Field Of Gold

Godolphin's G1 Prince Of Wales's Stakes hero Ombudsman (Night Of Thunder) has been awarded a mark of 130 by Timeform for his efforts at Royal Ascot on Wednesday. He is now the highest-rated older horse in Europe, with Jan Brueghel (Galileo) and Goliath (Adlerflug) both at a mark of 128. Almaqam (Lope De Vega) is rated 126, as is White Birch (Ulysses). The Aga Khan's Calandagan (Gleneagles) is rated 127. Timeform handicapper Rory King said, "Ombudsman might have lost his unbeaten record in the Brigadier Gerard but that still represented...

With the exception of Ballydoyle's hot prospect 2-year-old Albert Einstein, there are no key figures missing from Royal Ascot's opening card on Tuesday and the scene is set for the first of the week's moments of truth. With the St James's Palace featuring the winners of the 2,000 Guineas, Irish 2,000 Guineas and "French 2,000 Guineas" and the Queen Anne boasting all the elite milers of Europe and a bit extra, the standard has been met again in the year which celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Royal Procession. From...

Tuesday, Royal Ascot, post time: 14:30, QUEEN ANNE STAKES-G1, £793,625, 4yo/up, 8fT Field: Cairo (Ire) (Quality Road), Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), Dancing Gemini (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), Diego Velazquez (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), Docklands (GB) (Massaat {Ire}), Lake Forest (GB) (No Nay Never), Lead Artist (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), Quddwah (GB) (Kingman {GB}), Rosallion (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}), Sardinian Warrior (Ire) (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}). TDN Verdict: This could be a case of take the Lockinge form and throw it in the air to see where...

NEWMARKET, UK -- Colin Keane, Juddmonte's newly retained jockey, has wasted no time in familiarising himself with one of his leading mounts for Royal Ascot and was in Newmarket on Wednesday morning to ride Lead Artist for the first time ahead of Tuesday's Queen Anne Stakes. The four-year-old son of Dubawi, last seen winning the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury, stretched out on the July Course in company with Wathnan Racing's Torito (Kingman) and Kieran O'Neill. The latter is an intended runner in the Wolferton Stakes. "He was very good in...

Sprinkled among the 42 entries for the Aug. 17 G1 Aga Khan Studs Prix Jacques le Marois are a trio from Japan for the first time. Sunday's G1 Yasuda Kinen hero Jantar Mantar (Palace Malice) anchors that trio, with fellow Group 1 winner Ascoli Piceno (Daiwa Major) signed on, as well as longshot Go To First (Rulership). Hailing from the stable of the sponsor is G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches heroine Zarigana (Siyouni), Zabiari (Wootton Bassett), and G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains fifth Ridari (Churchill). The late Aga Khan IV...

NEWMARKET, UK - In the words of John Gosden, a "humdinger" of a Queen Anne Stakes awaits those in attendance for the opening day of Royal Ascot, with Lead Artist appearing primed to spearhead a two-pronged attack from Clarehaven Stables after the son of Dubawi enjoyed a getting-to-know-you exercise with Colin Keane at the July Course on Wednesday morning. With the trainer no longer having to ruminate on jockey arrangements for the Juddmonte bluebloods in his care, the attentions of the press pack swiftly switched to challenges outside of Gosden's...

Colin Keane has accepted the role of retained rider for Juddmonte Farms, according to a report by the Irish Field on Sunday. Keane, who was crowned Ireland's champion Flat jockey for a sixth time in 2024, has been based with County Meath trainer Ger Lyons for much of his career, an association which has already yielded plenty of big-race success in the familiar Juddmonte silks with horses such as Siskin, winner of the Irish 2,000 Guineas in 2020, and Babouche, who was successful in last year's G1 Phoenix Stakes. Last month...

Nine years after Almanzor dropped a massive hint that Wootton Bassett might just be a decent sire by winning the Prix du Jockey Club comes the next wave for the stallion whose fee has gone from as low as €4,000 to this year's high of €300,000.  As has been well documented, Wootton Bassett's current crop of three-year-olds are the result of his first season standing at Coolmore in Ireland after one of the biggest transfer deals of recent years saw him leave Haras d'Etreham, where he had made his name...

Breeders Bobby and Honora Donworth on what an Irish 2,000 Guineas triumph means to the team at Roundhill Stud Relief rather than unbridled joy was the first emotion that came to proud breeders Bobby and Honora Donworth, who have opened up on what they have labelled as a 'rollercoaster' of emotion in the build-up to Field Of Gold's emphatic triumph in Saturday's Irish 2,000 Guineas.  The team at Roundhill Stud in County Limerick, one of the most esteemed nurseries of equine talent Ireland has to offer, admitted to having been...

Poor old Kingman, eh? It was his bad luck to pitch up at Banstead Manor Stud in the year that all the fuss was about Frankel's first yearlings. Much of the interest in the intervening decade has been about Frankel, too, but that hasn't stopped Kingman laying down his own markers in achievement at stud, highlighted this past weekend with a one-two in the Irish 2,000 Guineas via Field Of Gold and Cosmic Year.  They are not by any means his first star performers - Persian King first held that...

There are few around that would accept that Field Of Gold was second-best three weeks ago despite the formbook stating so and on The Curragh's conventional track on Saturday Juddmonte's elite performer has the chance to put matters right in the G1 Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas. While Godolphin's admirable Ruling Court is not here, there could be a case to be made that the real star of the Newmarket Classic is. The Gosdens found his defeat there hard to take, which is backed up by the sectionals, and like his...

Colin Keane says that he is delighted to have been chosen to partner Field Of Gold in Saturday's Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh. John and Thady Gosden have gone with the Irish champion jockey rather than Kieran Shoemark, who partnered the Juddmonte-owned colt to finish second in the 2,000 Guineas.  Keane has already tasted Classic glory in the famous Juddmonte silks, having won the Irish 2,000 Guineas on Siskin for Lyons in 2020 and when he was booked by Ralph Beckett for Westover in the Irish Derby in...