Royal Ascot pedigree guide: Who are the best performing sires at the meeting?

DUBAWI

• Royal Ascot 2022: 5/15 33.33% (Winners: Coroebus, Naval Crown, Secret State, Dubai Future, Eldar Eldarov)
• Royal Ascot overall: 23/169 13.61%

Dubawi took the ‘stallion of the week’ gong at last year’s Royal Ascot in light of a stunning five winners across the week over a wide range of distances, from a one-two in the Platinum Jubilee (Naval Crown and Creative Force) to Eldar Eldarov’s Queen’s Vase win over 1m6f.

But will the Darley behemoth rule the roost once again? Slight concerns over the well-being of Charlie Appleby’s Newmarket string might not help his cause, but on paper Dubawi looks well set for another fantastic summer spell, kicking off with big chances in Royal Ascot’s very first race.

In Modern Games and French star Erevann, he is responsible for two of the top three in the Queen Anne betting, while Thursday’s Gold Cup looks pretty well cornered too due to big three Emily Dickinson, Yibir and the returning Eldar Eldarov.

The likes of Never Ending Story (Ribblesdale), Queen Me (Commonwelath Cup) and Rebel’s Romance (Hardwicke) add further weight to the Dubawi squad who are potentially in line for the meeting and, whatever the weather, few would be surprised if he topped the charts numerically once again.

KINGMAN

• Royal Ascot 2022 – 3/17 17.65% (Winners: Thesis, Candleford, Noble Truth)
• Royal Ascot overall – 7/53 13.2%

Kingman has enjoyed several notable Royal Ascot winners since taking up stallion duties, not least the likes of Palace Pier, Sangarius and Calyx – the latter expected to be represented by his own first crop of two-year-olds this time around in Berkshire.

Kingman popped up with 14/1 Britannia winner Thesis last June, along with Duke Of Edinburgh victor Candleford as well as Noble Truth, who won the Jersey, to take his sire’s overall tally to an impressive 7/53 at this meeting.

There will be a lot of highly promising handicappers in line for Kingman once again and few would begrudge a Hunt Cup win for Astro King given his creditable efforts in the race in the past few years.

Sounds Of Heaven, Queen For You and Remarquee give the Juddmonte horse a fair shot in the Coronation Stakes, while Kinross – a winner here under Frankie Dettori on Champions Day in October, returns to action in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes.

Torito is a possible for the Hampton Court, Laurel the Duke Of Cambridge, and Probe is among the leading contenders for the Wokingham.

STARSPANGLEDBANNER

• Royal Ascot 2022 – 2/8 25% (Winners: State Of Rest, Latin Lover)
• Royal Ascot overall – 4/32 12.5%

2010 was the year Starspangledbanner announced himself in Britain, winning the (then) Golden Jubilee and the July Cup at Newmarket, and a dozen years on his progeny won two races at the 2022 Royal meeting, State Of Rest landing the Prince of Wales’s under a canny front-running ride from Shane Crosse and Latin Lover scorching the good to firm ground rather like his old man did en route to winning the Palace Of Holyroodhouse Stakes.

Two winners from just eight starters represented a very respectable haul and that took Starspangledbanner’s Royal record to four winners in total.

This year it’s seemingly all about the juveniles, with the Charlie Johnston-trained Barnwell Boy looking above average on his Goodwood debut and George Boughey’s Soprano heading for the Queen Mary on the back of a Newbury debut victory over Saturday’s Beverley winner Midnight Affair.

There’s Donnacha O’Brien’s Devious heading for the Norfolk too but the pick of the bunch could be Albany-bound Carla’s Way, trained by Simon and Ed Crisford for Shaikh Duaij Al Khalifa and deeply impressive over six and a half furlongs at Doncaster on June 3. There are Group 1 winners on the dam’s side of her pedigree and, having gone for £350,000 at the breeze-ups, expectations are understandably high.

Lookout too for a promising three-year-old in the shape of James McHenry, who could be in line for the Britannia as in-form trainer Ed Bethell lines up his first team of horses for Ascot.

GALILEO

• Royal Ascot 2022 – 3/12 25% (Winners: Magical Lagoon, Kyprios, Changingoftheguard)
• Royal Ascot overall – 32/294 10.88%

The 20th and final crop of the late Galileo will take to the track as juveniles in 2024 (though there are sadly only a dozen), so we've still got a couple of seasons of fresh talent to emerge from this significant horse’s remarkable story at stud.

Given the vast majority of his progeny shine brightest on quick ground, the forecast looks fair for a positive week for Galileo and the talent is definitely there, including John and Thady Gosden’s Free Wind who has a leading chance in the Hardwicke Stakes on the back of her Middleton success at York.

The poster-boy from last year, Kyprios, won’t be back to defend his Gold Cup crown but Changingoftheguard, victorious in the King Edward VII last June, may be one to take on Free Wind, Hukum and company in what promises to be a competitive running of the Hardwicke.

The family line that keeps on giving

SCAT DADDY: Royal Ascot overall – 8/32 25%

• NO NAY NEVER
• CARAVAGGIO
• SIOUX NATION

American star Scat Daddy passed away aged 11 after an all too short-lived stallion career but his superb record at producing Royal Ascot winners (25% strike-rate) has clearly been passed to his high-class sons as No Nay Never quickly picked up the baton.

Not only did he win the Norfolk Stakes himself but he’s since produced a bunch of Royal meeting winners including Sioux Nation, Caravaggio, Alcohol Free, Arizona, plus last year’s star pair of juveniles – Little Big Bear and Meditate.

Curragh maiden winner Matrika could be the No Nay Never flag-bearer this year and she may be joined on the trip over by Aidan O’Brien stable companions The Liffey, His Majesty and Alabama.

US raider American Rascal has been compared favourably to No Nay Never but, somewhat surprisingly, not one of Wesley Ward's 2023 raiding party are by his 2013 Norfolk hero.

As for the aforementioned Caravaggio, he is represented by Wokingham favourite Orazio, while Sioux Nation’s second crop of two-year-olds features the Richard Fahey-trained Native American, who won his novice by five and a half lengths on debut at York on May 27 (replay below).

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