IN the build-up to Royal Ascot it was hardly likely that the race which gathered a huge amount of the discussions would have turned out to be the Windsor Castle Stakes.

The race will be run over six, not five, furlongs next year and restricted to horses whose sires won over seven furlongs or more at two, or eight furlongs or more at three and older.

The idea was to reduce the amount of ‘cheap speed’ and encourage the development of more stoutly-bred horses to the juvenile races at the famous mid-summer meeting.

It has been a hot topic of debate. The arguments against the change were that, rather than giving a wider playing field, it will just become a secondary race from the Coventry Stakes, featuring the bigger trainers and owners and more expensive sires, squeeze out less wealthy owners and those breeding from sires standing at €10,000 or less.

This year’s Coventry over six furlongs, had a field of 20. Only two runners were sired by stallions who currently stand at less than £10,000. The Windsor Castle had 23 runners. The Chesham Stakes, with its sire restrictions, just nine. Only three of those nine were by sires who had not won at a mile and a half.

Aidan O’Brien has won the six-furlong Coventry seven times in the last 20 years. He has won the Windsor Castle three times in that period, and had similar success in the five-furlong Norfolk. He won the Queen Mary for the first time this year, so the races for the speedier horses do not provide his best results.

There is a legitimate debate on why the changes come next year, with this year’s foals and 2026 yearling sales crop on the ground.

But sometimes in racing you feel there is a definite ‘follow the leader’ mentality. Or switch that another way, if it wasn’t done before, it can’t be done, or I won’t try to do it.

Is there any reason, given everyone wants to be at Royal Ascot, that we can’t get more horses by mile-winning sires into this new race when everyone wants a runner at Royal Ascot?

Past winners

A look through the past Windsor Castle winners and it is cheaper sires, cheaper horses, cheaper speed. A poorer man’s Norfolk? Of the last 20 Windsor Castle winners, 13 would now not be eligible due to their sires not meeting those new qualifying conditions.

Seven winners satisfied the new conditions – including two of the three Aidan O’Brien-trained colts. The other sires were Noverre, Sleeping Indian, Quality Road, Zoffany, Gleneagles, Toronado and Havana Gold. Quite an eclectic mix.

And, surprise, Eve Johnson Houghton’s Chipotle would still be eligible because his sire Havana Gold won over seven furlongs in July of his two-year-old career. And, shock, he also won over a mile at two that September!

Of the last 20 winners, only Ardad, Washington DC, Soldier’s Call and Little Big Bear made it to the stallion ranks.

Very few of those 20 winners have made any further impact, the 2015 winner Washington DC only got a Royal Group 1 winner in American Affair this year!

It’s not as if all the Windsor Castle-winning sires are at the bottom end of the market. Over the last 10 years, they have a wide range, their fees at the time of covering ranging from Havana Grey at £6,000, up to Havana Gold and Showcasing at £15,000, to €45,000 for Blue Point, €60,000 for Gleneagles and €100,000 for No Nay Never.

A lot of the horses whose progeny won’t now qualify are the ‘cheap speed’ who were retired after only running at two, for all that many have proved very successful at stud. These stand at less than €5,000 and so are accessible to smaller breeders.

Past leading the present

If it’s field size we fear, comparisons to the Chesham’s smaller fields have been made, but those race conditions are more restrictive. Our leading two-year-old sires list in mid-June may all be sprinters, but surely that is also part of the past leading the present?

But is there anything really to be certain on, that a horse by a sire who won, say, in August of its two-year-old career, could not, be trained to be ready to run at Royal Ascot? Maybe they’ll improve, be better later in the season, but shouldn’t they still be able to race in June? Might it even be better to have a horse progressing rather than some of the speedier Ascot two-year-olds, trained for June but who are on the retreat come September?

Pigeonhole

Take leading sire Justify as an example of the difficulty in pigeonholing horses and their distances. He went from zero to superhero in four months from February to June of his three-year-old career, having never run at two. He made his debut over seven furlongs and four months later won the Belmont Stakes over a mile and a half.

At stud, he sired the mile and a half Derby winner City Of Troy and Ascot sprint runner Storm Boy, now off to stud being hailed for his precocity.

City Of Troy made his debut on this day three years ago so, conceivably, could have been ready to run at Royal Ascot if needed?

Storm Boy made his debut over five and a half furlongs, five months into his two-year-old career, the equivalent of May over here.

Justify’s 2000 Guineas winner Ruling Court was a May breeze-up horse, but from middle-distance breeding. He could run pretty fast in May.

Justify is an elite, expensive stallion but the principle surely is the same: there are plenty of sires who have won at a mile with progeny available at reasonable yearling prices to make a decent field for a June six-furlong race.

WE’VE had a lot of chat over the last week at how Ascot, despite its Royal and exclusive tag, was the place everyone wanted to be and were prepared to pay for the experience that they thought was worth the expense. Seven races, racegoers lasted the day from mid-morning to well after 6pm, no problem!

If you want a bit of class on a feature day card, it’s a bit harder to see tomorrow’s Irish Derby card fulfilling that attraction of offering quality to support the feature race. Nine races, six handicaps from five furlongs to two miles. Definitely need stamina to see out the last to 6pm.

There were 116 Irish-trained runners at Royal Ascot, so that obviously has an impact on a three-day weekend card like this, but you’d like to see a better offering.

The Derby looks Lambourn’s to lose but the pre-Epsom time and striding data had given Pride Of Arras an equal chance and surely his run was too bad to be true? The 7/1 still looks value.

YOU’LL never please everyone for even half of the time, but the news that Gary Carroll was banned and fined for going over the whip rules on Cercene, but still won the race, while Sean Levey seemed not to strike Rosallion a seventh time when it looked like one more might have made the difference in that tight Queen Anne Stakes finish, might be deemed unfair. Staying within the rules lost the race.

The Queen Anne also offered the other unlikely solution that, as Mark Zahra wasn’t able to hit his horse due to losing his whip, he still beat Rosallion, who received the maximum assistance, so gave a boost to the no whips argument.