Royal Applause

The former top-class sprinter and Royal Studs stallion Royal Applause (GB) has died at the age of 29.  The veteran made an increasingly major imprint on the breed in recent years, with his son Acclamation (GB) producing a number of top-notchers, including Equiano (Fr), Marsha (Ire), Expert Eye (GB), Harbour Watch (Ire), Aclaim (Ire), Mehmas (Ire) and Dark Angel (Ire). The last two named are now both very successful stallions in their own right. A son of Waajib (Ire), Royal Applause was a homebred of Maktoum Al Maktoum and he...

Near the entrance to The Royal Studs at Sandringham is a magnificent bronze commemorating the Prince of Wales's homebred Persimmon (GB) (St Simon {GB}), whose racing record highlights the fact that things were done a little differently back in the 1890s. Very differently, in fact. The Coventry S. winner of 1895 went on to win the Derby and the St Leger and, kept in training, he returned to Royal Ascot to win the Gold Cup, which had been his principal 4-year-old target. Exactly a century later, the horse who was...

Back in April, when major sporting events across the world were being cancelled left, right and centre, the management team at the Queen's racecourse took the decision that, if racing had resumed in time, Royal Ascot would go ahead behind closed doors. The announcement was met with incredulity in some quarters, particularly by those keen to blame the spread of coronavirus on the Cheltenham Festival, but thank goodness Ascot stuck to its resolve to go ahead, even in extraordinary circumstances. Of course the meeting lost some of its lustre, just...