Diamonds are a girl's best friend, according to the song, but the Diamond Partnership is proving to be much more than that for enthusiastic owner Paul Duffy.

Thanks to Diamond Harry, the red, white and blue colours of the Paul Duffy Diamond Partnership are synonymous with success.

The six-year-old, trained in Devon by Nick Williams, is undefeated in six races and, as a result, is favourite for the Ballymore Properties Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Yet he is neither in the care of a big owner nor housed at one of the major stables.

Growing up in Kent, owning a horse was beyond Duffy's wildest dreams as a boy.

But, from the age of six, he would study the racing page of his father's newspaper and that interest has evolved 50 years later into heading the syndicate that owns one of the most promising young jumpers in training.

"As a good working-class lad, to think I'd ever own a horse would have been completely out of the question," said Duffy, who now lives in Bristol and is managing director for the regions for financial services company, Bluefin.

"I used to get my dad's Telegraph and at the age of six started picking horses.

"All the neighbours knew what I was doing and they used to ask me what I fancied for the Derby and the Grand National.

"That's 50 years ago now and to have a horse going to the Cheltenham Festival is just unbelievable.

"I wasn't born into it, it's just one of those things and it's fantastic."

Duffy has had horses for 10 years, but it is his involvement with Williams that has seen him hit the jackpot.

"I'm very lucky. I've got four horses with Nick under the heading of the Duffy Diamond Partnership," Duffy added.

"I own half of each of them and I've got different combinations of friends with the others.

"They are all under the same umbrella and it's a fantastic experience.

"I've got Quasar D'Oudairies, who's won for me at Hereford, Reve De Sivola, who is a possible for the Triumph Hurdle if the ground is on the soft side, and Diamond Brook.

"I commission Nick to buy horses for me, he does the selection - I don't interfere with the expert.

"We've had unbelievable luck and you keep crossing your fingers. Nick likes to be very patient and we get on very well. I don't press him to run the horses at all.

"We bought Diamond Harry at the Doncaster Sales in the spring of 2006 and we ran him in their bumper at Newbury in 2007 - and then we waited another year to run him in the same race again.

"It was a very valuable bumper and we kept him back to run him in it again to pick up another £30,000.

"This year we didn't know how he'd take to hurdling, we didn't know how good he was and we are finding out now.

"Nick said that Diamond Harry was lean for his last run and he won't be that lean for the Festival.

"Nick knows what he's doing and he'll have him spot-on.

"The horse is a fighter, as he showed when he won his last race at Cheltenham.

"At Cheltenham last time he was given a run for the first time this year and showed he really wanted to win - that was a great day for us.

"It was a fantastic start for the rebranding of our company Bluefin to see Diamond Harry pass the winning post first time at Cheltenham - let's hope he can do the same at the Festival.

"Diamond Harry will be the star of the company's first newsletter since we rebranded."

Many more headlines await Diamond Harry should he sparkle at Cheltenham.