Richard Hannon is looking forward to Rosallion’s bid for Queen Anne glory at Royal Ascot next week – but admits his stable star will need to improve to win the Group One showpiece.
Tuesday’s contest features a fascinating rematch from the Lockinge at Newbury where Lead Artist beat Dancing Gemini a neck with Rosallion two-and-a-quarter lengths away in third, a short-head in front of Godolphin’s 2024 2000 Guineas winner Notable Speech.
Hannon told Tuesday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “All has gone fine since Newbury. He seems in very good form; the race will have done him the world of good. Sean (Levey) rode him in work this morning and seemed very happy.
“We’ll have to find improvement to win the race obviously and it will be a very good race but he’s unbeaten at Ascot, and we’re looking forward to it as I’m sure are a lot of other trainers who have runners in the race.”
The trainer admits he was surprised to see Rosallion seemingly need his return at Newbury as much as he did.
“I took him away three times and he had done loads. I was staggered with the amount he blew in the winners’ enclosure afterwards," he said. "He’s always a bit like that anyway but I was like ‘my god he’s done loads’ and Sean said ‘he’ll win the Queen Anne’ so I said ‘that’s good, I’m OK with that now!’
“As the day goes on you get less disappointed as you look at the race again. I said to Charlie Appleby ‘I won the race between me and you and that’s the race I came for’. He said, ‘William said he blew up and will win the Queen Anne’ and I said ‘that’s exactly what Sean said!’
“It’s going to be fabulous, and it will be an extremely good horse that wins it.
“I was happy with him going into Newbury and he was moving great, but you could see the race he ran that day, he got there, won his race and got tired and that is something you can’t achieve at home. That is a race, match fitness thing and the only way you can get that match fitness is by playing matches. For that reason, he will improve for it, will he improve enough? We’ll find out.”
When asked to nominate another horse he was looking forward to running next week, Hannon went for Aramram in the Wokingham on the final day.
“Ryan (Moore) loved him at Newbury last time and said he felt like a Group horse and you need to be a Group horse to win a Royal Ascot handicap,” he added.
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