Top Australian sprinters Joliestar and Lady Of Camelot entered for Royal Ascot 2026

Horse Racing

Mon May 11, 2026 · 1d ago

Matt Brocklebank looks at the four big sprinters from Australia who featured in this week's entries for the King Charles III and Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes.

I hadn’t spent much time in the company of Australian sports journalists until visiting Hong Kong this spring.

One must try hard not to generalise in such a scenario, but from my experience they are considerably warmer than might first meet the eye and will talk openly and passionately to/at just about anyone within earshot with punchy views on the plight of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side, franchise cricket, plus the currently uninspiring national Rugby Union side – the household names just aren’t there anymore, I’m reliably informed.

One thing the Aussie reporters appreciate more than most is a fast racehorse and their love for Ka Ying Rising was there for all to see out in the Far East. Here is a Hong Kong speedball who travelled Down Under to beat up the best Australian sprinters in the Everest in October, despite being undercooked and only about 85% fit by all accounts.

John Size's world-beater is well on course to repeat the feat but he won't be shipping to Royal Ascot – not this year at least – and, in light of the entries being released earlier this week, it appears connections of a few of his victims from Randwick last year are smelling blood in this part of the world.

And why wouldn’t they? The British sprinting scene has looked extremely thin since Battaash retired five years ago and things aren’t about to change any time soon when you consider this season’s Abernant and Palace House Stakes have been won by an eight-year-old Run To Freedom and hitherto frustrating Night Raider respectively.

Full credit to Henry Dwyer and the team behind Asfoora, but as conversation en route to Sha Tin from media hotel turned to the 2024 King Charles III and last year’s Nunthorpe/Abbaye heroine, there was a distinct feeling that she’s considered little more than a third-team player back home.

So, what about these raiding rockets being lined up for this summer's Royal jamboree? To suggest expectations are quite high would be an understatement. 'They are from the A-list,' one source confidently stated.

Joliestar (King Charles III Stakes & Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes)

Apparent team captain is Joliestar, winner of five Group 1s from five and a half furlongs up to a mile including the 2023 Thousand Guineas.

Trained by Chris Waller, who struck Ascot gold with Nature Strip in 2022, the Zoustar mare was beaten just under two lengths by Ka Ying Rising in the Everest and has gone unbeaten in three starts over six furlongs this calendar year.

She’s proven on soft and quick ground and is already 9/4 favourite for the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes on Royal Ascot Saturday, having taken the Nature Strip route by landing the T J Smith Stakes last time out.

Like the other three Aussies among the entries released this week, she’s been given the option to run in Tuesday’s King Charles III beforehand.

Lady Of Camelot (King Charles III Stakes & Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes)

A Royal Ascot winner remains something of an omission on the glittering CV of Gai Waterhouse, who saw her Bentley Biscuit bomb out in the 2007 King’s Stand and Wandjina finish sixth on his 2015 swansong in the Jubilee.

Together with training partner Adrian Bott, Waterhouse goes again with Lady Of Camelot, winner of the Golden Slipper at two. She’s now a four-year-old filly, without a subsequent victory to her name, but last year she was banging heads with the standout Lady Shenandoah at Randwick and Rosehill, and that form ties in reasonably well as Lady Of Shenandoah finished within a length of Joliestar in the G1 Canterbury Stakes in March this year.

Lady Of Camelot had a pleasing comeback run when fifth in a soft-ground Group 2 in Queensland last weekend and she’s expected to have another spin before a decision is made whether or not to travel.

Overpass (King Charles III Stakes & Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes)

Overpass is another challenger with that all-important Everest form behind KYR, and he actually finished a short-head and one place higher than Joliestar, although their subsequent meeting back at Randwick last month showed him to be a couple of lengths inferior to the mare.

If you go back far enough, Overpass has a fine second to Nature Strip on his dancecard and any horse with a couple of G1 Australian sprints to their name has to be respected in the Northern Hemisphere.

He might be more one for the King Charles III rather than the stiff six furlongs of the Jubilee.

Generosity (King Charles III Stakes & Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes)

Another for the Waller yard, Generosity was third to her much-vaunted stablemate Joliestar in a Randwick Group 2 over five and a half furlongs last September and while she too was tried over as far as a mile in her youth, brazen speed looks her bag as she’s matured.

She’s been ridden by James McDonald in her last four starts and it’s hard to see 10/1 for the King Charles III lasting too long, especially if a couple of her compatriots are held back for the weekend.

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