YOU cannot say that Aidan O’Brien is in any way a showy man, but he could not have picked a better race in which to saddle his 100th Royal Ascot winner. Traditionally the race of the week, the Gold Cup might not now have influence on the bloodstock world as a maker of flat stallions, but as a racing spectacle it is hard to beat, and you will not find many editions to be as exciting at the 2026 renewal.

Scandinavia (Justify) saw out the two and a half miles of the Gold Cup with courage, while the opening race on the day, the seven-furlong Listed Chesham Stakes was won by another son of Justify (Scat Daddy), the Fozzy Stack-trained Nola Soul. What a sire the Ashford Stud resident is, with 11 Group or Grade 1 winners already to his credit, and 62 stakes winners. His oldest crop are six-year-olds.

What do City Of Troy and Scandinavia have in common? Apart from being sons of Justify, they are the only progeny by the unbeaten US Triple Crown winner to have won more than twice at the highest level.

Classic winner City Of Troy won the Dewhurst Stakes, Derby, Juddmonte International and the Eclipse Stakes, while fellow classic hero Scandinavia won the St Leger, Goodwood Cup and now the Gold Cup at Ascot. Both are also out of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mares.

Scandinavia has a stallion pedigree, though his racing performances suggest he will eventually be the hottest addition to the National Hunt ranks. Bred by Orpendale, Chelston and Wynatt, he is related to a brilliant racehorse and sire in Giant’s Causeway (Storm Cat), and to the multiple Group 1 sire Gleneagles (Galileo). Those connections are unlikely to outweigh the fact that he has gained his seven wins over trips ranging from 10 to 20 furlongs. What a pity.

The Royal Ascot standout is the second Group 1 winner for the unraced Fabulous (Galileo), after the Prix Saint-Alary heroine Above The Curve (American Pharoah). That mare has a third successful progeny, the Group 3-placed juvenile winner Thinking Of You (American Pharoah). She sold for $1.5 million to the Wertheimer brothers in 2022, carrying her first foal. He is Kravitz (Justify), a three-year-old winner this year.

Eyecatcher

Another eyecatcher out of Fabulous is Deadly Nightshade (Justify), a full-sister to Scandinavia. She was placed three times from four starts, but lack of a win did not deter Haras des Monceaux, who paid 900,000gns for her as a four-year-old with an attractive first covering by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj). What is that yearling worth? Waiting in the wings now are the two-year-old colt out of Fabulous, Charleston (No Nay Never), and a yearling filly by Siyouni (Pivotal).

Fabulous is a half-sister to Giant’s Causeway, and to the Group 2 winner You’resothrilling (Storm Cat), dam of eight (that’s correct) Group 1 performers by Galileo, including the winners Gleneagles, Happily, Joan Of Arc and Marvellous. We will hear a lot more about the Chesham Stakes winner Nola Soul. Bred by John D Gunther, he sold as a foal to Craig Bernick for $200,000. Last year Gunther sold his unplaced dam Sing Me Home (Muhaarar) for $25,000, in foal to Yaupon (Uncle Mo), and her 2025 foal by Annapolis (War Front) for $1,000!!!! He could be an interesting pinhook this autumn. Sing Me Home is now dam of two winners with her first two foals.

Group winners for Time Test and Kameko

ON just her fourth start, the Anthony Oppenheimer-bred Earth Shot (Time Test) won the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes, her previous best effort coming when she was second to last weekend’s French Oaks third Inis Mor in the Listed Height Of Fashion Stakes at Goodwood. She is not the first Royal Ascot winner in her family, as her third dam Rebecca Sharp (Machiavellian) won the 1997 Group 1 Coronation Stakes. This is a family with a forever association with Hascombe & Valiant Studs, and deep in the fourth remove is Oppenheimer’s champion colt Golden Horn (Cape Cross).

Earth Shot is the third Group 2 winner for the former National Stud sire Time Test (Dubawi) who stood his first year at stud in Turkey in 2025.

The other pattern race on Thursday’s card was the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes, a race won by Time Test, and he was followed on the race roll of honour by Hawkbill, Benbatl and Hunting Horn. This year’s winner is the lightly-raced three-year-old gelding Generic (Kameko), bred by Adalene Partners. They take the name from the dam of Generic, three-year-old winner Adalene (Makfi). Jeff Smith’s Littleton Stud is listed as the purchaser of Generic as foal at Goffs for €62,000 from Galbertstown Stables.

Rathmore Stud

Peter Molony’s Rathmore Stud bought Adalene carrying Generic for 30,000gns, and there is a yearling full-sister to him who is likely to sell this autumn. Generic is the best of Adalene’s two winners, the other being the French Group 3-placed Crohanne (Havana Gold).

Adalene is one of 10 winners out of the German Group 3 winner Marine Bleue (Desert Prince), and two of these are worth highlighting. Military Law (Dubawi) won a pair of Group 2s in the UAE and was placed in a Group 1. Marina Piccola (Halling) was a listed winner in France, but she is a Group 1 producer, her son French King (French Fifteen) landing the Grosser Preis von Berlin.

Rounding off the day’s winners

MARIA Niarchos was on hand to greet her homebred three-year-old colt Enceladus (Sea The Stars) after he won for the second time this year, taking the honours in the mile and a half King George V Stakes. This was yet another winner, the fourth of the week, for Joseph O’Brien.

The win will have been welcomed with delight by bloodstock agent Gaurav Rampal, who gave €30,000 for the dam of Enceladus, Martini Glass (Kitalpha), at Goffs in 2024. She was carrying a colt by State Of Rest (Starspangledbanner). The Niarchos-owned Flaxman Stables Ireland race and bred Enceladus.

Martini Glass was a tough performer from an ordinary family, winning 10 races in the USA at up to Grade 2 level. She placed second in two Grade 1s, and sold at the end of her racing career to Flaxman for $500,000. Her other stock includes Moab (Camelot), a winner at five last year and placed many times over hurdles, and his full-brother Wolf Rayet who has been placed over hurdles.

Moonfall

Keep an eye on the career of Moonfall (Starman) who was most impressive in landing the incredibly competitive Britannia Stakes in the colours if the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum. This one is not a homebred, rather a 200,000gns yearling purchase by George Boughey, having been a €120,000 Goffs foal. Bred by Empire Bloodstock, he sold from Graigue Stables as a foal and Redpender Stud the following year.

He is from the first crop of Tally-Ho Stud’s Starman (Dutch Art), sire of Group 1 Prix Morny winner Venetian Sun, and the Goffs London Sale topper Green Sense. That Group 2 Prix Robert Papin winner sold for £700,000. It is likely Moonfall will in time be a stakes winner, just as his half-sister Soprano (Starspangledbanner) is after a listed win in England and a Group 3 triumph in France. She placed in the Group 1 Matron Stakes in Ireland and the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup in the USA.

Their dam is the unraced Lealas Daughter (Excelebration), and her half-brother was the Irish-bred Obviously (Choisir). A €2,000 Goffs weanling, he was three times a winner at Grade 1 level in the USA, twice annexing the Shoemaker Mile and also being successful in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.

Aisbett’s delight

Owners and breeders, Jon and Julia Aisbett were thrilled to win Thursday’s concluding Buckingham Palace Stakes with Mezcala (Expert Eye). This was the gelded four-year-old’s third win from just eight starts, and he is just a couple of wins behind his half-brother Rathgar (Ulysses) who has won five times, and is also trained by Jack Channon. The owners and the Channon father and son team of Mick and Jack have had plenty of success with this family.

Back in 2011, Gill Richardson paid £85,000 at the Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale for Sandreamer (Oasis Dream), bred by Denis Brosnan. She raced for the Aisbetts, trained by Mick Channon, and won a listed race in Italy, while placing at two in the Group 3 Juddmonte Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot.

At stud, Sandreamer bred four winners, including Mezcala’s dam Why We Dream (Al Kazeem), but the best of the quartet was the Group 3 Desmond Stakes winner Johan (Zoffany).