Rest of the card

HIGHLAND Chief was the first winner for Gleneagles as a sire last spring before finishing an excellent third to Pinatubo in the Chesham Stakes, and he returned to Ascot to go two places better in the first running of the Golden Gates Handicap, showing again his liking for an easy surface by beating Alan King’s Tritonic and favourite Global Storm at a generous price of 20/1.

The colt was wearing cheekpieces for the first time, and was a 22nd winner at the meeting for veteran handler Paul Cole, albeit the first since he registered a training partnership with son Oliver.

Highland Chief could be deemed well-handicapped given his proximity to Pinatubo 12 months ago, and if a poor effort after an absence in the Royal Lodge was ignored, he could have been given a leading chance.

Cole paid tribute to winning rider Rossa Ryan, whose career is gradually progressive. The Galway native was scoring his first Royal Ascot success and said: “It has not really sunk in yet. I am a bit shocked that it has happened. I cannot thank everyone enough who has supported me to get here today.”

Tritonic, likewise looked set to make his mark at a higher level when winning the Haynes, Hanson & Clark at Newbury last year before disappointing in the Zetland Stakes at Newmarket on his final start. Both colts were firmly back on track here, and should continue to thrive.

Global Storm had the benefit of a run having scored at Newmarket earlier in the month, but should also continue to improve, looking in need of further here, in line with his pedigree.

Khaloosy all class for Crowley again

The Britannia Handicap is normally a fiendish puzzle to solve, with 30 unexposed three-year-olds thundering up the Ascot straight, but it may as well have been a match this year, with the race concerning only favourite Finest Sound and Khaloosy for the last quarter mile.

The former was clearly well-handicapped under a penalty for a facile Haydock win, and moved through to lead in the style expected, but at the same time Khaloosy was moving up menacingly on the bridle on the far outside of the field. The battle was briefly joined, but quickly over, for as easily as Finest Sound had come clear of the others, so did Khaloosy and Jim Crowley – despite a tendency to lug right in the last furlong – do to him.

The winning margin was four and a half lengths at the line, with another four back to Cherokee Trail in third, a head in front of Enemy.

Khaloosy had run out a visually impressive winner of an extended mile novice at Wolverhampton on his second juvenile outing, and he was not an easy horse for the handicapper to assess. A mark of 94 looked very fair given his scope for improvement, but in retrospect, it didn’t come close to expressing his ability, and he is quite possibly a Group 1 horse given he has beaten the promising placed horses by a margin which equates to at least a stone and a half.

Given this race regularly throws up pattern winners, that is truly remarkable, even if he was advantaged to some degree by racing closest to the stands rail.

Crowley and his principal patron, Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum are enjoying an excellent week, and this was the rider’s sixth winner of the meeting, all of them gained in Sheikh Hamdan’s famous ‘Royal Blue, White Epaulettes, Striped Cap’ livery, while it was a treble on the day, making it four at the meeting, for Roger Varian.

Turner and Fellowes combine

for a repeat success

The final race, the Sandringham Handicap for three-year-old fillies went, just as it had a year earlier, to the combination of Charlie Fellowes and Hayley Turner. Last year it was Thanks Be who popped up at 33/1 from a moderate draw, and this time Turner steered Onassis to victory despite a seemingly impossible draw in stall one.

As with the 2019 winner, this was strictly speaking one of the lesser performances of the week on paper, with the winner rated just 81 by the handicapper after six starts, but you have to doff your cap to the trainer for pulling off the same coup twice, especially as Fellowes had to beg the owners to run her here rather than trying to sneak blacktype in the Listed Abingdon Fillies’ Stakes at Newbury last weekend.