Cole Diesel

In some ways Cole Diesel is best remembered for a race he didn't start in. It is a pity because on his day Cole Diesel had a finishing sprint rarely seen on a racetrack. He won the QTC Guineas as a three-year-old and then had a wonderful four-year-old season winning five Group races - the GCTC Goldmarket, AJC Tramway Handicap, STC Shannon Stakes, the VATC Elders Mile (Toorak Handicap) and the Caulfield Cup. His finishing burst in the 1989 Caulfield Cup demolished a first class field. But in a strange twist officials refused to let him run in the Cox Plate that year - they said he wasn't a weight-for-age horse. He was well beaten in the Melbourne Cup and never won again. Cole Diesel's trainer Greg Mance was the leading trainer on the Gold Coast for several years before ill health forced him to return to Victoria where he trained for many more years.