Richard Hannon talks Graham Clark through his likely contenders for Royal Ascot.
With the £1 million barrier already passed and more than 50 winners on the board, it has been a flying start to the year for trainer Richard Hannon and he now hopes to ramp it up another notch at Royal Ascot.
The five-day meeting has provided Hannon with some real highlights, which include the 2014 Queen Anne Stakes victory secured by Toronado and St James’s Palace Stakes wins for Barney Roy in 2017 and Rosallion in 2024.
This year Hannon will be heading to the meeting without a genuine Group One flagbearer following the retirement of Rosallion, however that has not stopped him from assembling a team which still looks like it can pack a punch.
Not only will Hannon be well represented in the two-year-old contests, but he also has several interesting handicap contenders that merit close attention, while stable stalwart Haatem will bid for a third successive win at the meeting. And given his record over 11 winners at the meeting there is a fair chance that one or two of those will hit the back of the net.
Hannon said: “We should end up taking about 25 down there. There's not a Rosallion in there, but we have got some very nice two-year-olds, one probably in every race.
"We've got the likes of St Anton in Britannia and River King in the Buckingham Palace. There is also Classic and Linwood in the Royal Hunt Cup, so we have two very good chances in that then we have got the likes of Haatem and Persica in the Wolferton.
“We have a good mixture across the board to take down there and hopefully, with a bit of luck, one or two of them will be good enough to win.”
