Graham Dench casts his expert eye over the major races at Britain’s most prestigious meeting, which starts on Tuesday [June 17]
TUESDAY
The best five-day festival of racing anywhere in the world kicks off in sensational style on Tuesday with a top-loaded card featuring three G1 races.
The Queen Anne Stakes, the meeting’s traditional opener, is for four-year-olds and upwards and is run over Ascot’s straight mile. It has been won by some of the best milers ever, including the peerless Frankel, who was a spectacular 11-length winner in 2012.
There’s no Frankel in this year’s line-up, but it’s a strong field all the same, headed by the first four in last month’s G1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury – Lead Artist, Dancing Gemini, Rosallion and Notable Speech.
Lead Artist and Dancing Gemini have taken their form to a new level this year, but Rosallion is expected to improve considerably for that first run in 11 months and looks the one to beat if he returns in the same form as when winning the St James’s Palace Stakes here a year ago, when his old rival Notable Speech ran no sort of race.
However, there is clearly little between the leading domestic protagonists and it might pay to look outside the box with Carl Spackler, who was last seen gaining a third G1 win in the Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland for Chad Brown and will be racing for the first time for Australian trainer Ciaron Maher following his recent sale.
Carl Spackler has been the subject of good reports since arriving in Newmarket and overseas challengers tend to be overpriced here. Remember how the brilliant Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Tepin started at a generous 11-2 when winning the 2016 Queen Anne for Mark Casse, and Carl Spackler promises to start at much longer odds than that. As such, he rates an each-way selection.
The St James’s Palace Stakes – for three-year-olds and run over the very different round mile – was also won by Frankel, who came here after running riot in the 2,000 Guineas, and it’s the Newmarket Classic that holds the key again here.
The Godolphin winner Ruling Court was not expected to run here, but following his late withdrawal from the Derby on account of the ground we have a mouthwatering rematch with Guineas runner-up Field Of Gold, subsequently a highly impressive winner of the Irish equivalent. French Guineas winner Henri Matisse adds further lustre in a rare clash of all three of Europe’s principal Guineas winners.
Field Of Gold’s Newmarket defeat cost the Gosdens’ former retained rider Kieran Shoemark his job and the Juddmonte grey couldn’t have been more impressive at the Curragh. His sire Kingman followed an identical path – close second in the 2,000 Guineas, compensation in the Irish equivalent, impressive here – and so did Rosallion 12 months ago. The uphill finish will suit Field Of Gold and he is a strong fancy.
In between we have the five-furlong King Charles III Stakes in which the Australian mare Asfoora bids to repeat last year’s defeat of Regional in the first of the meeting's three G1 sprints.
Although the Aussies tend to be in a different league where speed is king, Asfoora hasn’t had the ideal preparation this year owing to logistical problems with her travel arrangements and it can pay to look elsewhere.
The Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Starlust has never looked quite so good on home territory and the one to be on is last year’s tough-as-teak fourth Believing, who repaid a big chunk of the three million guineas that Coolmore paid for her at the December Sales when winning the G1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan. She looked better than ever there and is now carrying to Frankel, no less, which could well be another positive as plenty of mares thrive on the track when in-foal.
WEDNESDAY
Day two features just one G1 event, the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, but it’s often the most keenly anticipated race of the week and this year’s renewal is well up to scratch.
No seven-year-old has won the race since it returned to the programme in 1968, but Anmaat ran the race of his life as a six-year-old when beating Calandagan in last October’s Champion Stakes over the same course and distance. The manner in which he cruised up to the race-fit Los Angeles on his reappearance at the Curragh before tiring close home suggests he has a good chance of turning the tables.
It is a shame the exciting Economics has had a little hiccup, but with Map Of Stars, Ombudsman, White Birch and supplementary entry See The Fire among the opposition this is still a cracking affair.
The US juvenile team at Royal Ascot won’t look the same in the absence of Wesley Ward but Wednesday sees the first of them in action.
Lennilu and Bibi Dahl, separated by almost four lengths when first and second in a Royal Ascot qualifier at Gulfstream last month, meet again in the opening G2 Queen Mary Stakes, once won in devastating fashion by Ward’s brilliant sprinter Lady Aurelia. The grey Lennilu, who won in terrific style, will be a first runner in Britain since 1989 for dual Arc winner Patrick Biancone.
THURSDAY
Day three is always Gold Cup day, and while long-distance horses might be out of fashion around the racing world they still provide one of Royal Ascot’s most enduring spectacles.
Aidan O’Brien has a stranglehold on the middle-distance and staying division, as he underlined at Epsom with an eleventh Derby, an eleventh Oaks, and a tenth Coronation Cup, and while dual Gold Cup winner Kyprios has recently retired he has no shortage of back-up, from whom he has chosen last month’s G2 Ormonde Stakes winner Illinois.
Illinois won the six-furlong shorter Queen’s Vase here a year ago before going desperately close in the St Leger, and he is understandably a short-priced favourite to give the stable a tenth win in the race. However, he will be in unknown territory over two and a half miles.
Trawlerman and Sweet William, second and third behind Kyprios last year, are proven stayers and will have their supporters, but the unexposed French challenger Candelari, who recently won a Prix Vicomtesse Vigier upgraded to G1 and is still on a steep upward curve, looks a more exciting prospect and is preferred.
The afternoon opens with the G2 Norfolk Stakes for two-year-olds over five furlongs, in which George Weaver saddles the other Gulfstream qualifier, Sandal’s Song, who will now carry the Wathnan colours and will be ridden by James McDonald.
Weaver, of course, won the Queen Mary two years ago with the Johnny Velazquez-ridden Crimson Advocate, who also earned her place with a Gulfstream win. However, while Sandal’s Song got away with a slow start to win well, he’ll need to be a lot sharper out of the gates against favourite Charles Darwin and some of the quickest juveniles in Britain and Ireland.
FRIDAY
News that Breeders’ Cup winner Lake Victoria is being rested after gaining a fourth G1 win in the Irish 1,000 Guineas appears to have left the door wide open for Zarigana, another Aga Khan-bred runner from the Candelari stable of Francis Graffard, who was awarded the French 1,000 Guineas after going down by a nose to Shes Perfect in a controversial finish.
French Guineas fourth Exactly stands in for Lake Victoria and Pretty Polly Stakes winner Falakeyah has been supplemented, but Zarigana will be hard to beat and is priced accordingly.
In the Commonwealth Cup last year’s champion European two-year-old Shadow Of Light drops back two furlongs to the distance of his four-length win in the G1 Middle Park Stakes, after which he completed a rare double by also landing the seven-furlong Dewhurst Stakes.
There was always a good chance he’d prove best at sprint distances at three, and the mile of the 2,000 Guineas clearly stretched him when he was third behind his stablemate Ruling Court on his return. He could well be a champion sprinter in waiting and is deservedly a hot favourite here.
There are plenty of each-way possibilities for those who don’t fancy taking short odds, headed by the classy Irish filly Babouche, who was also a G1 winner last year and has been second favourite here for some time.
An intriguing pair of supplementary entries added spice to the mix at the weekend. Chantilly winner Rayevka represents the Aga Khan Studs operation while US-trained G3 winner Shisospicy has the assistance of four-time champion jockey Oisin Murphy. With four career wins out of six – plus a second and a third – there may well be worse value options at around the 20-1 mark; she won’t lack for pace at the break, that’s for sure.
SATURDAY
Royal Ascot is one of the last remaining strongholds of the racing world still unconquered by Japan, but that could be about to change, appropriately enough in what is traditionally the most international of the meeting’s eight G1s – the six-furlong final day highlight, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes.
While Japan has enjoyed G1 success at other major British Festivals like Goodwood and Newmarket, it’s fair to say its record at Royal Ascot is fairly lamentable, with not one of its ten runners to date placing in the first three.
Satono Reve, however, has the credentials to make a big impact in a division that currently lacks a standout, having this year landed the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at Chukyo and finishing second to world #1 racehorse Ka Ying Rising – who was winning his twelfth successive race – in Hong Kong’s G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize. He reportedly impressed in a racecourse gallop at Newmarket last week.
There is no Australian challenger this time unless you count Storm Boy, who made an inauspicious start for Aidan O’Brien at the Curragh but is expected to strip much fitter here. He is following a similar to Starspangledbanner (O’Brien’s 2010 winner) and Merchant Navy (2018), who also first made their names down under.
Inisherin is probably the pick of the domestic team, but Kind Of Blue would clearly come right into the mix on last October’s course-and-distance win in the British Champions Sprint. The sprint division in France is traditionally weak, but Lazzat and Topgear both look live chances this year.
Graham Dench’s selections
Tuesday: Carl Spackler, Believing, Field Of Gold
Wednesday: Anmaat
Thursday: Candelari
Friday: Shadow Of Light, Zarigana
Saturday: Satono Reve