Matt Brocklebank looks to unpick some of the many strands following a hectic week in the Royal Ascot sunshine.
Tangerine team only growing stronger
Ten Bob Tony’s shock win in the Queen Anne was a significant moment for Ed Walker and Kieran Shoemark, while for Blackpool FC chief Simon Sadler it represented a breakthrough at the highest level as an owner. Welcome news for a man whose side may have ended the last campaign with four straight wins but could manage no better than mid-table mediocrity in Sky Bet League One.
Investor and hedge fund manager Sadler, whose equine venture TBT Racing has come a long way in a short space of time having hooked up with bloodstock agents Ed Sackville and Charlie Budgett, has now enjoyed back-to-back Royal Ascot winners after Noble Champion’s 25/1 triumph in the 2025 Jersey.
Ten Bob Tony, named after Sadler’s father by all accounts and the first horse to run in the blue, white and tangerine silks, was backing up just 10 days on from a hard-fought Group 3 win in Epsom’s Tattenham Corner Stakes on contrasting ground conditions. He’s evidently a tough cookie who should not be underestimated on account of his Ascot SP.
As for the ownership group, the trajectory is still seemingly upwards and more big days competiting in the top division for Sadler are highly likely – if not on a footballing front.
Heritage one for Goodwood
Christophe Soumillon and Ryan Moore copped suspensions for their ultimately thwarted efforts to sink Bow Echo in Tuesday's St James's Palace Stakes, while Wayne Lordan was certainly on the front foot tactically aboard True Love in Friday's Coronation Stakes (Luke Morris somehow the one to cop a three-day ban on Moon Target), but what about those less-talked-about day-one Wathnan dramas?
Qatari-born Faleh Bughenaim is relatively new to these parts but won’t be rushing to watch the Coventry Stakes back after he got himself in all sorts of bother on 125/1 shot Final Objective, that one hampering the same owners’ Ruler’s Pride before bringing up an extraordinary double by edging across the line of Wathnan first-string Royal Heritage.
"...after viewing a recording of the incident it was found that no riding offence was involved," read the BHA Stewards' report.
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Royal Heritage, who was turned out just six days on from a debut win on softer ground at Hamilton, is nicely related and did well to finish third all things considered. Aside from the winner, he’s the colt to take from the race and could be ideal for the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood if in need of a short break on the back of his two swift introductory outings.
Things got almost just as messy for the Wathnan contingent in the Copper Horse Stakes, Sing Us A Song, Valiancy and Ernst Blofeld finishing fifth, sixth and seventh respectively after Ernst Blofeld was done no favours by Sing Us A Song, who was then impeded by the eventual winner Daiquiri Bay. The well-backed Valiancy is a bit of a slowcoach but could be one for the Cesarewitch as he’ll likely cope well with some cut in the ground.
Ombudsman a proper 10 out of 10
“He’s too good to go a mile and a half,” the latest tongue-in-cheek jab from one of British racing’s professed figureheads after John Gosden’s stable star Ombudsman downed last year’s Arc protagonists Minnie Hauk and Daryz in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
The trainer has clashed with the European Pattern Committee on numerous subjects in the past, including the protection of the staying-race programme, and that looks likely to continue on the back of this quote, while there’s been a tetchy undercurrent bubbling away between him and the Coolmore operation in regards to the Betfred Derby, but Aidan O’Brien seems to quite enjoy getting under big John’s skin.
Gosden’s latest subtle sign-off seemed unnecessary. I took it as his sideways take on O’Brien running his best three-year-old Constitution River in the Prix du Jockey Club, rather than at Epsom, but he’s not an easy man to read at the best of times and I’m just not certain where that tête-à-tête all ends up.
Something we already suspected but can now be sure of is that Ombudsman is a sensational middle-distance performer; that distance being 10 furlongs precisely.
His Timeform rating received a nudge up to 134 on the back of a superb four-length win, making him the highest-rated Flat horse in Europe and a pound higher than Calandagan, who had Ombudsman’s measure in last season’s Champion Stakes but now needs to bounce back from a wet-weather no-show over a mile and a half at Epsom.
Ombudsman seems likely to skip this year’s Coral-Eclipse in favour of going straight to York in August and he’ll be hard to contain there granted a strong pace to aim at. That rematch with Calandagan in October might be the one to savour, though.
Francis Graffard’s five-year-old – winner of the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, King George, Japan Cup and Sheema Classic, as well as the Champion Stakes – clearly isn’t ‘too good’ to be successful over a couple of key distances.
Friendly force to be reckoned with
Oisin Murphy was minded to pull-up after taking a false step on Friendly Soul during the filly’s long-awaited comeback at Haydock last month, and the champion jockey found himself in a hole of a different kind in Wednesday’s Duke Of Cambridge.
She broke well enough from the stalls but soon got a little bit squeezed out and shuffled right back to sit last of all after a couple of furlongs.
Eventual second Jancis and fourth Kon Tiki were the two horses just in front of her, so being held up in a race run in a time a spot faster than standard probably wasn’t the worst position per se, but whereas the other pair switched out to track the winner Blue Bolt who travelled sweetly to the lead a furlong out, Murphy stayed tight to the inside rail.
Friendly Soul flashed home late in the day after safely negotiating a weakening Arisaig, but the bird had flown.
At least the Gosden mare is back on track after that lengthy layoff and the Haydock blemish, and I wouldn’t want to be laying her in any of the high-class mares’ race over 10 furlongs or thereabouts for the remainder of the season.
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Discover Sporting Life Plus BenefitsLloyd a heavyweight in the making
"I’m a racing purist, I love this carnival,” New Zealand-born James McDonald beamed on ITV after winning the Wolferton on the Graffard-trained and Wathnan-owned Map Of Stars.
McDonald is a regular visitor to the Royal meeting these days and, after masterfully guiding Opportunity to victory in the Duke of Edinburgh on Friday, went on to add an eighth career win here on Saturday thanks to the exciting Lost Boys having earlier come within a whisker of winning the Jubilee aboard sprint sensation Joliestar who was third in a truly international finish with Japan's Satono Reve third, Stolen Kiss for France in fourth and a Dane close up in sixth.
The international flavour to Ascot is always a welcome twist and McDonald will know all about Zac Llyod, one of the rising stars in Australia and now a Royal meeting winner as well after taking the 30-runner Britannia aboard Moonfall for George Boughey.
Ruby Walsh affirmed he “must be a very good judge of pace” on ITV after pushing the button at precisely the right moment on Thursday and Lloyd spoke well afterwards of his association with Godolphin/Charlie Appleby, and getting to know Billy Loughnane during the latter’s stint Down Under over the winter, which is when the plans to travel to the UK were originally conceived.
Lloyd hasn’t missed his opportunity either, registering earlier winners at Doncaster and York from just a dozen or so rides, and the 22-year-old has already enjoyed some major moments in principal races back home.
“To get a winner here is quite unbelievable and I’m super-pleased for myself and my family,” he told FanDuel TV.
As 34-year-old J-Mac approaches the twilight stage of his career, Lloyd may never quite fill his boots but looks a rider with a huge future.
No JOB too big, no JOB too small
Is there anything Joseph O’Brien cannot train?
Fresh off the back of a National Hunt campaign which saw him win another Grade 1 with Solness, top-class novice hurdles thanks to Talk The Talk and Zeus Power, plus the Stayers’ Hurdle and Liverpool Hurdle with 11-year-old Home By The Lee, he enjoyed a stunning time in the Berkshire sunshine.
O’Brien came out swinging by running seven in the Ascot Stakes but very much walked the walk by saddling the one-two (Kizlyar beating Defiantly), before adding the Queen’s Vase to his trophy cabinet through Limestone. King Of Cloughan popped up at 33/1 to land the Windsor Castle and you can bank on the fact this son of St Mark’s Basilica wouldn’t have been anywhere near the Windsor Castle in its previous guise over the minimum trip.
A brilliant piece of placement, and the same can be said of Enceladus who looked to have a bit in hand when bagging Thursday’s King George V Stakes under Ryan Moore, plus Sandringham winner Green Carrera on Friday.
He nearly won the Chesham courtesy of a newcomer with just a barrier trial third to his name and he nearly won the Ribblesdale with a maiden on the back of two starts.
There have been some legendary dual-purpose trainers over the years – I can think of a couple who carried the same name including Joseph’s father – but there’s none better at present and somehow he seems to be able to keep a particularly wide range of owners happy, from all corners of the globe, which must be one of the most challenging aspects of the operation at times.
Appleby can wait for Newmarket
Aidan O’Brien remarkably ticked past the ton marker at Royal Ascot this week but no winner for Charlie Appleby, with Rebel’s Romance in last year’s Hardwicke still his only winner at this meeting since Naval Crown in 2022.
Del Maro did briefly provide a chink of light for the short and medium term when narrowly beaten in Wednesday’s Queen’s Vase.
He’d been nosed out of it right on the line in the Cocked Hat Stakes towards the end of May too, but I wouldn’t be too concerned about his attitude and a return to Goodwood for the Gordon Stakes would look a possible next port of call, although the Bahrain Trophy might be preferred considering all of Appleby’s horses tend to come alive on home soil at Newmarket’s July meeting.
Del Maro is all about stamina anyway – as you’d expect from his breeding – and he should definitely be campaigned towards the St Leger, with the Melbourne Cup another interesting potential mission as there are two-milers on the dam’s side of his pedigree.
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