IT has taken three decades to find a back-to-back winner of the Royal Ascot centrepiece on day two of the meeting, the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes. John Gosden was the last to achieve it, and he has done it again with his son Thady on the licence.

This time it was with Ombudsman (Night Of Thunder), and it has been well signalled that the five-year-old will join the Darley stallion roster in 2027. This nine-time winner will attempt to double up in the Group 1 Juddmonte International, and add to the tasty total of €5.5 million that he has garnered in prizemoney already. His nine wins have come from 12 runs, and he was second on each occasion he was beaten.

The exploits of Night Of Thunder are outlined on the opposite page, and after day two he had put some daylight between himself and Frankel, with a gap of more than £650,000. There will be many changes before the season ends, and the top six horses in the race to be champion after racing on Wednesday were Night Of Thunder, Frankel, Camelot, Sea The Stars, New Bay and No Nay Never.

After three Group 1 races on Tuesday, Wednesday had a single such contest. The authority with which Ombudsman won the race was staggering, and he was winning at racing’s elite level for the fourth time, having earlier this year been triumphant in the Dubai Turf in Meydan. What a bargain his 340,000gns yearling purchase price has proven to be.

Investment

This was a huge return on investment for Hanly, as he bought Ombudsman’s dam Syndicate (Dansili), through Anthony Stroud, for 25,000gns as a winning juvenile from Juddmonte, and she later won in his wife Charlotte’s silks. Her first foal, the filly American Belle (Starspangledbanner), won twice for James Fanshawe and is now at stud. Next was Ombudsman, followed by his three-year-old full-sister Synchronicity (Night Of Thunder) who sold for 900,000gns. She won on her debut this year before disappointing in listed company.

Syndicate has a two-year-old daughter, Syndicale by Ten Sovereigns (No Nay Never) who appears to be retained, and the mare was covered last year by Night Of Thunder. Syndicate has two stakes-winning full-brothers, among them Runnymede (Dansili) whose 11 wins include an Italian Group 3. The third dam of Ombudsman, Insinuate (Mr Prospector), gained her only win in an Ascot listed race, and she is the best offspring of Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp winner All At Sea (Riverman).

Blinded by the class of Victorious

AIDAN O’Brien won the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes for the first time last year with the 2026 Group 1 1000 Guineas winner True Love. The latter won the race as a maiden and has done little wrong since. She claimed the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes at two before evolving into a classic winner.

O’Brien doubled up this year when he won the opener on Wednesday with Victorious (Wootton Bassett), and she is unbeaten in three starts, having warmed up for the win in a truly international contest with a Group 3 success. The family was dealt with in detail after that Naas victory.

To summarise, Victorious is blind in one eye, but she lacks nothing when it comes to determination. She possesses the pedigree of a champion, and is one of 61 group winners for her sire. She is the seventh group winner to emerge in the immediate family, all descending from Lillie Langtry (Danehill Dancer). She won the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, later adding the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown. Lillie Langtry had six winning fillies, and half of them are Group 1 winners.

Tuesday crowned her classic season with victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, having won the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom. She was preceded by her full-sisters Minding and Empress Josephine. The former, a three-time European champion, won seven times at the highest level and is dam of Group 1 winner Henry Longfellow (Dubawi). Empress Josephine won the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas.

Heaven On Earth

Victorious’s dam Heaven On Earth (Galileo) won a Limerick maiden on her third start, but was not as talented as her three Group 1 winning full-sisters. Her first four foals are fillies and winners. Group 3 runner-up Mother Nature (Justify) was first, followed by Stellenbosch (Wootton Bassett) who won twice for Richard Hannon. The three-year-old Sugar Island (Dubawi) ended her juvenile season last year with a win in the Group 3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes, and was third in the recent Group 1 Oaks.

The closing Listed Windsor Castle Stakes on Wednesday provided a first win for the two-year-old colt King Of Cloughan, a sixth stakes winner for St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni), and the first from his second crop who are juveniles. Bred by Hiroyuki Nagata, and a product of the McCalmont’s Norelands Stud, King Of Cloughan sold in Book 1 of the Goffs Orby Sale for €110,000.

He is the first foal out of the Belmont Park juvenile stakes winner Mystic Eyes (Maclean’s Music), and there is a yearling full-brother on the ground. Mystic Eyes is a granddaughter of stakes winner Harbor Springs (Vice Regent), and her best offspring was the US champion juvenile Boston Harbor (Capote).

O’Brien and Ballylinch win again

THE Joseph O’Brien and Ballylinch Stud bandwagon continued when the three-year-old Limestone (New Bay) won the Group 2 Queen’s Vase. This race has been a stepping stone to greater things.

Bred by Ballylinch Stud who still co-own him with Valmont and Al Shaqab, Limestone has won four of his six starts, including the Listed Yeats Stakes at Navan. A 210,000gns yearling, he is son of the Duke Of Marmalade (Danehill) mare Modernstone, a listed winner in England and the USA. She is also the dam of Group 3 winner Lone Eagle (Galileo) who was second in the Group 1 Irish Derby.

New Bay (Dubawi) is now responsible for 17 pattern winners, and 27 stakes winners, and this year he is also sire of the Group 1 Coronation Cup hero Bay City Roller. This was his second winner of the week.

The familiar Juddmonte colours were carried to victory in the Group 2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes by the four-year-old Blue Bolt (Blue Point). However, she was not bred by the owners, but rather was a wise buy as a yearling. Bred by C-Squared Investments, Blue Bolt sold for €400,000 at Arqana and she is one of three stakes winners out of Group 3 winner Mayhem (Whipper).

After Blue Bolt’s second-place finish last year in the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket, the Juddmonte team clearly felt that a win at the highest level would be possible, and it looks even more likely now. This is an outstanding female line, and Blue Bolt could take her branch of the family to a new high.

Mayhem is a full-sister to French Group 2 winner Royal Bench (Whipper) who was runner-up in the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile. Their dam is out of Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Cerulean Sky (Darshaan).

Noreen McManus’s Royal Ascot winner

NOREEN McManus joined the ranks of Royal Ascot winning breeders when the four-year-old Rogue Diplomacy (Calyx) won the 28-runner Royal Hunt Cup.

A €16,000 Tattersalls Ireland yearling and 115,000gns breeze-up buy, this was a sixth success for the colt, and he has amassed £200,000 for his efforts. Ten months before she sold Rogue Diplomat, Noreen McManus parted with his dam, the unraced Only Young Once (Galileo) for €8,000 at Goffs, and she was bought by Thomas Frisby.

Rogue Diplomat is the second offspring of Only Young Once to win, and he was preceded by Moving Water (Mastercraftsman), successful four times over hurdles. Their grandam Sent From Heaven (Footstepsinthesand) was a Group 3 winner who bred the Canberra Cup hero Almania (Australia), and was also sold at Goffs for €8,000 three years ago.

Patience paid off for the connections of the four-year-old Alobayyah (Ghaiyyath). Winner of her only start at two, she was well beaten on both outings at three. After a promising reappearance at Ascot in May, she justified favouritism to win the one-mile Kensington Palace Stakes. She looks capable of stepping up to group class.

Bred by Rabbah Bloodstock, she sold to Kilbride Equine as a yearling in Book 2 for 115,000gns, and is the fourth winner for her dam Aquatina (Samum) who won the Group 3 Prix Miesque at two. This is a solid dam line, if unspectacular. Rabbah has a full-brother, born this spring, to Alobayyah.