Dubai: Few racing festivals can boast the wide range of opening-day marque events as Royal Ascot does with four Group 1 contests, including three in the premier division, highlighting Tuesday’s six-race card.
The opening day sets the tone for what promises to be an incredible week on the flat, with 30 races over varying distances and conditions, being staged a five-day extravaganza that has become the centrepiece of British racing and the country’s social calendar.
Fourteen of Europe’s best milers are set to battle it out in the first race of the day, the £600,000 (Dh3.144 million) Queen Anne Stakes (G1), a race that dates back to 1840 when it was first run to commemorate the monarch, who established racing at Ascot in 1711.
Three horses, including Belardo (William Buick), Toormore (James Doyle) and Barchan (Jack Mitchell), represent Team Godolphin, who are the leading owner in the race with seven victories since Charnwood Forest in 1996 and Ramonti most recently in 2007.
This year’s Queen Anne is stacked with Group 1 winners, led by American raider Tepin, the Breeders’ Cup Mile (Group 1) heroine, and several accomplished milers.
Belardo delivered a career best performance in the Lockinge Stakes (Group 1) at Newbury where Toormore finished fifth of 12 and looks to be Godolphin’s best chance of continuing their dominance in the day one showpiece.
Strong claims
Last year’s winner Solow is an absentee but runner-up Esoterique bids to go one better for legendary French handler Andre Fabre with the Jean-Claude Rouget-trained Ervedya also a serious French-trained protagonist.
Irish 1,000 Guineas (Group 1) heroine Awtaad looks to have strong claims in the £400,000 St James’s Palace Stakes (Group 1), a contest which is shaping into a clash against two other Guineas winners, led by Newmarket sensation Galileo Gold and French star The Gurkha.
Raced by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, Awtaad was no match for Galileo Gold at the Curragh, but faces a far serious examination this time around given the depth and quality of a field that also features Godolphin’s Emotionless, winner of last year’s Dewhurst Stakes (Group 1), Britain’s most prestigious race for juveniles.
Muthmir and Waady will have to be at the top of their game if they hope to outsprint a cracking field in the £400,000 King’s Stand Stakes (Group 1) and gift Shaikh Hamdan a second success in the five-furlong dash after Dayjur in 1990.
Godolphin have never won the contest but Jungle Cat, runner-up to Profitable in the Palace House Stakes (Group 3) at Newmarket in April, appears to have the credentials to set the record straight.
William Buick, who takes the ride for Godolphin handler Charlie Appleby, said: “I think Jungle Cat has got as good a chance as anything in the race.
“He should have won the Palace House, but I ended up in the middle of track on my own and didn’t have anything to challenge with. It was a bit of a nightmare and he was unfortunate.
“He had also run well in the Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan in March before that and is a good, honest horse. A stiff five furlongs suits him, and the climb to the finish will help.
“He’s pretty quick, uncomplicated and can hold his own. I won’t try to do anything flashy.”
Irish maestro Aidan O’Brien had gone home with the Coventry Stakes on seven occasions in the past and could well be taking home the trophy once again as the unbeaten Caravaggio looks had to oppose.
He faces 18 rivals including four horses with Dubai connections among them the Shaikh Hamdan duo of Mokarris (Simon Crisford/Paul Hanagan) and Rusumaat (Mark Johnston/Joe Fannine) while Godolphin take their chance with the lightly raced Thunder Snow (Bin Surour/James Doyle) and Van Der Decken (Paddy Twomey/William Lordan).
Silver Concorde, third in the Chester Cup, and the Gordon Elliott-trained Eshtiaal, head the field in the two and a half mile Ascot Stakes, which together with the Gold Cup and Queen Alexandra Stakes, make up a triumvirate to long-distance tests.
