Jeremy Scott hails ‘absolute star’ Dashel Drasher

Jeremy Scott has called time on the career of his popular 12-year-old Dashel Drasher.

A Grade One winner over fences, he finished second in the 2023 Stayers’ Hurdle only to be demoted to third on objection. Connections appealed the decision and he was reinstated as the runner-up.

“He’s been an absolute star for us, we’ve had some wonderful days out with him and his owners. He’s always been a pleasure to deal with and fortunately he’s retiring 100 per cent sound,” said Scott.

“Hopefully he can go on and have a good life doing something else. It was a tough decision for the owners because he just loves the routine and the whole thing about training as much as racing.

“Realistically he was finding life harder and harder so while it’s sad, I think it’s the right time.

“I think he raced better than his genetic ability because he had this willingness to keep racing and keep battling.

“He was bred by my wife, we’d known him since he was a baby and we knew all his quirks and foibles, he’s been a credit to the mare. None of the siblings have quite lived up to him unfortunately but we’ve still some in the pipeline, so hopefully one will turn out as good as him.”

Looking back on his career, Scott nominated a handicap victory at Ascot as his career-best display, rather than his Grade One win at the same track.

“I think it was an amazing run when he was second at Cheltenham in the Stayers’ but when he won a handicap before his Grade One, I thought that was some performance,” said Scott.

“That two-mile-five trip at Ascot was ideal for him, it suited him down to the ground. It always looked like he was going to get caught but he’d pull out a bit more.

“He gave an awful lot of people a lot of enjoyment. It was very nice when you’d be at the races and people came up to us to say they’d come all the way from Cornwall just to see him, he captured the hearts of quite a lot of people.”

Dashel Drasher won 12 of his 37 races and over £450,000 in prize money.