The day in a nutshell
The Diamond Jubilee is the highlight on the final day of Royal Ascot, with Britain’s best six-furlong sprinter Harry Angel attempting to hold off Merchant Navy from the all-conquering Ballydoyle yard, Australian speedball Redkirk Warrior, Wesley Ward’s American powerhouse Bound For Nowhere and the winners of last year’s two open Group 1s over the course and distance – The Tin Man and Librisa Breeze.
If that makes it seem like arguably the deepest and most competitive Group 1 of the entire meeting, that is exactly how it was meant to hit the eye. The race shines bright on a day the sport faces stiff competition from the World Cup and the culmination of rugby’s summer Test series in the southern hemisphere – both of which will struggle to produce 70-odd seconds of such explosive and exhilarating action.
The two-year-olds kick things off on a card that features a pair of Listed juvenile races, the seven-furlong Chesham and the Windsor Castle over five furlongs. They sandwich the Sir Michael Stoute benefit, formally known as the Hardwicke, while the card is rounded off with two fascinating races – the Wokingham, which is one of the world’s toughest betting heats, and the longest Flat race of the entire season, the Queen Alexandra. It is a day that has it all.
The need for speed
This year’s Diamond Jubilee has everything conspiring to offer the racing tribe any number of camps in which to pitch their tent and vociferously defend their selection.
Those who nail their colours to the Harry Angel mast will point to his twin wins in the July Cup, by a length and a quarter, and the Sprint Cup, by a staggering four lengths. Those opposed will no doubt raise his four defeats in four visits to the track, with three seconds and a fourth in the British Champions Sprint.
Both will believe their case outweighs the other, with those inclined to take on the favourite faced with the difficult task of deciding who then to support with their hard-earned.
First stop on the journey down the betting market from Harry Angel is Merchant Navy, the former Australian-based sprinter brought to Europe by the Aidan O’Brien team.
They have had plenty of success in the past with such types – Starspangledbanner, the 2010 winner of this race, springs to mind – and he was impressive in the Group 2 Greenlands Stakes on his first start for the yard.
With him one big question becomes: is the move to Ballydoyle worth at least the neck he was beaten by the reopposing Redkirk Warrior in the Group 1 Lexus Newmarket Handicap at Flemington in March?
Many would say yes, but they line up here off levels whereas Merchant Navy was in receipt of 12lb that day. O’Brien is good, but is he really that good?
Another, not unrelated question in relation to the O’Brien colt, raises a conundrum: when is a three-year-old a four-year-old?
In the southern hemisphere, the universal birthday for thoroughbreds is August 1, and this can be problematic when a three-year-old from either hemisphere runs against older horses in the opposite hemisphere.
Merchant Navy was born on November 14, 2014, and is thus considered a four-year-old in the northern hemisphere, even though he appears as a three-year-old on the Racing Post card.
Had he been born just six weeks later, in 2015, he would have been treated as a northern hemisphere three-year-old and would therefore not have been eligible for the Diamond Jubilee.
All of that makes Redkirk Warrior rather appealing, and most of Australia’s racing contingent were up in arms when Harry Angel was proclaimed the best around after his comeback win in the Duke of York. They believe in their boy and anyone hailing from that part of the world with an interest in the Turf will tell you he is seriously fast.
But Black Caviar proved just how difficult it is to travel halfway around the world and peak on the day – it was enough to put the Winx camp off a far easier task – and even if Redkirk Warrior confirms form with Merchant Navy and gets the better of Harry Angel there is last year’s winner and the British Champions Sprint hero to contend with.
And that is before we mention last-time-out winners City Light, D’bai and Sir Dancealot, and those who have been finishing just in behind those already mentioned: Projection, Spirit Of Valor and Intelligence Cross. It all makes for a fascinating race.
Group 1 horse in the making
The Diamond Jubilee is not the only place to see a potential Group 1 animal, because three of Aidan O’Brien’s last four runners in the Chesham have gone on to win at that level and the other, last year’s winner September, has more than proved herself up to that standard.
She was beaten just a nose by Laurens in last year’s Fillies’ Mile and looks a Group 1 winner in the making should she make it back to the track this year.
This year O’Brien runs Cardini, who is arguably even more intriguing owing to his rather dismal form figures of 85.
O’Brien does not bring horses to Ascot just to have a runner and big things were expected on his debut when sent off favourite in a hot race at the Curragh. He brings just about the worst form into the race and yet is one of the most interesting runners on the card.
Can Ward storm the Castle again?
Once again Wesley Ward has proved a star when it comes to targeting the two-year-old contests and his Moonlight Romance heads the betting for the Windsor Castle.
In 2009 it was the first race at the royal meeting Ward ever won, back when it was the closing race on the Tuesday, and having taken his tally into double figures earlier this week he will be hoping Moonlight Romance can join Strike The Tiger and Hootenanny on the Windsor Castle honour roll.
Strike The Tiger arrived with a Churchill Downs maiden claimer to his name, while Hootenanny won a special weight maiden at Keeneland and then finished third in a Listed race at Pimlico.
Like Hootenanny, Moonlight Romance started in a Keeneland special weight maiden, but unlike Hootenanny she was beaten. However, that two-and-a-quarter-length defeat came at the hands of Shang Shang Shang, who beat the colts over five furlongs in Thursday’s Norfolk, so that form seems up to standard. She then won a similar contest at Belmont by five and a half lengths.
Top pair seeking further success
No trainer has saddled more winners at Royal Ascot than Sir Michael Stoute, who surpassed Sir Henry Cecil earlier this week and then almost immediately added to his tally.
A whopping ten of those have come in the Hardwicke Stakes, and Stoute has an excellent chance of bumping up those numbers with Crystal Ocean, who is heavy odds-on for this year’s renewal.
Victory would help Ryan Moore in his battle with Frankie Dettori, the meeting’s all-time most successful jockey, as Moore goes in search of an eighth top jockey title in nine years.
The meeting’s two premier riders are locked in a ding-dong battle for top honours, but not for the crowd’s affections, with Dettori whipping them into a fever after Stradivarius’s Gold Cup win.
Racing’s most popular jockey has three chances on the final day – Kessaar in the Windsor Castle, Redkirk Warrior in the Diamond Jubilee and Undrafted in the Wokingham – compared to Moore’s six that start with Cardini and take in Crystal Ocean, Van Beethoven, Merchant Navy, Tupi and Thomas Hobson.
A first for Tizzard
Three months on from winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Native River, Colin Tizzard saddles his first Royal Ascot runner in Tempestatefloresco, who tackles the Queen Alexandra Stakes – and he confesses to being in the dark.
He said: “We don’t know what we’re letting ourselves in for really. When we schooled him we even had to oil the starting stalls because we hadn’t used them for a while.”
But Tizzard feels his ten-year-old fits the bill, and said: “We’ve talked about it a couple of times and we’re not against having a couple on the Flat. He stays well and loves it firm.
“The race has had a few jumps horses in it, so we thought we’d dip our toe in. We’ll put on our toppers and tails, go up there as a family and enjoy the occasion.”
It’s worth noting that 33-1 shot Tempestatefloresco does have something of a Royal Ascot heritage, sire Storming Home having won the King Edward VII in 2001.
At the sharp end of the market, Thomas Hobson is a short-priced favourite, and last year’s Ascot Stakes winner and Queen Alexandra second is surely primed for his first start since the Melbourne Cup.
He runs for Willie Mullins who, like Tizzard, is also better known as a jumps trainer. But Mullins is already on the Ascot scoreboard this week and has won the curtain-closer twice in the last six years.
The away action is not too bad either
Ascot is the biggest show in town, but not the only show, with no fewer than eight other fixtures in Britain and Ireland, most notably the Ulster Derby and Oaks meeting at Down Royal.
At €100,000, the Magners Ulster Derby is worth only a little bit less than three of the races at Royal Ascot, and among those vying for the prize are Well Why Not, who has won her last two, and the reopposing Remmy D and City Ballerina, with the former on 6lb worse terms for a length-and-a quarter victory at the Curragh last time.
