Diego Dias

The questionnaire series continues with trainer Diego Dias in the spotlight.   Proudest moment of 2023? Mansa Musa (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) winning at Goodwood. It was a great day, the owners were there and everyone was very excited. It worked out as we planned and it was a great day.   What is your biggest ambition for the new year? I'd like to win a Group race this year.   Give us one horse to follow and why? I have to say Gaenari (Ire) (Inns Of Court {Ire}). She...

The Breeders' Cup is calling for the connections of Mansa Musa (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) after the Diego Dias-trained colt acquitted himself well in Group company at the Curragh.  Mansa Musa was last seen finishing a good second in the G3 Round Tower S. and now Barry Irwin, who heads Team Valor, the part-owners of the speedy juvenile, is dreaming of a tilt at the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Irwin said, "I think six furlongs for him at this moment is just a little too far against the really...

Goodwood maiden winner Mansa Musa (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) looks poised to continue his career overseas, according to his Irish-based trainer Diego Dias.   "I was going to supplement him for the Phoenix S. at the Curragh on Saturday, but I think we have sold him and he is probably heading to Hong Kong," he said. Bred by the Cullen family's Middlelane Farm, the juvenile was offered at the Goffs Dubai Breeze-up Sale in March but was bought back by his partners in Star Bloodstock, who had given 55,000gns for...

As unlikely triumphs go, the story of Diego Dias plundering a 13-runner Naas maiden with a 100-1 outsider son of the unheralded Johnny Barnes (Ire) would fit nicely in the catalogue of improbable dreams realised.  But that's exactly the trick the Brazilian native achieved on Sunday with the now likely-to-be-sold Winemaker (Fr)--and he even backed the colt to win that six-furlong maiden at massive odds for good measure.  In between sniffing out the next Shelton (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) or Malavath (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), both of whom have passed through the...