DIAMOND SCENE STRIVING TO GO ONE BETTER

By Graham Potter | Monday, December 29, 2025

Diamond Scene will be back for another crack at the Group 2 Perth Cup on January 1, looking to go one better than the second place result he earned in the 2025 edition of the event.

The Michael Grantham trained runner was one of the main fancies there, starting as second favourite at $4, but he found one too good for him on the day … an unlikely one in the form of the $81 outsider Hemlock Stone who beat Diamond Scene home by 0.63 lengths.

After that Perth Cup effort, Diamond Scene did not race again for nine-and-a-half months, but he returned a winner, taking out the Group 3 Eurythmic over 1400m at Ascot on October 18 first-up … a strong result over a distance well short of his best.

Diamond Scene then went straight to a double dose of Group 1 action, finishing third in the Railway Stakes over 1600 and unplaced in the Northerly over 1800m … before stepping back to Group 2 company with a fourth place finish in the Ted Van Heemst Stakes over 2100m.

Essentially, Diamond Scene has not shied away from any challenge in the four races he has contested this preparation … he took on the likes of Watch Me Rock, Western Empire and Cosmic Crusader in the Group 1’s … and his run into the Perth Cup has been well orchestrated to get him primed for the 2400m feature with, as mentioned, his previous four runs coming in a steadily increasing race distance curve going from 1400m to 1600m to 1800m to 2100m.

That does differ, in part, from Diamond Scene’s lead-in to his last Perth Cup assignment.

In last year’s buildup, Diamond Scene had one more run in the preparation leading up to the big race.

Again, he kicked off that preparation off the back of a nine-and-a-half month break from race action … and again he was a winner first-up … but, the race distance pattern was different though with that preparation containing two 1400m runs, then shifting straight to 1800m and rounding off that lead-up to the Perth Cup with two 2200m races.

The immediate three runs before his before his Perth Cup runner-up finish produced two wins (in the Lucky Grey and the ATA Stakes) and one second place finish … a seemingly better return than he has posted this time around, but those results were all produced in Listed race company … and his assignments this time around with those Group 1’s has been far more challenging than that.

Michael Grantham and Clint Johnston-Porter combined to win the Group 1 Northerly Stakes with Cosmic Crusader back at the start of December.

Chances are they will be very competitive with Diamond Scene here in their quest to have as good a start to January as they did in December … which would have them stepping out into the New Year in style.