Royal Ascot

Passed over by Frankie Dettori and one of the outsiders for Thursday's G2 Ribblesdale S., Loving Dream (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}) who carries the colours of Trevor Harris's Lordship Stud nevertheless held the John and Thady Gosden stable's bragging rights as she showed admirable toughness to upgrade her profile. Sent forward from her wide draw by Robert Havlin and avoiding the scrimmaging between keen-going fillies toward the rail as a result, the 18-1 shot stayed out of trouble tracking the leader Dubai Fountain (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) throughout the early stages. Committed...

Impressive both visually and on the clock when off the mark over this five-furlong trip at Hamilton eight days previously, Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum's Perfect Power (Ire) (Ardad {Ire}) delivered the same acceleration to take Thursday's G2 Norfolk S. and provide his Overbury Stud-based first-season sire with a first black-type winner. Drawn in 10 and forced to come up the middle which had looked unfavourable over the first two days, the Richard Fahey-trained £110,000 Goffs UK Breeze Up graduate was outpaced and towards rear at halfway in this GII...

   It's Thursday at Royal Ascot, which can only mean that it's time for Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) with the Gosden titan now bidding for a record-equalling fourth renewal of the G1 Gold Cup. As Yeats (Ire) did before him, Bjorn Nielsen's stayer supreme just keeps coming back to deal with the latest set of opponents looking to stretch him. In his inaugural triumph in 2018, it was the French doyen Vazirabad (Fr) (Manduro {Ger}) who felt his breeze as Frankie's favourite winning post loomed, while a year...

ASCOT, UK--The G2 Queen Mary S. victory of the well-named Quick Suzy (Ire) (Profitable {Ire}) brought not only the diverse training skills of Gavin Cromwell to wider attention but also a welcome touch of internationalism to the Royal Meeting. The latter is usually a given, but with restricted travel in the last two seasons, there have been fewer overseas travellers than usual, though those who have made the trip have largely been well rewarded at Britain's showcase meeting. Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Stables enjoyed success in the same race last year...

Eve Johnson Houghton trainee Chipotle (GB) (Havana Gold {Ire}) annexed Doncaster's Mar. 27 Brocklesby on debut before making light of a three-pound penalty in an Apr. 28 conditions test over Ascot's five-furlong strip, but was compromised by soft conditions when relinquishing his perfect record in Sandown's May 27 Listed National S. last time. The Tattersalls Ascot yearling, purchased by Johnson Houghton for a bargain 10,000gns, went postward at odds of 22-1 for Wednesday's Listed Windsor Castle S., but was off script at the break and left trailing on the far...

Long absent and much-missed, Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) returned to the big time at Royal Ascot on Wednesday and had to be as tenacious as she is classy to see off Audarya (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) under a perfectly-judged front-running ride in the G1 Prince of Wales's S., a "Win and You're In" for the GI Breeders' Cup Turf this fall. Last year's G1 1000 Guineas, G1 Epsom Oaks and G1 Yorkshire Oaks heroine had been denied what had looked to be a match with Lord North (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire})...

In hindsight, a starting price of 22-1 on a Cheveley Park Stud-owned filly trained by the Gosdens and ridden by Frankie Dettori at Royal Ascot was bordering on the ludicrous and despite her form deficiencies Indie Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) stepped up to make a mockery of those odds in Wednesday's G2 Duke of Cambridge S. Since Palace Pier (GB) (Kingman {GB}) exited the stall closest to the stand's side in the meeting's opening G1 Queen Anne S. the day before, all bar one of the races staged on...

Charlie Appleby's 3-year-old males seem to have the edge in the middle-distance and staying department at present, with Kemari (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) the latest to step forward and provide the outfit with its first Royal Ascot winner of 2021 in the G2 Queen's Vase. Stripped of one of its leading players at the start as Ballydoyle's Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was withdrawn after going down in the stalls, this latest renewal of the 14-furlong test nevertheless had enough depth to ensure that the winner would emerge with suitable kudos. Kemari,...

As much as ever, Wednesday's G2 Queen Mary S. was all about speed from pillar-to-post and there was none slicker than Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' aptly-named Quick Suzy (Ire) who provided her first-season sire Profitable (Ire) with a landmark first black-type winner. Runner-up in the six-furlong G3 Coolmore Stud Irish EBF Fillies Sprint S. at Naas last time May 16, the Gavin Cromwell-trained bay who was another drawn closest to the stand's rail was tanking along early alongside the 9-4 favourite Twilight Gleaming (Ire) (National Defense {GB}) with Artos (Ire) (Kodiac...

She has waited long enough, it seems, and the time has finally arrived for the rekindling of Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) at Royal Ascot. Denied outings in the Arc, the Breeders' Cup and the Tattersalls Gold Cup, Ballydoyle's G1 1000 Guineas and G1 Epsom Oaks heroine has everything in her favour at last as the sun beats down on the famed Berkshire strip. Successful in her three 3-year-old starts--which also included the G1 Yorkshire Oaks--by a cumulative margin of 18 1/2 lengths, the chestnut lines up against the colts for...

ASCOT,UK—It was a dream that started with the purchase of two relatively inexpensive yearling fillies at the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale of 2013. Berkshire Honey (GB) (Sakhee's Secret {GB}) never raced and Berkshire Beauty (GB) (Aqlaam {GB}) eventually won over a mile at Southwell in January as a 4-year-old. Hardly the stuff of dreams at this stage, but standing in the winner's enclosure on a sundrenched day at Royal Ascot is something quite different.  A little over seven years on from their first foray into the racing world, that's where...

They all assembled for another crack at Jim Bolger's workaholic Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) in Tuesday's G1 St James's Palace S., but all they received was a more resounding beating as the wonder of Coolcullen spreadeagled a seemingly open-looking renewal of the mile contest. Bouncing out of Europe's three premier Guineas as if they were mere pipe-openers, the homebred with as extraordinary a make-up as the man who sculpted his presence duly ripped apart this race to land what look in hindsight to be excessively generous odds of...