Royal Ascot | Horse Racing Free Tips

Ascot CEO Steps Down

Ascot Racecourse announced on Monday that Chief Executive, Vivien Currie, stood down from her position in order to return to Scotland for family reasons.

Sir Francis Brooke, chairman at Ascot, said, “We understand Vivien's decision and she leaves with our best wishes for the future.”

Ascot's Managing Director, Alastair Warwick, has been appointed Acting Chief Executive.

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Staying Superstar Stradivarius Retired To Stud

Stradivarius, the three-time Gold Cup winner and the undisputed champion stayer of his generation, has been retired to stud.

Trained by John and Thady Gosden, Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) won three Yorkshire Cups and two Doncaster Cups but will be best remembered for those epic Gold Cup triumphs at Ascot.

Owned by Bjorn Nielsen, who told TDN Europe about his intention to support the popular chestnut at stud upon his retirement, Stradivarius will join the roster at the National Stud.

The 8-year-old bows out from the game as an eight-time Group 1 winner who won 20 of his 35 starts and netted connections almost £3.5million in prize-money.

While he didn't manage to win at the top level this season, he won a the G2 Yorkshire Cup on his seasonal return, and was last seen chasing home the new kid on the block, Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), in the G1 Goodwood Cup.

Stradivarius was a late absentee in the Lonsdale Cup at York last month due to a bruised foot, with the horse taking longer than expected to recover from the problem.

“He has been trotting and cantering but it has taken longer to get over the bruised foot than we thought,” Nielsen said.

“We felt it would be unfair to ask him to come back again as a 9-year-old next season after his enforced time off.

“It has been a fairytale from start to finish. Until this setback he had never been medicated and had never missed an engagement through injury.”

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Syndicate Pioneer Henry Ponsonby Passes At 74

Syndicate ownership pioneer Henry Ponsonby has passed away. He was 74. His white and red silks were carried to victory in the Ebor and Cesarwitch handicaps, among others. In 2020, Ponsonby celebrated a Royal Ascot double with Scarlet Dragon (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}) and Hollie Doyle in the Duke Of Edinburgh S. and then took the Queen Alexandra S. with Who Dares Wins (Ire) (Jeremy) and Tom Marquand.

Eve Johnson Houghton, who trained Scarlet Dragon for Ponsonby, said, “My first job in racing was working in Henry's office and in those days he had horses with dad [Fulke Johnson Houghton].

“He was larger than life, and all the way through he was a good winner as well as being a good loser. He supported me from day one when I took out a licence 15 years ago. To all his trainers he was always on the phone, and would call me up to four times a day.

“He's a huge loss to racing, and I would use two words to sum him up–irrepressible and unreplaceable.”

She added, “Before racing [on Friday] I got together with Alan King and Nicky Henderson and we all had a big boohoo.”

Added Derby-winning trainer Paul Cole, “We were together as good friends right from the start in the early 80s and I set him up to run syndicates for me. It was for selfish reasons really, but it all worked out. I can't remember how many good little horses he had but there were a lot of them, and then he went forward on his own.

“In those early days we were big friends with no worries. He had a wonderful sense of humour and everything was an adventure to him. He enjoyed everything he did, and put everything into it.

“Some of the stories should be spared from the print, but I remember in the early days at Whatcombe we put him on a fat filly and told him to trot her outside. As he was doing that the fog came down and we went to breakfast and forgot about him. It was only half an hour later that we realised he was missing, and had to send a search party to find him.”

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Amo Racing Lose Norfolk Appeal

Amo Racing's appeal against the victory of The Ridler (GB) (Brazen Beau {Aus}) in the G2 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot has been dismissed, despite the fact that Paul Hanagan's ride aboard the winner was described by the disciplinary panel as being “poor, reprehensible and self-evidently culpable”.

The Ridler, trained by Richard Fahey, caused interference to Crispy Cat (GB) (Ardad {Ire}) and Brave Nation (Ire) (Sioux Nation), who finished third and fourth in that order for owners Amo Racing and Brian Goodyear, respectively. Amo Racing's Walbank (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) ran second and was unimpeded by the winner's erratic passage.

The stewards on the day suspended Hanagan for 10 days for careless riding in the Norfolk, however, the appeals panel rejected the case presented to them by Amo's Kia Joorabchian.

Amo argued that The Ridler should be disqualified or demoted for causing interference to the placed horses.

The written reasons that accompanied the decision said, “Mr. Hanagan's riding performance in the race was poor, reprehensible and self-evidently culpable.

“His inattention and misjudgement were not defensible. He is a jockey of huge experience [with approaching 17,000 rides and 2,200 winners behind him] and should have done much better.

“It was a bad, high-level instance of careless riding and he entirely deserved a suspension of real substance.

“An essential point to emphasise, however, is that at the end of the day we do conclude that what happened did properly fall into the category of careless riding; and not just simply because, under the regulations in this country, it is probable that no other categorisation is in fact possible.

“In the panel's view the prospect of Crispy Cat having won, absent the interference, was slim in all the circumstances to which we have referred.

“That said, we have in any event in the course of explaining our rationale expressed our view as to the ease with which The Ridler won the race.”

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