Three North Yorkshire trainers are aiming to spoil the biggest Australian party Royal Ascot has ever seen tomorrow.
Kevin Ryan, David Barron and Mark Johnston will all saddle runners against the brilliant Black Caviar, Australia’s greatest-ever standard bearer, in the £500,000 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, the feature contest on the final day of the Royal Ascot extravaganza.
While Frankel, brilliant winner on the opening day, initiated this extraordinary meeting in jaw-dropping style, Black Caviar will attempt to book-end the week in similar fashion. Unbeaten in 21 races, compared to Frankel’s faultless 11 from 11, Black Caviar has proved to be in a different league to sprinting rivals down under.
Now she’s here in Britain for the first time to give a display of her phenomenal talents. Ryan will saddle Bogart, Barron will be represented by Hitchens and Johnston runs Es Que Love, all good sprinters, but they are surely only playing for supporting honours.
Black Caviar, the long odds-on favourite, promises to be unbeatable if she brings her ‘A’ game to Ascot after travelling half-way around the world. It may be asking too much to expect her to be as visually impressive as Frankel, but it will be great to see her, and it will be even greater to witness her producing a speed performance of distinction.
Paul Hanagan teams up with his former boss Richard Fahey in the £125,000 Wokingham Handicap, with good prospects of a notable win from Alben Star.
Winner of four of his nine races, the talented gelding finished a fine fourth in a red-hot handicap at Newmarket’s Guineas meeting and has been trained with this richly-endowed event in mind. There are 28 runners and it is typically wide-open, but Alben Star has a leading chance.
Hanagan also has good prospects of starting the concluding day with a winner.
The Malton champion rides Jalaa for Richard Hannon and wearing the colours of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, Hanagan’s boss. A decisive winner on his debut at Leicester, Jalaa looks a useful colt in the making and is napped to double his score.
Sir Michael Stoute had to settle for second with the Queen’s Carlton House in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes earlier in the week, but the Newmarket trainer can go one better with Sea Moon in the Hardwicke Stakes.
Last year’s dual York winner, who went on to finish second at the Breeders’ Cup in the US, made a winning start to the season and although that performance was more workmanlike than impressive, the outing should have put him back on the ball.
Luca Cumani’s Fiery Lad is taken to win the Duke Of Edinburgh Handicap, while Zuider Zee, not far off the high-class Opinion Poll at Sandown last time, should have too much firepower for his rivals in the closing Queen Alexandra Stakes.
At Redcar, make a note of the Bryan Smart-trained duo Dubai Hills (3.20) and Wild Sauce (3.55), and Richard Fahey’s Irish Heartbeat (4.30) takes a drop in claiming company under Lee Topliss.
Racing selections
Royal Ascot
2.30 Jalaa (NAP), 3.05 Sea Moon, 3.45 Black Caviar, 4.25 Alben Star, 5.00 Fiery Lad, 5.35 Zuider Zee.
Redcar
2.15 Royal Skies, 2.45 Brook Star, 3.20 Dubai Hills, 3.55 Wild Sauce, 4.30 Irish Heartbeat, 5.05 Vanity’s Girl, 5.40 Pavers Star.
Tomorrow’s other meetings
Ayr, Haydock, Lingfield and Newmarket.
Today’s meetings
Royal Ascot, Ayr, Goodwood, Market Rasen, Newmarket, Redcar.
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