Ringside At Royal Ascot On Thursday

If Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) could talk, and by now it's almost as if he can, he would probably sound like Ali as he approaches his own version of the legendary “Rumble In the Jungle” at an Ascot with a suitably high reading on the thermometor. “I'm gonna dance!” he would shout. “There's nothing to be scared of.” Whether he's been busy handcuffing lightning or chopping down trees ahead of his great hour fighting to regain his title in Thursday's G1 Gold Cup only connections know, but his preparation has apparently been carefully masterminded to deal with the challenge. And it is a challenge, of every nerve and sinew in his perfectly biomechanically-engineered body, a body that has withstood over 60 miles of racing and thousands of miles of training gallops. If that isn't remarkable enough, his mental fortitude is. He has an unflinching desire to carry the fight into his veteran stage and gain that oh-so-hard-to-get fourth Gold Cup. There is nothing like the Royal meeting's monument, so revered in past times and so needlessly neglected for a spell in the later part of the last century. It is back where it belongs as the showcase of the week, thanks largely to a truly great racing character like Stradivarius.

 

Gosden's Corner

John Gosden was also keen to use a boxing analogy as he held court to the press in the build-up. “He's an old pro now, he goes in the ring, does what he has to do and comes home,” he said. “His regime [is] a little bit mixed up, but don't go trying to make anything tougher or harder for him–that does not go down very well at all. He was probably in his prime at five maybe into six, but at eight you have to face the fact that it's like a boxer getting back in the ring too late in his career sometimes. He's up for it and the plan was always to try to run at Ascot and Goodwood and we're sticking to the plan as long as he's with us and he is at the moment.”

 

The Contender

If 2021 was Stradivarius's version of rope-a-dope, Thursday could see him throw those combinations that have set him apart from the 210 opponents he has mastered down the years. Every great bout needs a significant opponent and with Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}) almost certainly out of the equation, that is Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Half the Nielsen runner's age and as vibrant and menacing as it gets, he hails from a Ballydoyle stable that specialises in fostering the power of its heavyweights. He is the Foreman or Frazier, intent on destruction from the front coming off a 14-length win in Leopardstown's G3 Saval Beg Levmoss S. May 13. Surging to the fore in Navan's Listed Vintage Crop S. Apr. 23, the chestnut who sports the Moyglare silks has one problem as he enters Stradivarius's back garden. His three visits to England have resulted in no-shows in the 2020 G3 Zetland S. and Listed Lingfield Derby Trial last May and a panic in the stalls before this meeting's G2 Queen's Vase which injured him. As Foreman was lost in Zaire, will it be the case that Kyprios's strength is diminished by unfamiliar terrain?

 

In Battaash's Shadow

Kicking off the action is the G2 Norfolk S., where Ballydoyle are again prominent with the super-charged The Antarctic (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}). His full-brother Battaash (Ire), so dominant in deepest Sussex and virtually unbeatable elsewhere, took four goes to win here and was successful only once in five appearances at Royal Ascot. Aidan O'Brien has talked about keeping a lid on the grey ahead of this examination and while he has hardly been electric at Tipperary and Naas, it may be that he is about to cut loose.

 

Precedent Set For Walbank

Tuesday saw Bradsell (GB) (Tasleet {GB}) convert the currency gained from a wide-margin prep win at York into success in the prestigious G2 Coventry S. and Amo Racing and Omnihorse Racing's fellow 'TDN Rising Star' Star Walbank (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) bids to do the same in the Norfolk after scoring by seven lengths on the Knavesmire May 22. The Coventry was robbed of the high-class Noble Style (GB) (Kingman {GB}), who had beaten Walbank over this course and distance May 7, but Royal Scotsman (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}) did the form a great service having been fourth on that occasion behind the talented duo and another of this race's protagonists in Redemption Time (GB) (Harry Angel {Ire}). The latter represents Dalham Hall Stud's first-season sire, while Coolmore's Sioux Nation has both Sheikh Abdullah Almalek Alsabah's Apr. 27 Royal Ascot Two-Year-Old Trial Conditions S. winner Bakeel (GB) and Brian Goodyear's six-length Apr. 23 Doncaster maiden scorer Brave Nation (Ire) to fly his flag.

 

Within Reach

As far as the Royalists are concerned, the best is saved for second last on Thursday with The Queen's Reach For the Moon (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) set to go off very short in the penultimate G3 Hampton Court S. Frankie's Royal Ascot has been one to forget so far and if Stradivarius can turn things around at 4:20p he will be perfectly teed up for this grand climax. Off the board on Wednesday, Jane Chapple-Hyam looks to provide the sternest opposition with Claymore (Fr) (New Bay {GB}), whose second in the G3 Craven S. Apr. 13 was followed by a nightmare trip in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains at ParisLongchamp May 15, where the combination of a wide draw and over-racing put paid to any chance.

“I'm not afraid to wreck the Queen's Platinum Jubilee–it will be 'off with her head' if I do,” she joked. “It is an interesting race, as clearly the Queen's horse is the favourite and Frankie Dettori and John Gosden have been very bold about that. I think that is their banker and many people's banker of the week. When Claymore was second in the Craven, the third horse Hoo Ya Mal (GB) (Territories {Ire}) was subsequently second in the [G1] Derby and people are forgetting that. I think he has got a bit of a squeak.”

 

The Road Most Taken

The G2 Ribblesdale S. unfortunately has no Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), but in Sunderland Holding's Sea Silk Road (GB) it has another daughter of the Gilltown Stud giant who could yet make waves. There is little in the form of her narrow success in Goodwood's May 20 Listed Height of Fashion S. that suggests she is worthy of her cramped odds, but of course we are talking about a lightly-raced William Haggas-trained filly and the trend of late has been for punters to follow blind. Zhang Yuesheng's Magical Lagoon (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) has an experience edge and Jessie Harrington has been waiting patiently since her second in Navan's Listed Salsabil S. over a mile and a quarter on Apr. 23.

 

Songs Stays At Home

As expected, Moyglare Stud's brilliant G1 Irish 1000 Guineas winner Homeless Songs (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) was not confirmed  for Friday's G1 Coronation S. with the hot and dry forecast remaining in place until at least Saturday. Cheveley Park Stud's Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) will face 11 rivals, including the G1 1000 Guineas heroine Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}).

Click here for the group fields.

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Lighting the Torch at Royal Ascot

Charlie Appleby calls it “the Olympics” and few would challenge that claim. Royal Ascot has been too long enmeshed in the fabric of British culture to be anything other than a truly special occasion, but in the Platinum Jubilee year it has even greater allure, a higher purpose. Four of the top nine horses in the World's Best Racehorse Rankings, including the one who sits atop, will be here this week and several more that have yet to reveal themselves as members of that exclusive club. We will know them all by the end of Saturday, but before then all the currently unknown scenarios will go through this meeting's glorious process of exposure and development. There will be formalities, probably as soon as the very first race, but also surprises and the whole range in between as the pick of the Thoroughbred population are at stretch over this hallowed land. All ages, both sexes, several nations, all racing styles. There will be time to marvel at rapidity of the fast-twitch kind, at the long-drawn-out sagas of the staying races, the dynamic poise of the milers and life at the cutting edge for the middle-distance maestros. There is a leading Australian sprinter, an ingredient much missed at the meeting in recent times, the now-customary U.S. contingent and the normal heavy representation from Europe's major operations both entrenched and newly-formed but with the same appetite.

Reach For the Stars

With temperatures set to soar and freedom of movement fully restored, the pinnacle of the English racing scene is back where it belongs in the public consciousness. Of course, where that is concerned the key event could actually come on Thursday with Reach For the Moon (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) who is much the most likely source of The Queen's 25th Royal Ascot winner in the G3 Hampton Court S. It is fair to say that without a success in those colours the week will have a hole in it, whatever the achievements of Baaeed (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), Nature Strip (Aus) (Nicconi {Aus}), Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Bay Bridge (GB) (New Bay {GB}) and Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), so it is in the lap of the gods as to how that plays out. In the final analysis, The Queen has long proven her ability to deal with reversals and her appreciation of the week's parade of luminaries runs deep enough to counter any personal disappointments.

Paying Homage

If it is to be the perfect week, then surely there can only be one outcome to the opening G1 Queen Anne S. and that will be Baaeed's private eulogy delivered to his late owner-breeder Sheikh Hamdan. With little in the way of threatening opposition on Tuesday, the key factor will be how far the forecast 1-5 shot can put himself out of reach in the World Rankings and how much he can bridge the still-sizeable gap to Frankel's elevated level. When horses get this far in advance of their peers, they are in some ways racing their own ghosts and with normal improvement from Newbury's G1 Lockinge S. May 14 he looks to put the fear into the crop of 3-year-olds looking for a potential fight in next month's G1 Sussex S. Fittingly, Baaeed's heritage goes back to The Queen's Height of Fashion (Fr) (Bustino {GB}), the remarkable fount of such glory for Shadwell Estate following the transaction between the ruling monarch and the Maktoum family kingpin back in the 1980s.

Select Crew For Haggas

   After Baaeed there are just two other Somerville Lodge representatives on day one, but they are a potentially formidable duo in their own right in Sunderland Holding's May 19 Listed Heron S. winner My Prospero (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}) and Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum's May 22 G2 Mehl-Mulhens-Rennen (German 2000 Guineas) winner Maljoom (Ire) (Caravaggio) in the G1 St James's Palace S. The former would be providing his owners with a breakthrough Royal Ascot winner if he can get to Godolphin's 2000 Guineas hero Coroebus and there was much to like about the way he subdued Reach For the Moon at Sandown in a race that is becoming increasingly important as a stepping stone to this prestige event. Without Parole (GB) (Frankel {GB}) took the Heron in 2018 before annexing this, while a year later King of Comedy (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) narrowly missed out on the double. He is drawn on the verges of acceptability in seven, with the last nine winners housed either in that stall or lower, whereas Maljoom has stall eight but is a habitual slow-starter so was unlikely to gain any advantage drawn towards the rail. He is a strong-finisher, however, as he proved in Cologne and it would be a huge shot in the arm for the German Classic if he is to overturn the English Guineas winner here. The form that the Haggas stable is in at present, it couldn't be written off. “They are two improving young three-year-olds and it's a very prestigious race, so they are entitled to have a shot,” their trainer said. “They've got a lot to find to beat Coroebus, but they are going the right way. Maljoom would be the faster of the pair, but My Prospero will stay well.”

The Stand-Off

Royal Ascot's metamorphosis from its rather staid past format into the up-to-date celebration of versatility it is now was helped in large part by the arrival of the sprinting megalith Choisir (Aus) back in 2003 and by the onslaught of Wesley Ward's raiders from 2009 onwards. Internationalisation really took hold of racing from the end of the last century and there is no way back from here, so it is apt that the G1 King's Stand S. boils down to an Australia-US drag race. Ward has placed Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) on a pedestal and he has been gifted a favourable high draw in 13 and a slick surface not always a guarantee at this meeting in recent times. Irad Ortiz is charged with getting the minutiae of pace-setting dead right and perhaps his best chance is if he can stay out of range of the Australian slugger Nature Strip. His is the direct line to glory and he has to not falter, as he did in York's G1 Nunthorpe S. in August. “He's a fast horse, so he's going to break like he always does and we'll just try not to go too fast early,” Ward said. “Whether it was Irad or Frankie Dettori or Lester Piggott on this horse, it's just a question of easing him back after the break and for the first three eighths you just want to go as easy as possible because whoever is going to be up there with him is going to pay the price. The thing about bringing Irad over here to ride this particular horse is he knows the horse very, very well and the horse responds well to him–they're undefeated.”

And It's No Nay Never

From the end of the last century, Royal Ascot has played regular host to some big names with dirt pedigrees and there is something in the turf that seems to sit well with the Storm Cat sire line. Through the 2001 G3 Norfolk S. winner Johannesburg, to Scat Daddy's No Nay Never, Caravaggio, Lady Aurelia, Sioux Nation and Acapulco, the meeting has come to represent something of a target for outrageously precocious juveniles with a power edge over their generation. No Nay Never's 2013 success in the Norfolk, when it was a group 2 as it is now, was won the hard way and he is a sire of precious material that Coolmore have profound belief in. At this stage of the 2022 season, he accounts for a ream of early Ballydoyle winners and Blackbeard (Ire) is front and centre as he spearheads the stable's quest for a 10th renewal of the G2 Coventry S. His 3 1/2-length dismissal of Moyglare's classy Tough Talk (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) in The Curragh's G3 Marble Hill S. May 21 is a standard-setting piece of form and with a draw in 14 he will be hard to subdue. “He is very professional and exciting in equal measure,” Ryan Moore stated on his betfair blog.

All the Right Amo

Kia Joorabchian's Amo Racing operation has been a notable fast starter with the 2-year-olds in 2022 and the Coventry sees Persian Force (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) kick off a potentially big Royal Ascot week for the relatively new enterprise. Successful in Doncaster's Brocklesby on the first day of the flat season in Britain Mar. 26 before adding a Newbury conditions race to his tally on the Lockinge card May 14, he has had Richard Hannon in typically excitable form of late. Amo's racing manager Emily Scott is keen to take a step back from the hype now. “He goes there with a great chance. I think the horse has got to do the talking now, but it's going to be very exciting,” she said. “We do have a few chances each day this week, but he is certainly the one we're taking there with highest expectations, I would say.”

First-Crop Promise

Often one of the meeting's most intriguing contests, the Coventry provides the first real test for the leading progeny of the first-season sires who have shaped the initial juvenile scene and none have made a mark so profound as Whitsbury Manor Stud's Havana Grey (GB). His Andrew Balding-trained colt Holguin (GB) is a longshot, having been beaten convincingly by Persian Force at Newbury, but much shorter in the betting is another member of a first crop in Victorious Racing Limited's Bradsell (GB) (Tasleet {GB}). Earning TDN Rising Star status with a nine-length success in a York novice over this six-furlong trip May 21, the son of Shadwell's Nunnery Stud resident takes high rank among Archie Watson's youngbloods, while Dalham Hall Stud's Harry Angel (Ire) has Michael O'Callaghan's deeply promising May 14 Navan maiden scorer Harry Time (Ire). As far as Sioux Nation is concerned, it's safe to say that there will be stronger chances for Coolmore's aforementioned freshman than the 100-1 maiden Lakota Blue (GB) as the week goes on.

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Reach For The Moon Back At Sandown

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Thursday's Observations features The Queen's group winner Reach For The Moon (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}).

 

5.16 ParisLongchamp, Listed, €55,000, 3yo, f, 9fT
RACLETTE (GB) (Frankel {GB}) lines up for this Prix Finlande on the back of a disappointing eighth in the G3 Prix de la Grotte here last month, with Andre Fabre opting to go up in trip and down in class for the daughter of Emollient (Empire Maker). Juddmonte's 'TDN Rising Star' remains a filly of great interest, especially having beaten the subsequent G3 Prix de Fontainebleau winner Welwal (GB) (Shalaa {Ire}) by four lengths on the second of her two winning juvenile starts.

 

7.15 Sandown, Listed, £52,000, 3yo, 8fT
REACH FOR THE MOON (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) makes his eagerly-awaited seasonal bow for The Queen, having carved out a reputation as one of her most exciting juveniles for some time when successful in this track's G3 Solario S. and second in the G2 Champagne S. The Gosden stable has won this Heron S. for the past three years, including with the subsequent G1 St James's Palace S. winner Without Parole (GB) (Frankel {GB}), and there will be expectation that it will extend its record but Reach For the Moon will have to be straight enough to deal with KHK Racing Ltd's 'TDN Rising Star' Akhu Najla (GB) (Kingman {GB}), the Roger Varian-trained half-brother to Galileo Gold (GB) (Paco Boy {Ire}) who was so impressive at Yarmouth last month.

 

7.15 Sandown, Novice, £11,000, 3yo, 9f 209yT
FRANCESCO CLEMENTE (IRE) (Dubawi {Ire}) takes the second step on his career path, having won Newmarket's Wood Ditton last month and been a non-runner at Newcastle. White Birch Farm's homebred Arc and G2 King Edward VII S. entry, who is related to the high-class Islington (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) and Greek Dance (Ire), hails from the John and Thady Gosden stable and meets Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum's Subastar (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), the Roger Varian-trained relative of Dubawi (Ire) who was third in the Listed Newmarket S. last month.

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Reach For The Moon Joins Heron S. Cast

The Queen's Reach For The Moon (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who will not point to the G1 Cazoo Derby, has been entered in Thursday's Listed Coral Heron S. at Sandown instead. A runner for John and Thady Gosden, the colt won the G3 Solario S. as a juvenile. He will face his stablemate, Cheveley Park Stud's imposing Group 1 winner Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}), in that contest.

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