite good enough and messes up his handicap mark in the process, that need not matter - whether he goes over fences now or later, he is likely to prove up to running in top races, not handicaps. David Carr