Get Ready For A Hootenanny
Wesley Ward’s beaming smile has already graced Royal Ascot’s winner’s circle this week courtesy of “The Aeroplane” Acapulco (Scat Daddy) in Wednesday’s G2 Queen Mary S., and the Florida-based conditioner offers up last year’s Listed Windsor Castle S. hero Hootenanny (Quality Road) in the inaugural rendition of the G1 Commonwealth Cup. Edged out of G1 Prix Morny glory by the now-retired The Wow Signal (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) when backing up his Royal Ascot triumph at Deauville in August, the bay registered a career high and closed his freshman campaign when annexing the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf stretching out to a mile at Santa Anita in October. He confirmed he had a wheel in each corner when easily landing a 5 1/2 furlong Keeneland allowance test on seasonal comeback last time Apr. 18, and gets the assistance of Acapulco’s partner Ryan Moore in this sophomores’ sprint. “Since he won the Breeders’ Cup last year, I’ve been pointing for this race,” Ward said. “Of all of them that I brought over last year he thrived, he took it in his stride and took everything right. He’s had only one start since he won the Breeders’ Cup when he won at Keeneland in preparation for this. He’s had plenty of time to get ready and every workout in the mornings has been better than the last so I’m really looking forward to it.”
There is also a pair of intriguing contests within a contest as regular foes battle to earn bragging rights. Anthem Alexander (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) bagged round one on the judges’ cards when besting Tiggy Wiggy (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) in the G2 Queen Mary S. here last year, but was down on points after subsequent reversals to that rival in York’s G2 Lowther S. and the G1 Cheveley Park S. at Newmarket. She returned this term to take out the G3 Lacken S. at Naas at the beginning of this month and will enter this ring in fine fettle. “She came out of the [Naas] race very good and I’m very happy with her,” revealed trainer Edward Lynam. “The soft ground was not ideal at Naas and that was nothing like her best form, but my horses usually improve for a run. I definitely expect improvement from her and fast ground would be in her favor. She’s the guts of 500 kilograms and a very big, strong filly. She’s taken everything in her stride. I was never tempted to try stepping her up to mile and, given that we preferred to stay at home in Ireland for her first start of the campaign, the Naas race was the first opportunity over six furlongs that was available to her.” Tiggy Wiggy disappointed, despite finishing third, in the G3 Fred Darling S. at Newbury in her campaign opener and confounded the experts by gaining a measure of redemption when stretching beyond her limit and hitting the board in the May 3 G1 1000 Guineas at Newmarket. This event has been the long-term plan and she drops back to what is probably her optimum trip. “We are looking forward to running Tiggy Wiggy in the Commonwealth Cup; it has always been her prime target and, though she ran an absolute blinder in the 1000 Guineas, it was only her class and courage that enabled her to finish third,” trainer Richard Hannon explained. “We had nothing to lose by trying the mile, but sprinting is her forte and dropping back to six furlongs will suit her well. She looks a million dollars and you would not think she is the same filly from last season. It is a very hot race, but I would not swap her for anything.”
Limato (Ire) (Tagula {Ire}), the latest speedball to drop off Henry Candy’s conveyor belt, had the measure of last year’s G2 Coventry S. eighth Adaay (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) in the July 18 Listed Rose Bowl S. and Apr. 29 G3 Pavilion S. over this strip, but lost his perfect record when giving best to the William Haggas trainee in the G2 Sandy Lane S. at Haydock three weeks ago. “He didn’t run a bad race at Haydock, but he wasn’t quite himself and I put that down entirely to the ground,” explained Candy. “We walked the [Haydock] track and it was definitely good-to-soft and quite sticky, but the faster the ground the better. He’s one of those extraordinary horses that really wouldn’t mind galloping on tarmac. One thing that does concern me is, with the passage of time, some of these other colts are going to progress physically more than he is. He does look fairly insignificant, but the fact remains that on the evidence of his first run this year at Ascot, and to a lesser degree at Haydock, he still has that amazing engine. He was more exuberant in his work last year as a 2-year-old, but he’s a more mature creature now and is quite careful what he does.”
Adaay progressed from his defeat in the Pavilion to annex Newbury’s Listed Carnarvon S. last month at the expense of Jungle Cat (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}), which proved the perfect prep for his breakthrough score in the Sandy Lane.
Cyclogenisis (Stormy Atlantic), supplemented for this after retaining his unbeaten record trying Tapeta for the first time in the May 18 Listed Tom Ridge S. at Presque Isle Downs on seasonal return, is the number two Stateside challenger here and becomes a first Royal Ascot runner for Louisville native George Weaver.