ON the eve of the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Sir Francis Brooke and his team paid tribute to the breeders of winners at Royal Ascot 2022, hosting a lunch and presenting the recipients with salvers to commemorate their success.

Half of the Group 1 races on offer fell to horses carrying the Ire suffix – State Of Rest, Kyprios, Perfect Power and Coroebus, while Baaeed, Inspiral and Naval Crown brought glory for the GB-breds. Australia supplied Nature Strip, winner of the King’s Stand Stakes.

The five-fay programme of racing contained 14 races at Group 2, Group 3 and listed level, and exactly half of these again were won by horses foaled in Ireland. Five went the way of British-breds, while French-breds were twice successful at Group 3 level.

Thirteen races carry no blacktype status, and half a dozen of these saw Irish-breds victorious, level with the British-breds. The sole interloper here was the only American-bred to win during the week.