John Ingles looks at some of the pedigree stories from Royal Ascot, including more success for Frankel and a leading broodmare.
Three more Group 1 winners for Frankel
Three stallions shared the honours for the most winners at Royal Ascot with Galileo, Siyouni and Frankel all having three winners apiece. Galileo’s trio were headed by Warm Heart who gave his sire a fourth winner of the Ribblesdale Stakes since 2015, while Siyouni’s winners included the Irish Guineas winners Paddington and Tahiyra who followed up in the St James’s Palace Stakes and Coronation Stakes respectively.
But Frankel takes pride of place given all three of his winners were successful in Group 1 contests, each of them proving revelations as Triple Time, Mostahdaf and Courage Mon Ami were all winning in the highest grade for the first time. Triple Time was having his first start at Group 1 level when winning the Queen Anne Stakes at odds of 33/1, Mostahdaf upstaged four proven Group 1 performers in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, while the unbeaten but inexperienced Courage Mon Ami added to two wins on the all-weather and a Goodwood handicap success by producing a high-class performance to win the Gold Cup (replay below).
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Triple Time and Courage Mon Ami are four-year-olds which is significant as it brings Frankel’s total of Group/Grade 1 winners from his 2019 crop to nine. It’s a crop that also includes last year’s Irish Derby winner and recent Coronation Cup runner-up Westover and last year’s Coronation Stakes and Prix Jacques le Marois winner Inspiral who went down by a neck to Triple Time in the Queen Anne. Frankel’s sire Galileo had nine Group 1 winners in his most successful crop which was foaled in 2008 and which included Frankel himself.
Success for American-bred two-year-olds
The American-bred two-year-old with the highest profile at Royal Ascot this year was undoubtedly American Rascal, trained, like his brilliantly speedy dam Lady Aurelia, by Wesley Ward. Lady Aurelia won the Queen Mary Stakes by seven lengths and blitzed her field again when returning to win the King’s Stand Stakes a year later. Much was therefore expected of American Rascal, who started second favourite for the Norfolk Stakes after making a winning debut on dirt by just over ten lengths, but was a big disappointment in beating only one home.
But the Norfolk did go to an American-bred colt, albeit one trained in Ireland. In a week of long-priced winners, Valiant Force pulled off the biggest shock of all at odds of 150/1. He’s a son of Malibu Moon, a colt by US Horse of The Year and twice leading North American sire A P Indy out of the Prix Marcel Boussac winner Macoumba. Malibu Moon raced only twice at two, winning a five-furlong maiden on the dirt at Hollywood, and consequently began his stud career at a fee of just $3,000. But by the time he died of an apparent heart attack just over two years ago at the age of 24, he was standing for $35,000 and had sired 17 Grade 1 winners in the US, including the 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb. Valiant Force was a $100,000 yearling at Keeneland last year, though his price tag was presumably more down to his looks (he was one of the paddock picks on that score) rather than pedigree as he’s the first foal of an unraced daughter of a stakes winner in Canada.
Another rather unfamiliar name on this side of the Atlantic was responsible for the Queen Mary winner Crimson Advocate who became a fifth US-based winner of the race, though unlike the previous four she’s trained by George Weaver rather than Wesley Ward. Crimson Advocate is a daughter of Nyquist, another dirt performer, who ended his two-year-old season by winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and was still unbeaten when winning the Kentucky Derby, earning a Timeform rating at three of 125. Currently standing for $55,000, Nyquist has sired a couple of Grade 1 winners, including the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Vequist, but Crimson Advocate was his first runner in Britain. Like the Norfolk winner, she cost $100,000 as a yearling, but comes from a more successful family; her dam is a half-sister to the dam of another former Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ winner Caledonia Road.
Three Royal Ascot winners for broodmare Reem Three
Frankel’s part in Triple Time’s Queen Anne victory has already been acknowledged but his dam deserves plenty of credit too because Reem Three has quietly been compiling a terrific record as a broodmare, including at Royal Ascot. All eight of her runners on the Flat have achieved a three-figure Timeform rating and Triple Time, now rated 124, is best of the lot. Reem Three was a useful filly herself, rated 103, and was trained by Luca Cumani for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum. She won a maiden at Wolverhampton and a couple of handicaps at York before finishing second at listed level in the Hoppings Stakes at Newcastle. Whilst best at a mile and a quarter herself, she has produced good winners over a variety of trips.
Triple Time becomes Reem Three’s second Group 1 winner after Ajman Princess (rated 117, by Teofilo), winner of the Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville at four. She was still a maiden when contesting the Ribblesdale Stakes at three, finishing second at 33/1. Ajman Princess might have missed out on a Royal Ascot win but Triple Time becomes his dam’s third foal to win at the meeting. The first to win there was Ostilio (120, by Shamardal), winner of the Britannia Stakes in 2018 and successful in the Group 2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein at the Arc meeting later that year. A year later Cape Byron (rated 120, by Shamardal) won the Wokingham and clearly went well at Ascot as he also won the Victoria Cup and Bengough Stakes there the same season.
Reem Three’s other smart winners are middle-distance handicapper Naqshabban (117, by Street Cry), Third Realm (113, by Sea The Stars), who beat the Derby winner Adayar when winning the Derby Trial at Lingfield and won another listed race at Goodwood last year, and Imperial Charm (110, by Dubawi), a filly who gained a Group 1 placing when third in the Prix Saint-Alary.
Reem Three’s three-year-old colt Captain Winters (107, by Lope de Vega) also ran at Ascot last week, though finished down the field in the Hampton Court Stakes after racing freely, a trait he and some of his siblings have inherited from their dam. He’d won the listed Heron Stakes at Sandown on his previous start to become his dam’s seventh foal to earn some black type.
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