John Ingles looks at some of the bloodstock stories from this week's racing at Royal Ascot.
No Nay Never on fire in a hot week
Having drawn a blank at the meeting for the last two years, No Nay Never proved the most successful sire of the week with four winners from twelve runners. No Nay Never had been a Royal Ascot winner himself, winning the Norfolk Stakes for Wesley Ward and breaking the juvenile track record in the process on going Timeform described as ‘firm’. Perhaps it wasn’t surprising, therefore, given that conditions on the straight course were similarly quick by the end of a very hot week, that his offspring should have fared so well.
No Nay Never’s winners were headed by the latest Norfolk winner Charles Darwin, while True Love made it a double for Ballydoyle in the two Group 2 five-furlong contests for two-year-olds. No Nay Never had also notched a two-year-old double for Aidan O’Brien in 2022 when Meditate won the Albany Stakes and Little Big Bear won the Windsor Castle Stakes. No Nay Never’s other two winners this week came in handicaps, with the very smart Never So Brave winning the Buckingham Palace Stakes and Never Let Go the Sandringham Stakes.
Ascot track record holder in American Affair's pedigree
Besides training and part-owning American Affair, Jim Goldie knows the female side of his King Charles III Stakes winner’s family very well. American Affair is by Washington DC, winner of the Windsor Castle Stakes for Aidan O’Brien in 2015 and standing for a mere £3,500 this year at Bearstone Stud in Shropshire. But as Goldie pointed out after the race, American Affair was the third generation of the family that he had trained.
The gelding’s grandam Class Wan, rated 74 by Timeform, won a couple of nurseries at Musselburgh and Ayr, while her daughter Classy Anne (rated 86) did all her winning at Scottish tracks too, with all six of her wins coming in five-furlong handicaps. Goldie was also the trainer of Classy Anne’s sire Orientor, one of the best sprinters he had trained before American Affair came along. Goldie had bought Orientor as a yearling for just 12,000 guineas, attracted in part by the fact that his dam Orient then held the track record for Ascot’s five furlongs – she had also finished third in what was then the King’s Stand Stakes.
Over eight seasons, Orientor ran no fewer than 79 times, earning a best Timeform rating of 118 and winning five races, including a couple of Group 3 sprints. He also won the Shergar Cup Sprint at Ascot, but he failed to figure in a total of five attempts in Royal Ascot’s top sprints. He took advantage of the Royal meeting being held closer to home at York in 2005 when doubling up in both the King’s Stand and Golden Jubilee that year and had the misfortune to be brought down by a faller when contesting the King’s Stand again a year later.
Goldie has had plenty of success with Orientor’s offspring, much the best of them being Jack Dexter (rated 124) who won in handicap company at Ascot but also ran well in defeat in top sprints at the same track. He was beaten less than two lengths when fourth at 33/1 in the 2013 King’s Stand and was twice placed in the British Champions Sprint Stakes before it became a Group 1.
Trawlerman bred to stay all day
The way Trawlerman relentlessly galloped his rivals into submission from the front in the Gold Cup makes you think he’d stay even further than two and a half miles were such an opportunity to exist and looking at the stamina influences in his pedigree it’s no wonder he stays so well. It was appropriate that it was a horse trained by the Gosdens who should become a first Group 1 winner for his sire as Golden Horn enjoyed a top-class three-year-old campaign for John Gosden when his wins included the Derby and the Arc.
At stud, Golden Horn has been a bit of an enigma, the average ratings of his offspring comparing well with the leading middle-distance/staying sires but not converting to a top-level win on the Flat until now, though he’s also the sire of this year’s Champion Hurdle winner Golden Ace. The Gosdens train another of his best Flat performers, Gregory, who disappointed in last year’s Gold Cup but is a former Queen’s Vase winner.
Trawlerman is the second Gold Cup winner out of a mare by German stallion Monsun after another winner in the Godolphin colours, Colour Vision, while Monsun himself sired Queen Elizabeth II’s Gold Cup winner Estimate. Another stamina influence in Trawlerman’s pedigree is St Leger winner Shantou who was John Gosden’s first classic winner. Shantou rarely crops up in Flat pedigrees – he’s much better known for his jumpers – though he did sire Trawlerman’s grandam Sweet Stream who won the Prix Vermeille.
Hunt Cup winner My Cloud bred to excel at Ascot
If any horse this week had a ‘Royal Ascot pedigree’ then it was My Cloud who was sent off a short-priced favourite for the Royal Hunt Cup and duly got up late to beat his 29 rivals with a smart performance which suggests he’s on the way to contesting better races than handicaps. That would be very much in keeping with his pedigree as his siblings include top-class miler Palace Pier whose Group 1 wins included two Royal Ascot victories in the St James’s Palace Stakes and Queen Anne Stakes. Their unraced dam Beach Frolic was herself by a Royal Ascot winner in Nayef, winner of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
My Cloud is by top-class sprinter Blue Point who had a terrific record at Ascot, particularly at the Royal meeting, where he won the King’s Stand Stakes at four and did the double of the King’s Stand and Diamond Jubilee the following season. Blue Point had two winners over the straight mile at Ascot on Wednesday as My Cloud’s win was followed by Miss Information in the Kensington Palace Stakes. Other winners this week who were siblings of previous Royal Ascot winners were Coronation Stakes winner Cercene, a half-sister to Hunt Cup winner Perotto, Copper Horse Stakes winner French Master, a brother to Hampton Court Stakes winner Mohaafeth, and Humidity who emulated his brother Holloway Boy by winning the Chesham Stakes.
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Mehmas still seeking a first Royal Ascot win
The Richard Hannon-trained Mehmas raced only at two when he proved a smart sprinter, winning four races, including the July Stakes and Richmond Stakes after finding only the favourite Caravaggio too good in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot. After a record-breaking season with his first runners in 2020, Mehmas has gone from strength to strength at stud and stood for his highest fee yet, €70,000, at Tally-Ho Stud in Ireland after Believing, Magnum Force, Vertical Blue and Scorthy Champ all won Group 1 races last year. All of which makes Mehmas’ lack of success at Royal Ascot hard to fathom.
Another 23 losers for Mehmas this week brings his Royal Ascot record to 0-76. Not that he hasn’t gone close, with Persian Force also finding one too good in the 2022 Coventry and Lusail going down by a head in the same year’s St James’s Palace Stakes. Wathnan Racing looked to have two good chances of improving their sire’s Royal Ascot record this year with expensive breeze-up purchases Zelaina and Old Is Gold but they finished out of the money in the Queen Mary and Windsor Castle respectively. Godolphin’s two-year-old Wise Approach went closer, finishing second in the Norfolk, while Awaken outran her odds of 66/1 to take the same position in the Albany Stakes but Mehmas remains without a winner at Royal Ascot.
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