Royal Ascot

Gordon Elliott is readying a three-pronged attack on Royal Ascot, headed by Triumph Hurdle third Pied Piper (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), who has the option of running in the Ascot S. or the Copper Horse S.  He may be best known for sending out big-race winners over obstacles, but Elliott has a terrific record at the royal meeting and has won the Queen Alexandra Stakes with Commissioned (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}) (2016) and Pallasator (GB) (Motivator {GB}) (2018). What's more impressive is that Elliott has only ever run seven horses at...

The well-established team of Wesley Ward and Irad Ortiz Jr. will joins forces for the upcoming Royal meeting, which begins June 14. Ward, who became the first American-based trainer to saddle a winner at the Royal Ascot in 2009, confirmed that Ortiz will partner all five of his contenders next week. A three-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey in the U.S., the Puerto Rican native will be making is debut at the meet. "He's won all over in America and he's just a phenomenal rider who rides with extreme patience," explained Ward....

David Marnane has warned that MRC International, the syndicate behind Tuesday's impressive Tipperary scorer Lady Tilbury (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}), are only just getting started and have much more to look forward to than the Royal Ascot-bound speedster.  Lady Tilbury is just the type you need for the Queen Mary S., according to Marnane, who revealed that of the 19 juveniles that the recently-formed syndicate own, some of the best have yet to grace the track.  No stranger to success at the royal meeting having managed Dandy Boy (Ity) (Danetime)...

In winning her maiden by almost ten lengths on debut at Keeneland, Queen Mary favourite Love Reigns (Ire) (US Navy Flag) tore to shreds what many people thought possible for an unraced 2-year-old filly in the month of April. There would have been more competition had Real Madrid taken to the field against a bunch of schoolboys such was the authority of the display. Love Reigns burst into the lead from stall one, powered home to win unchallenged, and the clock backed up what filled the eye. Not even Golden...

Godolphin's 2021 G1 Cazoo Derby winner Adayar (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) will miss a start in Royal Ascot's G1 Prince Of Wales's S. in June, trainer Charlie Appleby confirmed. A minor setback had forced the 4-year-old to skip his planned seasonal bow in the June 3 G1 Coronation Cup S. The G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. victor requires more time to fully come right, and Appleby did not divulge the colt's next start. "The team at Moulton Paddocks have decided to bypass Royal Ascot with Adayar," Appleby tweeted...

Is it just me or do you remember what you ate at Royal Ascot almost as much as the horses who won? The pre-match picnics and asparagus rolled in soggy brown bread, picking flies out of warm Champagne, dribbling mint-choc-chip down a once-a-year waistcoat and forgetting about it until the following June, smuggling yourself into a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend's box in time for a swollen-footed tea, then ricocheting across Car Park One from gazebo to car-boot for ever more misguided imbibements; and, eventually, the agonising walk into a service station on the...

William Haggas is hopeful that Maljoom (Ire) (Caravaggio) can make the jump from German Classic winner to Royal Ascot hero when the colt lines out in the St James's Palace S. next month. Maljoom provided Haggas with his third success in the G2 Mehl-Mulhens-Rennen at Cologne on Sunday, following on from Dupont (2002) and Brunel (2004), and the trainer is optimistic that there will be more to come from the colt.  Ridden by Stevie Donohoe, Maljoom was winning his third race from as many starts and, according to Haggas, is...

Only Choisir (Aus) and Blue Point (Ire) have managed to win the King's Stand and the Platinum Jubilee in the same year but Eddie Lynam has opened the door to his Group 1-winning sprinter Romantic Proposal (Ire) (Raven's Pass) emulating those legendary speedsters at Royal Ascot next month and is eyeing an audacious tilt at the double. Romantic Proposal showed blistering speed in winning the G1 Flying Five S. at the Curragh last season and, despite treating the Listed Woodlands S. at Naas like a piece of work on her...

King Power Racing's Group 1 winner Winter Power (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}) has exited her eighth-place finish in the G2 Temple S. at Haydock in good order and is still targeting the G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot, according to trainer Tim Easterby. Successful in the G1 Nunthorpe S. last term, she was unplaced in both the G1 Flying Five S. at the Curragh in September and at ParisLongchamp in the Oct. 3 G1 Prix de l'Abbaye. Easterby is putting her performance down to a lack of conditioning and...

G1 QIPCO 1000 Guineas winner Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}) is pleasing Highclere Racing's Managing Director Harry Herbert in advance of the G1 Coronation S. at Royal Ascot. The 'TDN Rising Star' is poised to face the electric G1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas victress Homeless Songs (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) in the race. After taking the G3 Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn S. last month, she ran out a neck winner in the Guineas and was second by a head to Mangoustine (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}) in the G1 Emirates Poule d'Essai des...

James Horton, who made a dazzling start to his training career with a treble at Redcar on Easter Monday, is now focusing his attention on saddling his first runners at Royal Ascot. A former assistant to Sir Michael Stoute in Newmarket, Horton is now training at John and Jess Dance's Manor House Farm stables in Middleham. He plans to run Sunday's York sprint winner Asjad (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) at the Royal meeting as well as  the G2 July S. third Sam Maximus (GB) (Showcasing {GB}). "The Wokingham is the plan...

Ado McGuinness is predicting that his star sprinter A Case Of You (Ire) (Hot Streak {Ire}) will raise his game at Royal Ascot after the dual Group 1 winner was beaten in the Group 2 Greenlands S. at the Curragh on Saturday.  A Case Of You, winner of the Prix de l'Abbaye at Paris Longchamp last season, got his season off to brilliant start when adding to his Group 1 tally when landing the Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan in March but could only manage third behind Brad The Brief...