Aidan O'Brien's remarkable Royal Ascot record

When Bedtime Story won the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot last year, when she burst clear of her field in the opening contest on the final day of the meeting, nine and a half lengths clear of her closest pursuer by the time she got to the winning line, she brought up Aidan O’Brien’s sixth win of the 2024 Royal meeting. That victory secured a 13th Leading Trainer award at Royal Ascot for Aidan O’Brien.

Not that he needed that win to secure the award, his eighth Leading Trainer title at Royal Ascot in the last 10 years. No other trainer had more than two winners at Royal Ascot last year.

Sir Henry Cecil had 75 winners at Royal Ascot during his remarkable career; Sir Michael Stoute had 82; Bedtime Story’s win was Aidan O’Brien’s 91st win at Royal Ascot.

He has had six winners in one year at Royal Ascot on four occasions and, when he had seven winners in 2016, he equalled Sir Henry Cecil’s record number of Royal Ascot wins in one year, set in 1987.

Kyprios has been responsible for two of those wins, Gold Cup 2022, Gold Cup 2024, and he will be missed from the Gold Cup line-up this year, that’s for sure. Lake Victoria is a notable absentee from this year’s team too for Ballydoyle, the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner would have been favourite for the Coronation Stakes. And Albert Einstein would also have been favourite for the Coventry Stakes had he not been ruled out with a sprained joint.

But there are deputies. All three have deputies. Illinois won the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot last year and, with Kyprios now retired, he will move centre stage for the Gold Cup on Thursday. After he won the Queen’s Vase last year, the Galileo colt finished second in the Grand Prix de Paris and in the Great Voltigeur and in the St Leger, and he won the Prix Chaudenay.

On his debut this season, he beat Saturday’s Sky Bet Race To The Ebor Grand Cup winner Al Qareem in the Ormonde Stakes at Chester. He should come on for that, his first run since October and, a winner over a mile and seven furlongs, there is every chance that he will stay the Gold Cup trip.

In Albert Einstein’s absence, Gstaad and Warsaw are set to line up in the Coventry Stakes on Tuesday. Both colts have run once and won once, both wins coming at Navan, both when they beat better-fancied stable companions.

Gstaad, the choice of Ryan Moore in the Coventry and a half-brother to Middle Park Stakes winner Vandeek, stayed on well up Navan’s hill in a six-furlong contest to get the better of his better-fancied stable companion True Love, who had finished second to Lady Iman in a listed race on her racecourse debut and who could take her chance in the Queen Mary. Warsaw, out of a sister to Oaks winner Forever Together, showed a lot of pace in a five-furlong race and quickened up well to come away from Kansas, who had had the benefit of two runs. Both colts obviously go into the Coventry Stakes with the potential to step forward significantly.

Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner Zarigana is a deserving favourite for Friday’s Coronation Stakes in Lake Victoria’s absence, but it may be that Exactly will be able to get closer to her than she did at Longchamp. Aidan O’Brien’s filly only has just over a length to find with Francis Graffard’s filly from what was obviously a high-profile race in which there was lots going on late on. A three-parts sister to Salt Lake City, who won a listed race over a mile and who stayed nine furlongs, her dam won the Queen Mary and she could improve on her Longchamp run at Ascot.

January could also represent Ballydoyle in Friday’s race. The Kingman filly was well beaten by Lake Victoria in the Irish 1000 Guineas, but she was slowly away that day and she raced in rear from early in a race in which the prominent racers dominated. Second to Desert Flower in the May Hill Stakes and in the Fillies’ Mile last season, she was making her seasonal debut in the Irish Guineas, and she could leave that form well behind at Ascot.

Henri Matisse is on track to contest a red-hot St James’s Palace Stakes on Tuesday. He is the French Guineas representative in a fascinating clash in which the Irish Guineas winner Field Of Gold and the Newmarket Guineas winner Ruling Court are set to go toe to toe again. Tetrarch Stakes winner Officer and Gowran Park maiden winner First Wave will also represent Ballydoyle in the race, but this one is all about the clash of the Guineas winners.

The Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday is all about Los Angeles for Ballydoyle. Winner of the Irish Derby last year and third in the Arc de Triomphe, the Camelot colt was game in seeing off the challenge of White Birch to win the Mooresbridge Stakes at The Curragh on his seasonal return, and he was game again last time in getting the better of Anmaat in the Tattersalls Gold Cup (replay below).

Anmaat again lies in wait, and you can argue that Owen Burrows’ horse will improve for his run at The Curragh, his seasonal debut, and for the return to Ascot, to the course and distance over which he won the Champion Stakes in October. But there is every chance that Los Angeles will also come forward again for his run at The Curragh, and you can understand why bookmakers have him at the top of their lists.

This season, Charles Darwin has won the two races at Navan and at Naas that River Tiber won in 2023 before he went to Royal Ascot and won the Coventry Stakes. But Charles Darwin showed lots of speed to win that Naas race last time at severely prohibitive odds over five furlongs and, a full-brother to top-class juvenile sprinter Blackbeard, his Royal Ascot target is the Norfolk Stakes on Thursday over the minimum trip.

Prix du Jockey Club fourth Trinity College in the Hampton Court Stakes on Thursday, First Approach perhaps in the Windsor Castle on Wednesday, Naas Oaks Trial winner Garden Of Eden in the Ribblesdale on Thursday, where she could be joined by Ecstatic and Island Hopping. Prix Morny winner Whistlejacket in the Commonwealth Cup on Friday.

Shackleton and Scandinavia are set to head up the challenge in the Queen’s Vase, a race that Aidan O’Brien has won a record-equalling eight times, including with subsequent St Leger winner Leading Light in 2013, who also won the Gold Cup the following year, and with subsequent Irish Derby winner Santiago in 2020.

Signora possibly in the Albany Stakes, Lingfield Derby Trial winner Puppet Master in the King Edward VII Stakes, Sweet Chariot in the Sandringham, Serious Contender perhaps in the King George V Stakes on Thursday. The Wootton Bassett colt stayed on well on his seasonal debut to win a three-year-olds’ 10-furlong handicap at Leopardstown at the end of March that Aidan O’Brien has now won four times in the last six years, and he may improve on that by more than the 7lb by which the handicapper raised his mark.

Storm Boy in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes on Saturday. A prolific sprinter in Australia for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, he was well backed on his first run for Aidan O’Brien when he finished ninth of nine behind James’s Delight in the Greenlands Stakes at The Curragh on Irish Guineas weekend in a race in which not much went right. We have been here before with Antipodean Ballydoyle projects.

Merchant Navy won the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (as it was then) in 2018, Starspangledbanner won the same race, the Golden Jubilee, in 2010, after getting beaten in the Duke of York Stakes on his first run for Aidan O’Brien. Haradasun won the Queen Anne 2008 after being beaten in the Lockinge. Don’t be surprised if Storm Boy leaves his Greenlands run well behind.

Moments Of Joy will be interesting too if she runs in the Chesham Stakes on Saturday.

The Justify filly kept on well on her racecourse debut to win the Leopardstown fillies’ maiden that Aidan O’Brien won with the aforementioned Bedtime Story last year, before he sent her to Royal Ascot to win the Chesham Stakes by nine and a half lengths. He won that Leopardstown maiden too in 2018 with September, who also won the Chesham next time. Three of Aidan O’Brien’s seven Chesham Stakes winners to date are fillies, and Moments Of Joy will be of interest if she lines up in Saturday’s curtain-raiser.

She may not win by nine and a half lengths, but she will be of interest.

www.donnmcclean.com

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