Chapple-Hyam Outlines Targets For Royal Ascot Stars

Trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam revealed plans for a pair of her Royal Ascot stars, with G3 Hampton Court S. hero Claymore (Fr) (New Bay {GB}) set for the G2 York S. on July 23. A winner at first asking as a juvenile, he was second to subsequent G1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas winner Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) in the Apr. 13 G3 Craven S. at Newmarket. Unplaced in the G1 French 2000 Guineas in mid-May, he bounced back in fine style at the Royal meeting.

“I'm glad I know my horse,” said Chapple-Hyam. “We knew what he was capable of. We knew that he could do it and it wasn't a surprise. Claymore is going for the York S. on July 23. With him, we will take each step as it comes.”

The Australian ex-pat also had an update on her Group 1-winning mare Saffron Beach (Ire), also by New Bay. Successful in the G3 Atalanta S. and G1 Sun Chariot S. last term, the chestnut turned in a solid effort to take fourth in the G1 Dubai Turf at Meydan in the spring before running out a 3 1/2-length winner of the G2 Duke Of Cambridge S. at Royal Ascot. She will lock horns with Southern Hemisphere shipper Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ} in the G1 Prix Rothschild on Aug. 2.

She added, “The plan is the same. Saffron Beach is heading for the Prix Rothschild on Aug. 2. She has taken her race well. There are no problems, no issues, all is good with her.”

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‘I Have Seven New Bays out of 40 Horses’: Chapple-Hyam on her Royal Ascot Heroes

Jane Chapple-Hyam may have lived in Britain for many years but she is still a proud Aussie and thus played her part in bringing an international feel to last week's results at Royal Ascot.

And what a part it was. The powerhouse Coolmore and Godolphin stables of Aidan O'Brien and Charlie Appleby may have had more winners at the meeting, but Chapple-Hyam more than held her own on two winners, equal to William Haggas, Richard Fahey, Karl Burke and George Boughey, all of whom have greater reserves to call upon. In fact, her strike-rate was second to none, as the Abington Place trainer took just three horses to Ascot, with Saffron Beach (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) and Claymore (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) each winning their group-race assignments while the older stager Intellogent (Ire) (Intello {Ger}) was second in the fiercely competitive Royal Hunt Cup.

“You always hope it will happen but it's so competitive that you normally come home scratching your head, because it's such hard company. And it's hard to win a race anywhere, let alone Ascot,” says Chapple-Hyam as she reflects on an outstanding week for her stable which was rounded off with another winner at her home track of Newmarket on Friday evening. 

The statuesque Group 1 winner Saffron Beach has filled the role of stable star in Chapple-Hyam's select team for three seasons now and, arguably most pleasing of all was her return in fine style in the G2 Duke of Cambridge S. after a decent fourth-place finish behind some stiff opposition in the G1 Dubai Turf in March.

“I was standing next to David Loder and he just made it sound so easy. When we'd gone two furlongs, he said, 'You win',” says Chapple-Hyam of the filly's three-and-a-half-length victory.

“She's just short of 500 kilos, and she's just developed into such a powerful filly. If you look at her from behind and side on without looking at her head, you would think she was a colt.”

With a Royal Ascot win to sit alongside last season's Sun Chariot success and 1,000 Guineas second, Saffron Beach is now being primed with a major end-of-season target in mind.

“Our goal is really to get to the Breeders' Cup, so we're kind of working backwards from that and we don't want to over-race her, so we didn't put her in the Falmouth,” says Chapple-Hyam, who trains the 4-year-old on behalf of her step-brother Ben Sangster and his wife Lucy and son Ollie, as well as James Wigan.

“We feel we should aim for things like the Prix Rothschild at Deauville, and then we've got the Sun Chariot just up the road.

“As a 2-year-old and early 3-year-old, I could run her every fortnight, But now we're being sensible. We're spacing time between her races, which is sensible, because then we should get to the Breeders' Cup and have a good chance without being over the top.”

There was relief coupled with joy in the case of Claymore bouncing back from his last-place finish in the G1 Poule d'Essai Poulains. The colt, owned by South African-based Mary Slack, who also owns the yard in which he is trained, made just one winning start as a juvenile before chasing home Native Trail (GB) for second in the G3 Craven S.

“It was just so, so disappointing in France,” says the trainer. “My heart sank when I saw the draw, 16 of 16. And then I suppose in hindsight, I should have pulled out, but I'm not one to withdraw because of a bad draw. And the good side of it was, he travelled over there, he was stabled at Longchamp. He went there a teenager and he came back a man. The whole trip was perfect for a learning experience.

“But unfortunately, just a bad draw and a bad run. We had to put a line through the French Guineas and I was quietly confident [at Ascot], even though I was taking on an odds-on shot.”

With a Group 3 win in the book, Claymore will now start to step up the grades again, with the G2 York S. his likely next target on July 23.

She adds, “I think he'll develop in to a lovely 4-year-old. I think that these New Bays just get better with age.”

Chapple-Hyam is in as good a position as anyone to comment on the Ballylinch Stud stallion New Bay as the trainer of his sole Group 1 winner to date and two of his six Group winners. Just across the road from her stable at Sir Michael Stoute's Freemason Lodge is trained the exciting prospect Bay Bridge (GB), runner-up in the G1 Prince of Wales's S. and bred and co-owned by James Wigan, who is also involved in Saffron Beach. Meanwhile Wigan's son Harry is one of the owners, in a group involving Mimi Wadham and Violet Hesketh, of Chapple-Hyam's latest winner by New Bay, Nizaaka (Fr). The 4-year-old won at the July Course on Friday evening on her second start for the trainer after being bought at last year's December Sale.

“I'm very proud to say that I have seven New Bays in the yard out of 40 horses, so I'm pretty happy about that,” she says. “Lucy Sangster and I also bought a mare called Vitamin in December that was in foal to him. We thought, 'We'll jump in now and get one', knowing that I had Claymore and Saffron Beach. We got a lovely colt and then we sent her back to New Bay. So we're just trying to buy every New Bay we come across.”

The 80-rated Nizaaka, like Saffron Beach, could have her passport stamped for France this summer. Her trainer says, “I feel the team might have a little venture over to Deauville. She's a nice filly and she can only improve her game. We'll try and pick up some black types somewhere along the line.”

Meanwhile, Fiona Carmichael's former French-trained Intellogent, who won the G1 Prix Jean Prat while in the care of Fabrice Chappet, could be back on longer-range missions. The 7-year-old has already raced in America, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, as well as Britain and France, and Chapple-Hyam is eyeing a return for the G3 Bahrain International Trophy in November.

“He's quite a clever horse is our Ted, as we call him, and I feel he did extremely well considering he was drawn in four,” she says of his Royal Hunt Cup run, in which he was beaten half a length by Dark Shift (GB).

“He's obviously had issues before he came to me but they seem to be all ironed out now, and he's enjoying his racing. And really he was campaigned a lot over a mile and a quarter but I felt a Hunt Cup mile would be fine because they go so quick, and that he could then work his way back over the top of them.”

She continues, He's got an entry at York in the John Smith's Cup. I was fortunate to have a runner in the first Bahrain International, and actually Intellogent ran there and I was stabled next to him. And he ran well at that track, so I'd love to send him back there.”

Chapple-Hyam first came to prominence as a trainer when her 100/1 shot Mudawin (Ire) landed the Ebor in 2006, in her first full season with a licence. She has never been afraid to travel her horses and has saddled runners in France, Germany, America, Dubai, Bahrain, Saudi, and her native Australia. She is also not averse to pitching them into smart company, with the end result being a string of stakes-race successes of which stables twice the size would be proud.

“Well, we just do our best with what we've got,” she says modestly. “It's always a cold, hard winter. So for me, this winter, having Saffron Beach and Claymore made it a lot easier to get out of bed.”

Those early mornings must be getting easier all the time.

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Seven Days: A Coronation in Chantilly

Just when you thought a fully-charged Royal Ascot couldn't be topped, along came Hollie Doyle. 

The royal meeting was sadly missing The Queen for all five days this year but, France's republican tendencies aside, there are few in the racing world who would deny that Doyle is now the queen of Chantilly after reaching yet another milestone to become the first woman to ride a Group 1 Classic winner in Europe.

Her great triumph came aboard Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) for Imad Al Sagar, who was achieving an important landmark victory of his own with his first homebred Classic winner for his Blue Diamond Stud. It is now not even remarkable to see Doyle booked for top rides. She's so good at what she does, proving it day in and day out, from Group 1 showcase races to Class 6 handicaps, but there are not many of those top-class horses to go around.

For this observer, it was a punch-the-air moment when Doyle was announced as first jockey for Al Sagar three seasons ago. It felt important that a woman should be given a prominent retainership in the first place, and more symbolic that this offer was made by an Arab owner. It was an inspired and refreshing move on Al Sagar's part, and a thoroughly deserving position for Doyle. If she hadn't already, she has certainly repaid his faith in her now.

Doyle is five wins clear at the head of the jockeys' table for this calendar year. The nonsensical shortening of the jockeys' championship from the Guineas meeting to Champions Day means that a number of those 85 wins don't count, so she lies in fourth place in the 'championship', if we can call it that. Given the unwelcome publicity surrounding Oisin Murphy's behaviour and the conclusion to last year's jockeys' title, we could do with some better news in that regard, and one story that would guarantee more front-page, good-news headlines for racing would be the first female champion jockey. Doyle will get there one day, no doubt.

Al Sagar, as a breeder who has recently undertaken a significant restructuring of his two farms near Newmarket that comprise his Blue Diamond Stud operation, now finds himself in the happy position that his paddocks contain the dams of both female French Classic winners this season. As already noted in these pages, he bought Zotilla (Ire) (Zamindar), the dam of G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches winner Mangoustine (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}), later in the year that her future Classic heroine was foaled. Nashwa's dam Princess Loulou (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) was bought as a yearling. 

Frankel's Classic Touch

Nashwa was of course only the second Group 1 winner of the week for her sire Frankel and trainers John and Thady Gosden, who also had last year's leading 2-year-old filly Inspiral (GB) primed to perfection for her return in the G1 Coronation S., which was arguably the race at Ascot with the greatest depth.

Her victory was vengeance for her dam Starscope (GB) (Selkirk), who had been second in both the Coronation and the 1,000 Guineas of 2012, and Inspiral, who was the fourth generation of her family to have been bred by Cheveley Park Stud, became their fourth Coronation S. winner after Exclusive (GB), Russian Rhythm and Nannina (GB). The Thompson family's operation also enjoyed some reflected glory at Ascot as the breeder of surprise Chesham S. winner Holloway Boy (GB) and Buckingham Palace S winner Inver Park (GB), whose victories would have been all the sweeter for the fact that they are by one of the stud's resident sires, Ulysses (Ire), and the late former star of the stallion yard, Pivotal (GB).

Frankel still has some way to go to peg back Dubawi (Ire) if he is to retain his champion sire title this year, but the season is not even halfway through yet. One of the notable absentees on the quick ground at Ascot was his daughter Homeless Songs (Ire), the sensational winner of the Irish 1,000 Guineas. An eventual clash with Inspiral would be a mouth-watering prospect but, even without the filly, Moyglare Stud's 60th anniversary year continued in fine style with victory in the Gold Cup for another homebred, Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the rising star of the staying ranks. Never was a mare better named than his dam Polished Gem (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), who has produced three Group 1 winners among her eight stakes winners. 

Frankel also featured as the damsire of the G3 Jersey S. winner Noble Truth (Fr), who is a son of his stud mate Kingman (GB).  It was a second major international winner for the family in less than a month as Noble Truth was bred by Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois from Speralita (Fr), an unraced sister of the six-time Group/Grade 1 winner Stacelita (Fr) (Monsun {Ger}), who took the Prix de Diane 13 years ago. As a broodmare Stacelita has plied her trade in Japan for Teruya Yoshida with great success, providing Frankel with his first Classic winner anywhere in the world when their daughter Soul Stirring (Jpn) won the GI Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks).

There has been further notable success for the Japanese wing of the family this season with Stars On Earth (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}), who is a grand-daughter of Stacelita and won the GI Oka Sho (1,000 Guineas) on April 22 followed by the Yushun Himba on May 22. Her dam Southern Stars (Smart Strike) has a colt foal catalogued for the foal section of the JHRA Select Sale, which takes place on July 11 and 12.

Dubawi Wears the Crown

With five winners, including a one-two in the G1 Platinum Jubilee S. with Naval Crown (GB) and Creative Force (Ire), Dubawi owns all the bragging rights among the sires represented at Royal Ascot. In fact, he is presently lording it over all-comers in Europe by just about every metric with 24 stakes winners led by four individual Group 1 winners this year.

One of the latter, Coroebus (Ire), followed up his 2,000 Guineas victory with a G1 St James's Palace S. success, to cement a memorable opening day for the Maktoum family following the procession of the unbeaten Baaeed (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G1 Queen Anne S.

Dubawi's son New Bay (GB) also deserves plenty of plaudits with two group winners at the meeting. His daughter Saffron Beach (Ire) returned to the winner's enclosure in imperious fashion in the G2 Duke of Cambridge S., while her stable-mate Claymore (Ire) landed his first group-race strike in the G3 Hampton Court S. We'll be hearing more about their trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam's love of New Bay in Wednesday's TDN.

And let's not forget Dubawi's French-based son Zarak (Fr), who continues to make giant strides in the second-season sires' table. It has to be said that he looks the stand-out of this intake at this stage, with La Parisienne (Fr) going close to giving him a first-crop Classic winner in the Prix de Diane when running Nashwa to a neck. 

Admittedly Churchill was first off the mark in that regard with the very impressive Prix du Jockey Club winner Vadeni (Fr), and it was exciting to hear that this Aga Khan-bred colt is under consideration to be supplemented for the G1 Coral-Eclipse next month. But Zarak leads the way with five black-type winners, which equates to 11 per cent of his runners, and he also had Times Square (Fr) placed in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches.

On With The Show

The sole appearance of Showcasing (GB) at Royal Ascot ended in ignominious defeat when he trailed in last of the 24 runners for the G1 Golden Jubilee S. But he has fared much better as a sire, notably with two G1 Commonwealth Cup winners in Quiet Reflection (GB) and Advertise (GB), while Soldier's Call (GB) won the Windsor Castle S. of 2018, and Tasleet (GB) and Cappella Sansevero (GB) finished runner-up in the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. and G2 Coventry S. respectively.

Showcasing was represented again this year by the smart G2 Queen Mary S. winner Dramatised (Ire), who provided a first major homebred success for Steve Parkin's Branton Court Stud. By that stage, the aforementioned Shadwell stallion Tasleet, whose first crop are now juveniles, was given a major boost by the G2 Coventry S. win of his son Bradsell (GB), who was sold as a breezer by Mark Grant to Tom Biggs and Archie Watson for £47,000, and presumably for many multiples of that after scorching to his nine-length maiden win on York's Knavesmire exactly a month after his appearance at Goffs UK.

Bradsell, bred by Deborah O'Brien, was one of two runners at Royal Ascot for the Bahrain-based Victorious Racing, the other being the Windsor Castle S. runner-up Rocket Rodney (GB) (Dandy Man {Ire}). He too had been purchased after an impressive novice win, this time at Goodwood for George Scott.

Whitsbury Manor Stud, which has stood Showcasing for his entire 12-season stud career to date, will have taken plenty of encouragement from the results of the royal meeting. Not only did they breed Tasleet before selling him to Sheikh Hamdan, but another of their own young sires featured prominently among the juvenile races. 

Havana Grey (GB) is currently romping away with 18 winners from his first crop and is seven clear of his nearest pursuer in that category, Sioux Nation. Though he is yet to join Tasleet and James Garfield (Ire) with a stakes winner, Havana Grey does have four black-type horses to his name, with Maylandsea (GB) having finished second in Queen Mary and Eddie's Boy (GB) third in the Windsor Castle.

There was further success for Showcasing at Chantilly on Sunday where Nurlan Bizakov's Sumbe homebred Belbek (Fr) landed the G3 Prix du Bois.

An Ascot for Everyone

As much as Royal Ascot represents some of the elite of European racing, the addition of handicaps in the first year of Covid has increased the potential for participation for owners and trainers, and the results reflected a broad spectrum of yards of all sizes.

George Boughey has been the up-and-coming name for the last couple of seasons and, with a Classic winner under his belt, he can now be considered to have truly arrived. His string is far from small on Newmarket Heath these days and he once again illustrated how adept he is in getting a great tune out of horses bought in training, usually in tandem with his great friend and ally Sam Haggas of Hurworth Bloodstock. Together they bought the Golden Gates H. winner Missed The Cut (Quality Road) for 40,000gns in February and, now with three wins from four runs under his belt, the 3-year-old looks a promising individual who had been an expensive foal purchase for Shadwell in America. 

Similar comments apply to Inver Park (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), who was already a decent dual winner for Mick Quinn when sold last October at Goffs UK for £35,000. He too has found a winning groove this spring, with his Buckingham Palace S. win being his third on the bounce. 

While Hollie Doyle is usually riding against her husband Tom Marquand, Hayley Turner is in the more agreeable position of riding for her partner Harry Eustace, the second-season trainer who bagged a Royal Ascot winner with his first ever runner at the meeting. Hopefully the much celebrated success of Latin Lover (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) in the Palace of Holyroodhouse H. will put Eustace's name on the radar of more owners as he is currently enjoying a fantastic season on a strike-rate of 24 per cent winners to runners. 

It's true then. The louder you shout the faster they run. Latin Lover wins the last at Ascot on Day 4. #scenes pic.twitter.com/6bCiDsj3wj

— Harry Eustace (@H_Eustace) June 18, 2022

Huge credit must also go to Dave Evans for brining Rohaan (GB) (Mayson {GB}) back to Ascot in great shape to claim his second successive Wokingham S.

It was pleasing to hear the 4-year-old's co-owner Chris Kiely get his priorities right when saying after the race, “I've had two kids and got married, but this is the best moment of my life.” Let's just hope his wife and children weren't listening in.

Jane Chapple-Hyam put all her fellow trainers in the shade, however, when bringing three horses to the royal meeting and waltzing home with two group wins and a runner-up in the Royal Hunt Cup. As already mentioned, we will be reflecting more on the success of her Abington Place stable tomorrow.

A Royal Nod For Tattersalls

There's always plenty to take in during Ascot week so you may have missed the announcement of a small adjustment to the Tattersalls December Mare Sale. The four-day auction which follows hard on the heels of a day of yearlings and four days of foal sales at Park Paddocks will now feature a specifically labelled 'Sceptre Session' which takes its name from the star filly of the early 1900s and a former Tattersalls sale record-breaker.

To a degree, the Tuesday evening of the mare sale, when this select session of high-class broodmares and breeding prospects is set to take place, is already one of the high points in the sales calendar when it comes to drama. Quite frankly, if you're a bloodstock aficionado and you weren't playing your part in the mass game of Sardines in the Tatts ring when the likes of Dancing Rain (Ire) and Marsha (Ire) sold for millions, then where were you? 

Having up to 75 of the highest-profile offerings clearly labelled in one select session within a session makes a lot of sense, though it will make for an even more fraught couple of hours than usual for the weary bloodstock journalists on the hunt for quotes. A timely reminder to start getting into training for the sales season.

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The Major Talking Points From Day Three at Royal Ascot

There has been no shortage of talking points at Royal Ascot this week but, perhaps the most controversial incident of them all came in the opening race on Thursday, when Paul Hanagan received a 10-day careless riding ban for veering halfway across the track en route to victory in the G2 Norfolk S. aboard The Ridler (GB) (Brazen Beau {Aus}).

From that controversy to another forgettable afternoon's work for Frankie Dettori, out of luck aboard Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G1 Gold Cup and The Queen's 2-5 favourite Reach For The Moon (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G3 Hampton Court S., Brian Sheerin dissects the main talking points from Thursday's action.

 

Listen To Heffernan – Racing Needs To Wake Up

What needs to happen in Britain and Ireland for the stewards to start protecting riders? Let's not pretend that this is a problem confined to British racing because it is not.

Just last autumn, Shane Foley found himself on the receiving end of a five-day ban for careless riding when partnering No Speak Alexander (Ire) (Shalaa {Ire}) to victory in the G1 Matron S. at Leopardstown on Irish Champions Weekend.

Race-favourite Mother Earth (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) was one of the worst affected by Foley edging to his left aboard the winner and there was genuine dismay from the international audience looking in on our product that the result wasn't changed.

Lessons haven't been learned and there was an element of groundhog day at Ascot when Paul Hanagan veered halfway across the track aboard The Ridler, inconvenienced a number of big-race rivals, but was allowed to keep the G2 Norfolk S.

What you permit, you promote, and the rules, as they are interpreted, meant that The Ridler was never in any real danger of being chucked out.

Seamie Heffernan gave a candid interview to TDN Europe in the immediate aftermath of the farcical contest where he raised the point that riders should have to forfeit their winner's cheque if found guilty of dangerous or careless riding.

In Hanagan's case, he was handed a 10-day riding ban for careless riding, and one can only assume he took that punishment with a smile.

Put simply, there is no deterrent for riding dangerously and, as Heffernan described, a “win-at-all-cost mentality” has crept into racing in recent times.

It begs the question; what needs to happen for the interference rules to be brought into line to reflect what happens in America, Australia and France?

Kia Joorabchian, whose Amo Racing silks were carried by the second and the third–Walbank (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and Crispy Cat (GB) (Ardad {Ire})–was rightly fuming after the race. So, too, was Crispy Cat's trainer Michael O'Callaghan, not to mention the international bettors who got involved on the World Pool.

The damage caused by these farcical decisions pose a serious risk to the sport and Thursday's race should be the wake up call racing needs.

The problem is, this is an alarm bell that has been ringing for a while.

 

Forgettable Day For Frankie

Yesterday we spoke of how Irad Ortiz's week went from bad to worse and, unfortunately for Frankie Dettori, one of the all-time greats of the weighing room, he had a similarly forgettable day at the office.

John Gosden is not a man who goes around ruffling feathers for no reason but he was clearly disappointed with the ride Dettori gave Stradivarius in the Gold Cup, feeling the legendary rider was too far out of his ground in a slowly-run contest.

“I was a bit surprised that being in the box seat we dropped back so far,” Gosden told ITV Racing. He added, “It would have been nice to be a touch handier, to say the least.”

Dettori was once again out of luck in the Britannia S. when, in another stride or two, he almost certainly would have clinched victory aboard The Queen's Saga (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).

At least there was a 2-5 favourite to steer home, eh? Wrong. Reach For The Moon ensured this was a day that would be remembered for all the wrong reasons when, despite being sent off at prohibitively short odds, Gosden's charge fluffed his lines in the G3 Hampton Court S.

It should also be noted that Reach For The Moon represented the third odds-on favourite of the week at Royal Ascot after Baaeed (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) got the meeting underway as a 1-6 jolly in the G1 Queen Anne S and Bay Bridge(GB) (New Bay {GB}) got turned over at odds of 10-11 in the Prince Of Wales's S. on Wednesday.

Alfred Munnings (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), who runs in the L Chesham S., and short-priced G2 Hardwicke S. fancy Hurricane Lane (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), are set to start at odds-on for their respective races on Saturday.

That will bring the total number of odds-on shots at this year's Royal meeting to five. There was consternation over the fact that there were five odds-on shots at Cheltenham back in March. Where is the outcry this week?

 

Stradivarius Going Nowhere

There seems to be an unhealthy obsession, certainly in some quarters of the media, in feeling the need to bring up the prospects of retirement as soon as any top horse appears to be on the wane.

Stradivarius is clearly not the force of old, yet he ran a gallant race to finish third in the G1 Gold Cup behind Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), and many felt he was unlucky not to have won.

The most pleasing aspect of the performance, however, was that the old boy seemed to retain all of his enthusiasm for the game, which was evidenced by the live pictures of him strutting out of the parade ring afterwards like the champion that he is.

So why this constant talk of retirement? Stradivarius is a racehorse and, to these eyes at least, he still loves to run.

Judging by his fine effort in defeat, he will go close to winning the G1 Goodwood Cup and there is also the option of travelling to Paris later in the season.

Stradivarius has been masterfully handled by John and Thady Gosden. They will know when the time is right to bring the curtain down on his career. Judging by Thursday's performance, that time doesn't appear to be any time soon.

 

Brilliant Boughey Continues To Build

It is hard to believe that George Boughey has only recently turned 30. Since sending out his first winner in 2019, Boughey has bagged a breakthrough Classic success this year and sugar-coated what has been a memorable season by adding a Royal Ascot victory to his CV when Inver Park (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) landed the Buckingham Palace S.

Boughey got his training career up and running, by and large, with early 2-year-olds, but the standard of his Newmarket operation has risen dramatically with each season, as we saw when Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}) won the G1 1000 Guineas.

Things could get even better for Boughey on Friday when Cachet lines out in the G1 Coronation S., which is shaping up to be one of the races of the week. His stock is not just on the rise, it's sky-rocketing.

Also, it would be remiss not to mention the exploits of Jane Chapple-Hyam this week. Twice the trainer's unmissable white bridle has been carried to victory at the royal meeting, with Claymore (Fr) (New Bay {GB}) running out a gritty winner of the G3 Hampton Court S. just 24 hours after Saffron Beach (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) bolted up in the G2 Duke Of Cambridge S.

Chapple-Hyam's only other runner this week, Intellogent (Ire) (Intello {Ger}), also ran a cracker to finish second in Wednesday's Royal Hunt Cup.

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