With eight G1 events among a total of 18 Group races altogether, it is surely little surprise that Royal Ascot had a major effect on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings.
The star of the show came early on the first of five days, as the brilliant Field Of Gold (#4 from #26, +207pt) comprehensively righted the wrong of his 2,000 Guineas defeat with an emphatic 3½-length victory under Juddmonte’s new retained rider Colin Keane (#35 from #36, +16pt) in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
The charismatic grey is rapidly becoming public property – and the son of Kingman’s place in the world top five means he is now the highest-ranked three-year-old on the planet.
Having won the Irish 2,000 Guineas on his previous start, the son of Kingman was never in any danger as he exploded clear off a strong gallop two furlongs out to beat fellow Classic winners Henri Matisse and Ruling Court. The latter’s Newmarket success looks even more fortunate now than it did at the time.
“That was a great performance,” said John Gosden, who trains Field Of Gold in partnership with his son Thady.
“Look, he is a pleasure to train because he’s a pretty laid-back character, which is very useful. It was never the plan to go to Ireland, it became the plan, so he’s had a trial, two Guineas and this. It’s a lot of racing and we’re not even beginning to be halfway through the season.”
The Sussex Stakes is next on the agenda, with a step up to a mile and a quarter likely in August for the Juddmonte International, sponsored by Field Of Gold’s owners.
The Gosden team (stay at #7, +101pt) enjoyed a fantastic week with five winners; the father-and-son team won the top trainer award by virtue of more second places than world #1 Aidan O’Brien, who also had five winners.
“Our week started very strongly with the right races,” said John Gosden. “Everyone working at home had the horses spot-on, and they have run very well since, finishing second and third and second and third, and that of course counts towards winning this when you are at five winners with Aidan O’Brien. But there is nothing like this meeting, it is our Olympics, and it is great to win this.”
Wednesday continued where Tuesday had left off for the Gosdens, for whom Ombudsman (#60 from #668, +389pt) looks an outstanding performer after displaying an exhilarating turn of foot under William Buick (stays at #4, +28pt) to win the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. Making his G1 debut, the Godolphin four-year-old had a couple of lengths to spare over Anmaat (#65 from #74, +26pt).
“William wasn’t in a position where he could swing around the field; it was more a case of waiting for the gap,” said Gosden. “And he was very patient, but I knew when he got a gap at the furlong pole, that this horse has an extraordinary turn of foot. So he was patient and he was rewarded.
“Ombudsman is a mile-and-a-quarter horse,” the trainer added. “He is a horse who, because he hasn’t over-raced this year, you could be looking at the Eclipse with.”
With supreme stayer Kyprios now retired, it was left to the veteran Trawlerman (#28 from #137, +229pt) to claim Gosden’s fifth triumph in Royal Ascot’s signature race, the Gold Cup. This was Godolphin and Buick again, as the seven-year-old ran his rivals ragged in a track-record performance on fast ground.
It wasn’t quite such a glorious week for Godolphin’s principal trainer Charlie Appleby, but at least he had something to celebrate on Saturday’s card when hardy annual Rebel’s Romance (#7 from #10, +58pt) saved his blushes with another high-profile victory in the G2 Hardwick Stakes.
No wonder the utterly reliable seven-year-old is such a stable favourite; Appleby, ending a three-year drought at Britain’s premier meeting, described the gelding as a “worldwide superstar”.
He added: “I’ve got a picture of this fellow on my bedside table. He means that much to us all.”
Rebel’s Romance has now won 18 of 26 career starts – seven of them G1s, plus two editions of the richly endowed Amir’s Trophy in Qatar – and stands third on the all-time list of British prize-money earners behind Thunder Snow and Mishriff. He has won races in the UK, the US, Germany, Hong Kong, Dubai and Qatar.
A bid for a third victory int he Breeders’ Cup Turf is his ultimate target, with a crack at the King George first.
Familiar names had their moments in the Royal Ascot sun – Aidan O’Brien (stays at #1, +51pt), for example, unleashed a string of impressive two-year-olds headed by three-length Coventry Stakes winner Gstaad and Norfolk Stakes winner Charles Darwin.
Ryan Moore (stays at #1, +19pt) was top jockey with seven wins; he has won the award 12 times. The world-leading rider reached another significant landmark this week with his 300th week overall at the head of TRC Rankings for jockeys.
However, the Coolmore/Ballydoyle combine suffered a rare G1 blank at Royal Ascot – unlike the less exalted Harry Eustace (#234 from #498, +83pt), who registered a remarkable double at the meeting at the top level.
Despite visiting Aussie jockey Mark Zahra (#28 from #29, +23pt) dropping his whip, Ascot specialist Docklands (#85 from #1126, +441pt) touched off Rosallion (#93 from #108, +21pt) to go one better than last year in the Queen Anne Stakes, the traditional curtain-raiser on Tuesday’s card. The five-year-old had also won the Britannia Handicap at Royal Ascot in 2023.
“I have lost my voice, I am afraid; that was pretty sweet,” said Eustace after recording the first G1 success of his career.
“It was tough watching, and the photo was tough. I wasn't happy with the pace early on; Docklands did his usual thing, just stepped slow and I was cursing him to be honest, but he is just an absolute star.
“He has been an absolute legend for us and, if ever there was a track where you'd want a horse that's a specialist, it's here because it is the best racing.”
After landing his first G1 success, in a notable case of the ‘London bus syndrome’, Eustace had to wait only three days for his second victory as Time For Sandals (#116 from #977, +357pt) landed a 25-1 shock in the Commonwealth Cup on Friday.
Mind you, there was an even bigger shock in the G1 Coronation Stakes two races later as Irish trainer Joe Murphy landed by far the most important success of a long career with 33-1 longshot Cercene (#170 from #1150, +320pt).
Both Murphy and jockey Gary Carroll had never before enjoyed G1 success – and neither had Jim Goldie, another veteran, who had claimed the G1 King Charles III Stakes (former King’s Stand) with American Affair on Tuesday.
Japan is still waiting for its first Royal Ascot winner after top sprinter Satono Reve (#17 from #23, +44pt) failed by a half-length to run down French-trained Lazzat (returns at #15) in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, the final G1 event of the eight.
Lazzat carried the already familiar silks of rising force Wathnan Racing (#16 from #23, +55pt). The Emir of Qatar’s team have made Royal Ascot a priority, and they made their mark in no uncertain terms with five winners in five days. Indeed, they were beaten to the leading owner title only by Coolmore, who had more second places.
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• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques. Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.