Hardwicke stakes | Horse Racing Free Tips

Haggas Has Royal Ascot Aim For The King And Queen’s Desert Hero

William Haggas is charting a path back towards Royal Ascot with Desert Hero (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and nominated the Hardwicke S. as the main objective for the King and Queen's colt before a possible tilt at races in Australia in the autumn.

Winner of the King George V S. last term, Desert Hero went on to claim Group 3 honours in the Gordon S. at Goodwood before finishing third to Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {JPN}) in the St Leger.

Haggas had suggested that an Australian campaign could be on the cards for Desert Crown after the St Leger, however, it would appear that those plans have been put on the back burner for the time being at least.

Speaking to RadioTAB Australia, Haggas said, “We decided definitely that His Majesty's horse will not be coming to Sydney in the autumn. We may well come down at the backend of the year in your (Australian) spring, but I just felt he needed a bit more time and they (his owners) concurred.”

When asked if the Melbourne Cup would be a likely destination, Haggas replied, “Possibly or possibly something in Sydney, we'll see. We are going to concentrate on going to Royal Ascot for the Hardwicke Stakes, which will be his first major target.

“He's done very well this winter. He will benefit from all the time he can get. It's 'do we press the button now or wait a bit' and we plumped for the second option, we're going to wait a bit.

“He's pretty useful, he got better and better last year and we think he's done better again this winter, so I am very pleased with him.”

Haggas will be represented in the big Australian races once again by Dubai Honour (Ire) (Pride Of Dubai {Aus}), who won both the Ranvet S. and the Queen Elizabeth S. last year before finishing a fine third to Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) in the QEII Cup in Hong Kong.

“He'll go into quarantine on February 15. We're looking at the same two races as last year,” he commented. “I probably shouldn't have run him in the Eclipse, as he'd been on the go for a while, but there were only four runners and I thought he ran well for a long way in the Champion Stakes.

“To be honest, his whole summer was based around getting him in top shape to come to you (Australia) in February/March. He will be the same horse he was, I hope.

“I'd like him to come back for two years. If all goes well this year and he runs competitively, then basically it will be all the same again.”

Two more could travel with Dubai Honour, as Post Impressionist (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), winner of the Old Borough Cup, and Mujtaba (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), last seen finishing second in the Huxley S. in May, are both pencilled in.

“Post Impressionist will run in the Sydney Cup, he's been bought by Lloyd Williams. He's in really good shape,” said Haggas.

“Mujtaba might well go. I'm really pleased with his condition. He'll either go Ranvet or Tancred and then hopefully Queen Elizabeth.

“He's never won a Stakes race, in his only start last year he was second in a Group Two and then got colic. He's a good age, he's six but has only run nine times in his life.”

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O’Brien and Moore Sweep to New Milestones

It was a week of milestones. Eighty Royal Ascot winners for Aidan O'Brien and seventy for his main jockey Ryan Moore. But with this particular pair the counter never really sits still, and by the end of five days and 35 races, the trainer had boosted his tally to 81 – just one shy of Sir Michael Stoute's record – while Moore clocked off on 73, three behind current leader Frankie Dettori.

A far more telling statistic for the head of the vast Ballydoyle training operation was that the victory of Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}) in the G2 Hardwicke S. brought up O'Brien's 900th victory in Group/Graded races in a career which has so far spanned almost 30 years and is surely still full of running.

The run-up to the big 900 had been provided perhaps most notably by Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the Gold Cup, a race in which so many of the Ascot faithful would have loved to see one last hurrah at the meeting for Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). Instead, perhaps we have welcomed a new staying king from a family replete with top-level black type and just the sort of horse with which O'Brien has excelled over the years, with eight wins in the Gold Cup alone, four of those having been delivered by the mighty Yeats (Ire) (Sadler's Wells).

Overall, however, the results from Royal Ascot 2022 highlight the versatility and general dominance which has been key to O'Brien's training career. Changingoftheguard (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was perhaps fortunate that Grand Alliance (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) snatched defeat from the jaws of a likely victory when veering badly left in the closing stages of the G2 King Edward VII S. The more straightforward winner was bouncing back from a fifth-place finish in the Derby following his emphatic win in the G3 Chester Vase. That win came three hours after Meditate (Ire) had her trainer dreaming of more Group 1 days to come when winning the G3 Albany S. on a day when John Magnier made a rare visit to Ascot. The daughter of No Nay Never also gave O'Brien and her Coolmore sire a juvenile stakes double at the royal meeting following the second-day victory of Little Big Bear (Ire) in the Listed Windsor Castle S.

Just a few weeks after O'Brien set a new record for the number of British Classics won when Tuesday (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) became his 41st in the Oaks, by Saturday evening he had claimed his eleventh leading trainer title at Royal Ascot. His five winners were all ridden by Moore, who secured his ninth title as leading jockey with seven winners.

Speaking at Ascot on Friday, Magnier, the man responsible for installing the then-successful young jumps trainer O'Brien at Ballydoyle, said of his phenomenal tally of stakes winners, “That does the talking and he doesn't have to do it. It's refreshing to see a modest approach, I think.”

The same can be said for his stable jockey. Members of the media attempting to extract a word or two out of Ryan Moore may not often find his modesty, which often borders on terseness, refreshing, though they may take heart from the fact that the jockey is similarly sparing in his debriefs when being interviewed by his sister Hayley on Sky Sports Racing.

Twelve years ago Moore won his first Classic on Snow Fairy (Ire) in the Oaks. His memorable comment when being congratulated on this success was, “Well it's not the Derby, is it?” The next day he won the Derby on Workforce (GB). No cartwheels were forthcoming.

And that's the measure of Moore. He does his job with the minimum of fuss, saving his all for his horses and his paymasters. For this observer at least, Moore's complete lack of showboating is one of the best things about him – second only to his undeniable talent, and those are two attributes which so perfectly mirror O'Brien.

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Sir Michael Stoute Supplements Solid Stone For Hardwicke Stakes

No trainer has a better record in the G2 Hardwicke S. than Sir Michael Stoue, who will be bidding to win the race for a 12th time at Royal Ascot on Saturday after supplementing Solid Stone (Ire) (Shamardal), who will be sporting the Derby-winning colours of Saeed Suhail.

Stoute won his sixth Derby when Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) powered home at Epsom just over a week ago for Suhail, who was also successful in 2003 with Kris Kin (Kris S), and the in-form trainer-owner combination will be bidding to maintain their good run of form at the royal meeting.

Solid Stone was last seen winning the G2 Huxley S. at Chester and will bid to emulate previous Stoute-trained winners of the Hardwicke like Harbinger (GB), Sea Moon (GB), Telescope (Ire) and more recently Crystal Ocean (GB).

All bar one of the past 14 winners were 4-year-olds and the Charlie Appleby-trained Hurricane Lane (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), winner of the Irish Derby last season, will be bidding to strengthen that record.

Not seen since finishing third in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Hurricane Lane is likely to give the 6-year-old Solid Stone most to think about, and Appleby provided an upbeat bulletin on the colt's wellbeing.

He said, “I'm delighted with the way he has physically done from three to four and this has very much been our target, we're very much working back from the Arc.

“Compared to some of the older horses he had an extended break as we knew we weren't going to do anything early in the season with him.”

Appleby added, “He took in a racecourse gallop at Newmarket the other day, William (Buick) sat on him and he was very pleased. He needed it in the sense that everything is very relaxed at Moulton Paddocks and he was in a relaxed mode, so William just had to give him the signal to remind him to switch on his racing brain and you could see the penny dropped at the right time.”

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Menuisier Celebrates First Royal Ascot Win With Wonderful Tonight

Wonderful Tonight gave trainer David Menuisier a first Royal Ascot success when beating the boys in the G2 Hardwicke Stakes over a mile and a half.

The four-year-old filly was making her seasonal debut after winning the G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot on her final start in 2020.

Racing keenly early on, jockey William Buick eventually got Wonderful Tonight (5/1) settled behind the leaders before kicking clear in the straight for an impressive length and a half success over 9/4 favorite Broome. Hukum (8/1) was the same distance again back in third.

Menuisier said: “Wonderful Tonight is an absolute champion. I couldn't be bullish in the press before the race because she was always going to improve for the run.

“She was running against tough opposition with the benefit of at least one run, so you always have to be on the side of caution, but she is amazing. I didn't know what to say in the last 50 yards, it gave me a great sense of pride.

“Wonderful Tonight showed a tremendous turn of foot which she perhaps never showed before. I am very proud of the team, proud of the filly and also proud it is the only day Her Majesty came to this week, so I'm pleased she got to see this filly live.

“The fact that she handles soft/heavy ground so well compensated for the lack of fitness today. Can I go as far to say she will show the same traits on good ground? I don't know. Perhaps we will try in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe if the ground happened to be good. Would we try her on good ground before that? I don't know. She loves Longchamp and Ascot so we will keep an eye on all the races she can run it at both venues.

“The King George was run on very soft ground last year. The Hardwicke was not the plan until last week and at the confirmation stage I saw that there was rain forecast and we decided to keep her in. Sometimes you need to be lucky as well!

Speaking about what a first Royal Ascot win means, he added: “It means the world because you carry it like a monkey on your back until it happens. I am absolutely thrilled.”

Winning owner Christopher Wright said: “I couldn't believe it. I honestly couldn't believe it, I was breathless. Absolutely staggered. I knew she needed the race. What a filly. She is amazing.

“I wasn't expecting her to win, the trainer had managed my expectations and he had also managed the expectations of the entire punting public in the Racing Post by saying that she was at 80/85 percent fit. Maybe she was, I don't know, but didn't she win so well! What a filly she is, that was unbelievable.

“I have been running horses here for 40 years, almost every year at least one, sometimes several. I've never ever had a winner at Royal Ascot – lots of seconds, lots of very good horses. Culture Vulture, who won a Classic, was second twice, but I've never had a winner here. I almost can't believe it – I thought I never ever would have a winner here, but I have.

“It means everything, actually. There are winners and winners, but a Royal Ascot winner… I've won a lot of very good races, but to win at Royal Ascot is like I've died and gone to heaven.

“After last year, when we almost ran Wonderful Tonight in the Arc, we thought that we would target the Arc this year. I know that's like shooting for the moon, and it's a pretty tough target to aspire to, but that has been the target and her program has been based around it, so we didn't want her to start the season too early. We don't think she's a filly who will like a mid-season break particularly, so we wanted to start the season and gradually bring her along so she could peak on the first weekend of October. This was step one of that plan.”

Buick is still in the hunt for the Royal Ascot leading jockey title after riding his third winner of the week. He said: “Wonderful Tonight has a lot of stamina. I won the Fillies & Mares on her on Champions Day last year and I rode her like a real stayer because she'd won the Royallieu, the 14-furlong fillies race on Arc weekend, making plenty of use of her.

“She is top-class. She probably does handle this ground well compared to some others, but I thought that performance today against the colts was her best yet. And she showed a turn of foot today that I don't think she'd shown before. I thought she looked great – David and his team had done a great job with her over the winter and have bided their time.

“She is very versatile tactically. She can make her own running as long as she's in a good rhythm and doesn't get chased along too early. She was entitled to be a bit fresh today, first run for a while, but I was very comfortable where I was after a furlong or so. It was a nice smooth race; good performance from her and she's got it all ahead.”

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