Latest news with #FancyRed
West Australian
11-07-2025
- Sport
- West Australian
Fancy Red anything but expensive for favourite followers as in-form filly takes on Belmont Oaks field
Fancy Red has been anything but expensive for punters in the lead-up to Saturday's Listed $125,000 Belmont Oaks (2019m) at Bunbury where she will again start favourite. The daughter of Sessions has started the market elect in four of her last six runs and emerged successful each time, with her most recent win just seven days prior to this clash. From gate one, Fancy Red sat midfield before William Pike squeezed her home along the fence to win by a length and a half going away from her graduation-class rivals. But despite her winning form and followers' confidence, trainer Adam Durrant says her even-money price is way too short. 'We're under no illusions; $2 is ridiculous,' Durrant told TABradio. 'She's got the Pike tax because she won her last start but when you start breaking down the field… they're never generally that strong. 'I've won them before with horses that aren't genuine stayers and never see that distance again. 'We've got to plan how we can hopefully just ride her quiet, which is how she seems to race best. 'Hopefully she can just get away with it but we're under no illusions and it should be $5 the field; she shouldn't be $2. 'If it was 1400m or 1600m, perhaps, but it is what it is, and we'll take our chance to get some black type.' Durrant has a rich history with the Oaks going back almost two decades when he prepared Kia Ora Miss to win in 2006. He had to wait until 2013 before Summah's Touch provided him with a second but collected the trophy the following year with the Pike-ridden Tick Tick Bloom. He again shared the spoils with Pike in 2023 with Ihts Closing Inn, the fifth of the champion hoop's six wins in the event after scoring with the Grant and Alana Williams-trained Petrouchka last year. Fancy Red steps into unknown territory having her first start beyond a mile in distance, however, that is the case for the bulk of her opponents, too. 'Distance wise, it's a roll of the dice,' Durrant said. 'She certainly wouldn't have been taking on the boys over this trip and we'll rely on a filly that's in the zone. 'She ran through the line strongly the other day, so we'll have a crack. 'The run last Saturday, that was her bonus run. We knew she was going really well and in good form and wasn't looking for the paddock. 'We thought she could win that race, and that's a bonus race, and then it was a good trial hit-out for this week.' Showlas ($5.50) is the only other horse in the field is at single-digit odds after competing in last fortnight's Belmont Guineas with credit, finishing a four-length fifth to Opportunistic. + West On Sidney ($1.36) is a red-hot prospect in The Westcha$e Final (520m) at Cannington after overcoming a chequered passage to land his heat last week.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
That's no ruby. It's an extremely rare red diamond.
While it may look like a blazing red ruby, the 2.33-carat Winston Red Diamond is just that—a diamond. One of the rarest diamonds in the world, the Winston Red Diamond is on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC–right near the more famous Hope Diamond. To learn more about this exceedingly rare Fancy Red diamond, Smithsonian gem and mineral curator Gabriela Farfan and colleagues spent two years researching its history and tracing its geological past. The team officially categorized the diamond and also narrowed down its potential country of origin as Venezuela or Brazil. The findings are detailed in a study published June 6 in the journal Gems & Gemology. Ronald Winston, son of famed American jeweler Harry Winston, donated the roughly 8 millimeter in diameter diamond to the Smithsonian in 2023. It is the fifth-largest confirmed red diamond in the world. Based on its old mine brilliant cut, gemologists believe that it was likely mined before the middle of the 20th century. This older style of cutting diamonds predates the more modern brilliant cuts seen today. Gemologists estimate that one in every 25 million diamonds is fancy red. According to the Smithsonian, this specific red diamond's documented history begins in 1938, when it belonged to the Cartier Family. The Cartiers then sold it to the Maharaja of Jamnagar India sometime before the 1980s. Winston purchased the stone from the Maharaja in the late 1980s and the diamond once adorned a ring worn by actress Brooke Shields in 1989. At 2.23 carats, it is smaller than the largest confirmed fancy red diamond. The Moussaieff Red clocks in at 5.11 carats and has been displayed in museums around the world. On April 1,the Winston Red Diamond officially went on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Scientifically describing and detailing the Winston Red's color and history was one of the major goals of this new study. Red diamonds are exceedingly rare, which makes studying them equally difficult. A diamond's color is largely determined by its chemical make-up. For example, a traditional white diamond is mostly composed of carbon. Small amounts of nitrogen will give a diamond a more yellow hue. If those nitrogen atoms have enough time–several millions of years–to aggregate in groups, the diamond will appear more brown. After even more years, if the nitrogen atoms form in groups of three surrounding a missing carbon atom, it will turn a yellow color. If the element boron replaces carbon, it produces a blue hue. Red and pink diamonds don't owe their color to chemistry. The extreme pressures and temperatures deep within the Earth can lead to plastic deformation within the rock. During plastic deformation, the atomic bonds in the diamond break and re-form along imperfections called dislocations. These deformations will change the diamond's atomic structure and affect how the light interacts with the stone. It's this deflection that gives it its rosy hue. Pink diamonds get their color in a similar way, since the color red is a more saturated pink. The Winston Red is also considered a Fancy Red diamond, meaning its color is pure red. It does not have any other modifying hues like purple, brown, or orange. Only 0.04 percent of fancy colored diamonds have this Fancy red color grade. The chances of finding a Fancy red diamond like the Winston Red is about one in 25 million diamonds. [ Related: The mystery behind pink diamonds just got some more clarity. ] To learn more, the team used several techniques including photoluminescence, spectroscopy, and cathodoluminescence to study the precious stone. These analyses confirmed the presence of plastic deformation bands and a pattern that officially classifies it as a type IaAB (A<B) Group 1 'pink' diamond. The diamond underwent significant pressure and temperature conditions when it was forming. They also found that the Winston Red gets its pure crimson color because it had a careful balance of the right pressure and temperature during its formation. Based on its mineralogical characteristics and mid-20th century cut, the team believes that it likely originated in Venezuela or Brazil. However, its precise place of origin is still unknown.
