Rashabar Sets New World Pool Record With Coventry Win

Rashabar (Ire) rewarded World Pool punters with a Win dividend of 129.90 when landing Tuesday's G2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, identifying him as the highest-priced winner of any World Pool race since it was launched in 2019.

World Pool paid nearly 50 points more than the 80-1 SP returned by Rashabar, who also helped Billy Loughnane to open up a commanding advantage in the World Pool Jockeys' Championship with his Coventry win. Riding his first Royal Ascot winners this week, Loughnane claimed 129.90 points for his success on Rashabar and a further 19.65 aboard Sandringham winner Soprano (Ire).

The leading rider after the final World Pool raceday on British Champions Day at Ascot will receive £50,000 to donate to a charity of their choice.

“I'm delighted to be leading the World Pool Jockeys' Championship after Royal Ascot,” said the 18-year-old Loughnane. “Winning the Coventry on Rashabar was a dream come true and then to win the Sandringham on Soprano for George [Boughey] and Highclere was incredible.

“It's a great initiative by World Pool to donate £50,000 to charity and if I am still in front on Champions Day, then I'll be donating it to the Christy Lambe Foundation, which is a charity very close to my heart.”

Elsewhere at the meeting, Gold Cup Day saw the highest turnover of the week at HK$298.2m (£30.1m)–more than any other World Pool day this year–while pools of at least HK$269.6m (£27.2m) were recorded for each of the five days.

Total turnover for World Pool bet types on the week came in at HK$1426.1m (£144m). The highest turnover race of the week was Saturday's G3 Jersey Stakes, which was up on 2023 by 20% to hit HK$52.1m (£5.25m).