Commonwealth Cup (Group 1)

SHAQUILLE (Oisin Murphy) produced a remarkable performance to provide Julie Camacho with her first winner at Royal Ascot in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup.

The three-year-old arrived on the crest of a wave having won his last four races but all hope looked to have gone when he reared up on leaving the stalls.

Oisin Murphy did not panic though, and by halfway he was back in contention, albeit pulling hard, and it remained to be seen if his early exertions had taken their toll.

The early pace was set by Swingalong, who broke fast and set a decent gallop. Hot favourite Little Big Bear hit the front on entering the final furlong, but 9/1 chance Shaquille kept closing, and when Murphy belatedly asked for maximum effort, there was still some petrol in the tank, and the pair hit the line with a length and a quarter to spare over Little Big Bear.

The 66/1 shot Swingalong (Karl Burke/Clifford Lee) was third, beaten just two lengths in total with plenty close up behind her, which puts the form in some perspective.

Of the others, those racing on the stands’ side struggled to get involved, although the two groups really raced either nearer the centre of the track than the flanks. Leading juveniles Lezoo and Sakheer were both fancied after non-staying efforts in the 1000 and 2000 Guineas respectively, but both proved disappointing and finished out the back of the field.

Camacho, who trains in tandem with partner Steve Brown, was also registering a belated first Group 1 victory, which is just reward for one of British racing’s hardest workers. She admitted feeling a bit sick before the race, although that’s nothing to how she must have felt seeing him miss the start so badly.

“I thought, ‘well that’s it, he’s blown his chance’,” said the trainer afterwards. “I’ve just watched it live and would like to go back and watch it properly – he was good, wasn’t he? It’s massive. We never thought we would train a Group 1 winner, not at Royal Ascot anyway and for Martin [co-owner Martin Hughes] it’s massive. He bred him, we’ve got his mother at home, his siblings, Dad looks after the stud so I’m sure he was screaming at home.”

Stalls incident

“I was thinking maybe that was the race over,” said Oisin Murphy about the incident at the stalls. “He behaved in there; I had Craig Witheford to help and, just as the starter let the stalls open, he went into the air and took his time coming back to the ground, and it’s very hard to do that in a six-furlong race and win.

“I got to the back of Ryan [Moore, on Little Big Bear] quite easily, without having to fully go for him. I had to sustain an effort from quite a long way out, so it really was a tremendous task that he managed to overcome. I feel sorry for James Doyle, this would have been his mount today and we are best of friends, so I owe him one.

“James said to trust him, that he would give you the feeling that he might run off, but in fact actually he was very well behaved when I did give him his head. He’s a very well-bred horse, by Charm Spirit and out of a Galileo mare, and he’s quite lightly raced, so it was great to get on him today and thank you very much to the connections.”