Why Aussies Excel At Royal Ascot

By Michael Sharkie 
With a quartet of Australian raiders–considered the strongest Royal Ascot squad dispatched from the nation since 2007–settling in ahead of next week’s meeting, interest in how the latest batch of Aussie contestants will stack up against Europe’s best is again sky-high. 

G1 Oakleigh Plate-winning mare Shamal Wind (Aus) (Dubawi {Ire}); the stunning, near-black G1 Newmarket H. winner Brazen Beau (Aus) (I Am Invincible {Aus}); Group 1-winning miler Wandjina (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}); and frequent flyer Criterion (NZ) (Sebring {Aus}) make up the Australian battalion in 2015, with the G1 King’s Stand S., G1 Prince Of Wales’s S. and the G1 Diamond Jubilee their target races. 

Europe has developed a fascination, bordering on total captivation, with antipodean speed in the last decade, and arguably speed in general thanks to Royal Ascot victories from the likes of Miss Andretti (Aus) (Ihtiram {Ire}); Takeover Target (Aus) (Celtic Swing {GB}); Starspangledbanner (Aus) (Choisir {Aus}) and American Wesley Ward’s jump-and-run juveniles Jealous Again (Trippi), No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) and Hootenanny (Quality Road). 

Australians, too, are fascinated by Royal Ascot’s pageantry and prestige, and as the racing world continues to shrink each year, Australian eyes will be firmly glued to the action from the Berkshire course. 

Of course it all started 12 years ago when a chestnut cannonball named Choisir (Aus) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) trounced Europe’s best sprinters in a memorable double, taking the King’s Stand S. and the Golden Jubilee in stunning fashion and changing the goals of Australia’s speedsters forever more. 

Trained by Newcastle mentor Paul Perry, Choisir raised the eyebrows of British pundits when he stomped into the parade ring before the King’s Stand in 2003, and had champion Irish jockey Johnny Murtagh wondering what he had signed up for. 

“I remember it so clearly: here’s this big brute in this strange-looking hood the trainer was calling pacifiers– big bulging discs over his eyes,” Murtagh said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, to be honest. But the power of the horse and that speed when he got out there, it was just unbelievable. He just took off from the gates and kept going–he was in another class.” 
Sent off a 25-1 longshot, Choisir turned bookies boards as well as heads in the King’s Stand and was quickly cut from 30-1 to 13-2 for the Golden Jubilee five days later, which he won with similar ease, Murtagh again in the saddle. 

“There was a thought that he may not get the six furlongs, but after riding him I didn’t have any worry,” Murtagh recalled. “He was just as good and won as he liked again–he really was an amazing sprinter.” 

Suitably impressed and with a lasting memory of his experience, Murtagh took little coaxing when asked to throw his leg over a colt considered to be Choisir’s fastest son, Starspangledbanner, when the colt joined Aidan O’Brien’s yard ahead of the 2010 Royal Meeting. 

Purchased by Coolmore, which had also secured Choisir for stud duties following his Royal Ascot double, Starspangledbanner was every bit as imposing and every bit as fast as his famous father. 

“Again, Starspangledbanner was an incredibly powerful horse and maybe faster than Choisir, but physically very much alike his sire,” Murtagh noted. “By then we’d seen Miss Andretti and Takeover Target come and win so we knew this was no fluke– Australian sprinters were the best in the world, and [Starspangledbanner] proved it again.” 

Although physical strength translating to power is an obvious factor with some sprinters, Murtagh believes that it was the methodology of Australian trainers that gave the raiding sprinters such a distinct edge. 

“These were horses that were trained to get out and go from the first time they were worked; everything revolved around leaving the gates quickly, running quickly, and running strongly,” he said. “If you think of European horses, they’re trained to come out of the gates, relax and find a rhythm, and then build speed. The Aussie horses just left them behind.” 

“Things are changing here now and some trainers are changing the way they train their sprinters, just like the Australians have changed the way they train the stayers bought out from Europe,” Murtagh continued. “It’s still harder to make the ground up on horses that have been doing it all their life, though, whatever the distance they specialize in.” 

Although A$4 million G1 Queen Elizabeth S. winner Criterion will be a highlight runner of the week in the Prince Of Wales’s, the Australian focus will again fall on the King’s Stand and Diamond Jubilee. 

Shamal Wind heads to the King’s Stand in career- best form, having captured the high-pressure 1100 meter Oakleigh Plate at Caulfield in February. The 5-year-old daughter of Dubawi possesses a brutal late sprint and will likely be hitting top gear as others feel the pinch in the 1000 meter feature on opening day. 

Brazen Beau may run in the King’s Stand, but trainer Chris Waller seems to prefer a Diamond Jubilee start and a clash with Gai Waterhouse’s 1600 meter G1 Australian Guineas winner Wandjina. Both colts are extremely lucrative stallion prospects, with a Royal Ascot win ensuring a dual hemisphere career.