BEFORE you think I am a misogynist or worse, by wrong sex I mean geldings. I am a great fan of them as they grace the track for many years, but Royal Ascot is also about making stallions and, in that sense only, the final day of this year’s meeting was disappointing.

Four of the seven winners were geldings, but they included two of the most popular horses in training. Within 35 minutes, Rebels’s Romance (Dubawi) won his 18th race when capturing the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes, the highest level he has won at in England, and then Lazzat posted his eighth success. There is plenty of time for the latter to make inroads into Rebel’s Romance’s tally.

Jérôme Reynier, like Harry Eustace, is a graduate of the Irish National Stud’s famed management course, and he has done an amazing job with the racing career of Lazzat.

A son of Territories (Invincible Spirit), now standing at Poonawalla Stud in India, Lazzat has won eight of his 11 starts, finished second and fourth, and added the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes to last year’s triumph in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest.

Last year there were raised eyebrows at the Goffs London Sale when the final lot was unsold at £2.25 million. Eight days earlier, Lazzat extended his unbeaten run in 2024 to five, adding the seven-furlong Group 3 Prix Paul de Moussac at ParisLongchamp to earlier wins. His owners’ expectations appeared to be on the high side.

Unraced at two, Lazzat came out next time to win the Group 1 Maurice de Gheest with ease. Bred by his owner Nurlan Bizakov through his Sumbe breeding operation, Lazzat is the first foal out of Lastochka, a daughter of Australia (Galileo), who raced and won her only start at two for Bizakov in England when trained by Roger Varian.

Lastochka was bred by Bizakov at his Hesmonds Stud, and she raced again at three, making two starts in listed company, both times failing to make the frame. She has a two-year-old filly by Sumbe’s Golden Horde (Lethal Force), and a yearling colt by Lope De Vega (Shamardal). Bizakov spent $625,000 on Lastochka’s dam Lashyn (Mr Greeley) as a yearling in 2010. She won a maiden on her second start at three.

However, Lashyn was a worthy addition to the breeding shed, being a daughter of Charles Whacker’s Sleepytime (Royal Academy), a classic and Group 1 winner of the 1000 Guineas. Sleepytime may not have bred a runner as talented as herself, but she has behind a sound legacy. Half of her eight winners were victorious at stakes level, and another pair were stakes-placed.

Territories never really got due credit for what he achieved, and joins former Dalham Hall Stud stallions Golden Horn and Postponed as the sire of a Group 1 winner since leaving the Darley stallion ranks. Lazzat joins Regional and Rougir as top-level winners for the Prix Jean Prat winner.

Mentioning Darley brings me neatly to Rebel’s Romance (Dubawi), Godolphin’s wonderful globetrotter who seems to be as much in love with racing at the age of seven as he was when he made a winning juvenile debut in October 2020. He has raced around the world since then and won 18 of his 26 starts, successful in Britain, Germany, Hong Kong, Qatar, the UAE and USA. He is his sire’s leading money winner, and his recent win pushed his earnings just over €12 million.

A half-brother to Measured Time (Frankel), winner of Saratoga’s Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes and Meydan’s Group 1 Jebel Hatta Stakes, Rebel’s Romance has been one of the most reviewed horses in this column. I trust he will feature again.

TOM Foy is listed as co-breeder with the Lope De Vega Syndicate of Noble Champion, a three-year-old son of the Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) sire. Tom’s son Declan is a key member of the Ballylinch team, not a hindrance when it came to getting a foal share. The good news is that Noble Champion has a yearling full-brother waiting to be unleashed on the market.

Noble Champion won the Group 3 Jersey Stakes, a race that in the past decade has been taken by Haatem, Expert Eye and Ribchester. This was the colt’s best performance, and Ed Walker believes he will go on to even bigger things. What a lovely story of success this family has been since Tom Foy bought Noble Champion’s dam Cute (Diktat) for 16,000gns some 13 years ago.

Cute has six winners, all bar one bred by Foy, and prior to Noble Champion she was best known for Pogo (Zebedee). The Group 2 Challenge Stakes at Newmarket was the best of his eight wins, and he gained a single Group 1 placing in the Prix d’Ispahan. He was bought as a yearling by SackvilleDonald for £32,000, they purchased a previous winning son of Cute for €100,000, and paid 500,000gns for Noble Champion as a yearling. Foy sold the colt as a foal to Chasemore Farm for 140,000gns.

Pogo’s win in the Challenge Stakes was keeping up a family tradition, as Cute’s half-brother Arabian Gleam (Kyllachy) also won that race. Their dam Gleam Of Light (Danehill) is grandam of the Group 1 Oaks and Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Love (Galileo), and third dam of the 2023 Group 1 Japanese 2000 Guineas winner Sol Oriens (Kitasan Black).

IT was a hot and humid few days at Royal Ascot 2025, and one of the winners on the final day, of its only juvenile race, was the Cheveley Park Stud-bred Humidity. The son of Ulysses (Galileo) was unsold as a yearling, won on his debut for his breeders, but ended up helping to crown a great week for Wathnan Racing as one of their winners.

Churchill, Pinatubo and Point Lonsdale are some winners of the Listed Chesham Stakes in the past decade, and Humidity could well be as good as them. His full-brother Holloway Boy (Ulysses) won the same race in 2022, went on to place in the Group 1 Vertem Futurity, and won the Group 3 Superior Mile. He and Humidity are the only winners to date for the unraced Sultry (Pivotal), and her grandam was a winner at Royal Ascot.

Gay Gallanta (Woodman) won the 1994 Group 3 Queen Mary Stakes, and went on to better that with victory in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. Her son Byron (Green Desert) won the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes and was classic-placed. Ulysses is a favourite of Humidity’s trainer Andrew Balding. The Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup winner White Birch is his best runner, and he now has eight stakes winners on the flat.

Cheveley Park stood Twilight Son (Kyllachy) until this year when he moved to Annshoon Stud. The stallion sired the 28-runner Wokingham Stakes winner Get It, bred by Wood Hall Stud. Sold for £20,000 as a yearling, and 40,000gns as a four-year-old, Get It has now amassed nearly £400,000 with nine career wins. He is the sole winner from his winning dam Pine Ridge (Elusive City).

WILLIE Mullins was a guest of King Charles and Queen Camilla during the week, riding in the carriages on one occasion. He is now training a horse for the couple, Reaching High, who was less than four lengths behind the winner, Ascending, in the Ascot Stakes.

Willie had six runners at Royal Ascot, and two winners, Ethical Diamond and Sober. The latter, a son of Camelot (Montjeu), was bred by the Wertheimer brothers, and sold for €115,000 as a five-year-old at Arqana’s Arc Sale last year. He was a dual Group 2 winner, Group 1 placed in the Prix Royal-Oak, and has won both his starts for Mullins, a hurdle race at Killarney and now the Queen Alexandra Stakes.

Here is a horse who can easily combine staying hurdle races with similar races on the flat. Sober is a half-brother to the Group 3 winner Devil (Siyouni), and their Lope De Vega (Shamardal) dam Burma Sea is a half-sister to the Group 3 Italian St Leger winner Burma Gold (Java Gold).

Persian King’s first crop includes a pair of stakes winners in France, and the 10-furlong Golden Gates Stakes winner Quai De Bethune. Bred by Ecurie X, Quai De Bethune sold as a yearling at BBAG to Richard Venn for €75,000. He is the first foal and winner for Edavanna (Wootton Bassett), and she comes from a smart Aga Khan family.

Edavanna’s dam is a half-sister to Ervedya (Siyouni), a classic heroine and a triple Group 1 winner whose major victories included the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot a decade ago.

Ervedya is the dam of the Aga Khan Studs’ Erevann (Dubawi), a Group 2 winner whose first foals were well received this spring.