Ascot Gold Cup (Group 1)
WELL-BACKED favourite Scandinavia (Aidan O’Brien/Ryan Moore) had clearly read the script and landed the day’s feature race after a titanic tussle with defending champion Trawlerman (Charlie Appleby/William Buick), getting up yards from the line to score by a head and, in doing so, provided the Master of Ballydoyle with a record-breaking 100th Royal Ascot success.
The race saw money for one or two others in the field, but for the last half mile, the contest was simply a match between the front-running Trawlerman, a seven-length winner under similar tactics in 2025, and the staling Scandinavia, hero of the 2025 St Leger at Doncaster.
Buick on Trawlerman did a fine job of drawing the stamina out of Scandinavia, who was unproven beyond a bare two miles and, when he resisted the first thrust from Moore on the favourite, it looked like his staying power might win the day.
That reckoned without the grit of both Moore and Scandinavia, however, who regrouped and came back only to be parried a second time and then, just as the line loomed, they summoned the strength for a final attack, which the game but weary Trawlerman had no answer to.
It was a fitting climax to a race that had the crowd on their feet and the stands in tumult. The first two pulled nine lengths clear as they battled in the straight, with Sweet William (John and Thady Gosden/Rab Havlin) almost apologetically collecting third prize. Only fifth in last year’s Queen’s Vase, Scandinavia has blossomed since, winning all six races, including the Goodwood Cup and St Leger last term, proving his sire Justify capable of producing top-class winners at any trip.
Special day
O’Brien said: “This is a very special day for myself and everybody in Ballydoyle. There are so many people involved to help a horse get this far.
“Ryan was incredible on Scandinavia - he nursed him and nursed him. He was perfect until Oisin came up and took his slot a little bit.
“Ryan had to manoeuvre round him, and at the same time he minded him and didn’t waste any gas. He got him into a position where he wanted him for one last surge.
On the achievement of 100 winners at Royal Ascot, he added: “That’s just incredible really. It is something that we wouldn’t dream of thinking about, because for that to happen you could not believe.
“Even this week, it’s literally one race at a time and you don’t even think what it could be or whether it could happen, because it’s so competitive, so hard to win races here.
“We knew the second horse was a great horse, very brave. Scandinavia joined him and you don’t know until you go past that two-furlong marker what’s really going to happen, but we felt he was very brave. He always showed that in every race - he’s relentless.
“It is an honour and a privilege for me to be involved with the team and be the small part that I am with everybody. The reality is everyone puts in the work, we watch it going on, and I can’t tell you how grateful we are to everybody.
“We love the competitive nature of everything, and we like everybody building up around the race, because that’s what everyone has to feel. It was unusual today - we listened and I was able to hear everybody.
“The crowd was very big and the cheer went up when they turned in, but when he went to the front the sound went up, so I was very surprised at that and the noise got louder and louder, and that’s what it’s all about. What can I say? It was just an incredible feeling.”
Ribblesdale Stakes (Group 2)
THE Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes is Royal Ascot’s equivalent of the Oaks, and Epsom runner-up Legacy Link was sent off favourite but failed to figure after meeting trouble.
The race saw Lady Roisia unseat Hector Crouch after stumbling at the start and the filly ran loose ahead of the field thereafter. She was still leading the pack crossing the line, but of those with jockeys still in situ, it was Earth Shot (William Haggas/James Doyle) who took the honours, passing the post a head to the good from Johanna Walsh (Joseph O’Brien/Dylan Browne McMonagle), with Gilded Prize (Francis-Henri Graffard/Oisin Murphy) a length further back in third. The winner, a recent purchase for Wathnan Racing, was returned at an SP of 4/1.
Earth Shot had finished second to Inis Mor in the Height of Fashion Stakes for her breeders, Paul and Sally Flatt of Childwickbury Stud, and was subsequently picked up on behalf of Wathnan by Richard Brown.
She showed improved form here, coming wide entering the straight and staying on well to lead close home from the runner-up, who was always in the front rank and looked to have stolen the race when kicking early in the straight.
Second success
Haggas said: “I am delighted with Earth Shot - I thought she did very well. We’ve won a Ribblesdale before - with a filly bred by Tony Hirschfeld and Lester, my father-in-law. He told Michael Hills not to leave the fence. If you ever get a chance to watch it, it’s probably black and white, but he never left the fence and got up on the line at 25/1.
“I thought Earth Shot possibly should have won at Goodwood. She has always been a beautiful filly and I’ve always said she wants soft ground. Fair play to William Buick - she ran second to another one of ours last year in a maiden, and William said, ‘she’s pretty good’, and they all say he knows what he’s talking about.
“We always had hopes she would be good and, I guess, for a middle-distance filly, winning the Ribblesdale is second best to winning the Oaks. It is a hell of a prize to win.
“James and I go back a long way. He used to ride for us before he went to Godolphin, and he’s an excellent rider and a very nice man.”
Chesham Stakes (Listed)
THERE was drama at the start of the Chesham Stakes, as favourite Aix La Chapelle reared in the stalls and had to be withdrawn, leading to a 25p Rule 4 on all bets on eventual winner Nola Soul (Fozzie Stack/Seamie Heffernan), who overcame residual greenness to win in gritty fashion.
The winner was sent off at 11/2 having been well backed. That support was no surprise as he had beaten Wednesday’s Windsor Castle Stakes winner King of Cloughan on his racecourse bow at Leopardstown, despite doing plenty wrong.
That greenness was still evident as he refused to settle for Heffernan and he looked in trouble when coming off the bridle with two furlongs to go, only to show his inherent class by digging deep to come out on top in a busy finish, beating On Just Terms (Joseph O’Brien/Dylan Browne McMonagle) and Aperoll (Richard Hannon/Pat Dobbs) by half a length and a head.
The winner is clearly quite raw, but has lots of physical scope and a ground-devouring stride that augurs well for his future.
Stack, enjoying his first Royal Ascot success, said: “Nola Soul is a lovely horse. We have a high opinion of him. Seamie has always loved him. He is a big strong galloper, who can go fast for a long time. If he came out of the debut run all right, it was always the plan to come here. This is the place everyone wants to be.
“We were very hopeful of a good run. You just hope they show up on the day, whether you win, finish third, fourth, whatever. He is a January foal. I would say he would have no problem getting a mile and a quarter in time. I would hope he might turn up in a good race at the end of the year.”
More joy for Joseph
as Enceladus swoops
King George V Stakes (Heritage Handicap)
AN excellent meeting for Joseph O’Brien got better when Enceladus (Ryan Moore) landed a 7/1 success in the King George V Handicap. Enceladus took a prominent pitch from stall 13 and was always poised to strike when his rider wanted in a race run at a modest gallop.
Leading at the entrance to the home straight, Moore kicked on and the son of Sea The Stars responded well to open up a lead, which he didn’t look like relinquishing, holding on by half a length and a head from Al Azd (Roger Varian/Cieren Fallon) and Believed (Johnny Murtagh/Oisin Murphy).
O’Brien said: “The race set up differently today than it usually does, with a slow pace. Ryan made a good move early to change the plan a little bit and that was the winning of the race, I think.
“The horse was very tenacious.
“I am really delighted for Maria [Niarchos-Gouaze, owner]. She has been so good to me all my training career, and to have another Royal Ascot winner for her and the team is very special. We are very lucky to be able to train some nice horses with good pedigrees for Maria and the team.
“This guy had a very good two-year-old season. We thought he would enjoy stepping up in trip and the plan was to wait for today to do that.
“If you win a handicap at Royal Ascot, especially one of the three-year-old races, generally you’re a stakes horse in the making.
Asked if he might make into a St Leger candidate, O’Brien replied: “He is potentially, but you’d have to go to a trial between now and then - but he is a group horse in the making, hopefully.”
THE Gold Cup is THE race of Royal Ascot. Not the Ascot Gold Cup, of course, and racing’s pedants (we’re a proud bunch) will tell you no prefix is necessary - like the Derby, there may be many imitators, but only one Gold Cup.
These days, the fashion for speed in racing means that Cup races are something of a throwback, but however exciting the closest six-furlong sprint may be, there is nothing to bring a crowd to concert pitch like a real battle between two brave stayers.
There have been many memorable skirmishes in the Gold Cup over the years, and it’s now 90 years since the Oaks winner Quashed beat US Triple Crown winner Omaha in what has generally been regarded as the most exhilarating finish in Gold Cup history, with the diminutive filly prevailing after a race which took its toll on the audience as much as the participants, with The Observer reporting: “Watching Quashed beat Omaha took years off a man’s life. But it was worth it.”
Perhaps no race since has quite matched the 1936 running, but the Gold Cup is often the most memorable race of the meeting, due to the fondness the public have for stayers, especially those who wear their hearts on their sleeves, and who can forget the Queen’s Estimate denying Simenon on a photo, or the courageous Big Orange refusing to yield to Order of St George?
2025 hero Trawlerman was beaten on Thursday after attempting to make all, but he wrote his name into the hearts of racing fans all over the world with his brave attempt to hold off the gambled-on Scandinavia. The latter looked sure to win when looming up two furlongs out, but Buick and Trawlerman turned him away once and parried a second thrust before weariness overtook him in the dying strides, allowing Ryan Moore to get the favourite’s head in front on the line. Both jockeys rode superbly (criticism of Buick for switching his stick in the dying moments was unfair on a rider trying everything in his armoury to conjure one last ounce from a mount whose spirit was willing, but who had given his all with 50 yards left to run). Scandinavia is king, but Trawlerman, by making the winner fight to the very end, was the kingmaker.