The first Royal meeting since the monarch’s death will look much the same on the surface but will inevitably feel differentEven in the final years of her reign, when first the Covid epidemic and then failing health prevented Queen Elizabeth II from attending Royal Ascot in person, the late monarch was still a presence at her favourite course during the biggest week of its year. “Even though she wasn’t here last year, she was still at Windsor Castle and watching the whole affair,” Nick Smith, Ascot’s director of racing and public affairs, said this past week. “She did still feel very much part of the event.”The Royal meeting was often said to be the first – and most sacrosanct –...
Owners and trainers want the Italian on their horses but backers still remember his wretched time at last year’s meeting The announcement on Sunday that Desert Crown, last year’s Derby winner, would miss the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot next week after suffering a “minor setback” was a considerable disappointment for all concerned, not least since it arrived just 48 hours after his surge to clear favouritism for the showpiece event on Wednesday’s card following the news that Frankie Dettori had been booked for the ride.Since we only have the bookies’ word for it, it is, of course, entirely possible that the “gamble” on Desert Crown in the latter part of last week was more of a defensive...
Top-notch Australian sprinter Home Affairs may not have it his own way in Saturday’s big race – the Platinum Jubilee stakesRoyal Ascot’s first £1m race on Wednesday attracted just five runners but the second – Saturday’s Platinum Jubilee Stakes – has drawn a record field of 27, headed by the top-notch Australian sprinter, Home Affairs.Home Affairs is a stable companion of Nature Strip, Tuesday’s impressive King’s Stand Stakes winner, and beat him by a short-head over five furlongs at Flemington in February. Continue reading...
The Queen may not make it and the cost-of-living crisis could keep others away as meeting makes tweaks to boost bettingIt will be a case of something old, something new when an unrestricted crowd returns to Royal Ascot on Tuesday, 1,088 days after Cleonte and Silvestre de Sousa eased to a comfortable success in the Queen Alexandra Stakes on the last day of the meeting in 2019.No one could have imagined at the time that it would be the last race in front of a packed grandstand at the Royal meeting for three long years, and the returning fans and fashionistas will find much that is reassuringly familiar. Continue reading...
A misjudged strategy by the normally masterly Frankie Dettori scuppered the horse’s chances of a fourth triumph in this raceRacing history was denied in emphatic fashion at Royal Ascot when Stradivarius, the usually mighty chestnut, finished a disappointing fourth and missed out on becoming only the second horse to win the Gold Cup four times. In a strangely misjudged race by the normally masterly Frankie Dettori, the jockey and Stradivarius suffered. Stuck in heavy traffic on the rail at the home turn, they struggled to find the space to have a sustained crack at the impressive Subjectivist, who streaked home to win by five lengths.Stradivarius was almost 10 lengths behind with three furlongs to run and, from that position, victory...