ROYAL ASCOT 2019 – DAY 4
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- 22 June 2019
DAAYEH DELIVERS IN THE ALBANY STAKES, GR.3
Daayeh
The well-supported 4/1 favourite Daayeh captured the opening race on day four of Royal Ascot 2019, the £90,000 G3 Albany Stakes. Trained by Roger Varian, recording his third victory at Royal Ascot and his first this year, the two-year-old daughter of Bated Breath ran on strongly to win the six-furlong event by a length and a half, with Ken Condon’s 25/1 shot Celtic Beauty back in second. Varian won the Albany Stakes back in 2014 with Cursory Glance, whilst rising star David Egan was registering his first victory at Royal Ascot.
Newmarket trainer Varian said: “Daayeh won nicely today. She has always worked like a horse who could be quite nice. It was lovely to see her do it like that. Today was the first time she was in a scrap, but at the line, she looked a good winner. She is promising looking ahead to the future and it looks like she’ll stay seven furlongs on the back of that – she got the trip really well. David is making good strides, has a good on his shoulders and is one of the best young riders around. He is not the finished article yet, but he has not done much wrong today. The owners have been loyal to David as he rode the horse first time out. David will get his chances throughout the year and he took it today.”
EGAN LANDS FIRST ROYAL ASCOT WINNER, THANKS TO DAAHYEH
David Egan rode his first Royal Ascot winner when favourite Daahyeh landed the G3 Albany Stakes. Egan, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Wednesday, has a racing pedigree, for he is the son of jockey John Egan and former trainer Sandra Hughes – he is also a nephew of former champion jockey-turned-trainer Richard Hughes and a grandson of top Jump trainer, the late Dessie Hughes. Egan Snr has ridden four Royal Ascot winners, headed by a victory in the G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes on Les Arcs in 2006, his most recent success at the Royal Meeting. His son, the 2017 champion apprentice when he rode 53 winners, said: “I’m sorry, I’m getting a bit emotional, but I’d like to thank everyone who has helped me get to this point. It’s a big step in my career. Everyone has worked hard for me through my whole life and it is great to thank them on these big days. I followed my dad’s footsteps and he’s been a huge influence on my career.”
The Roger Varian-trained Daahyeh (4/1) beat Celtic Beauty (25/1) and Aroha (100/1) by one and a half lengths and one length. She had won her sole race before today, heading Raffle Prize in a maiden race at Newmarket last month. The runner-up went on to land yesterday’s G2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Egan said: “She didn’t jump [exit the stalls] so well first time out, but she did today and we soon settled into a good position. Approaching the two-furlong marker, I could see things were getting a bit tight in front of me and I was glad I just took her back and then to the outside to get her to pick up. She had to battle inside the final furlong, but when I picked up my whip she really battled and hit the line strong. She’s a very nice filly and will definitely stay further. I knew on this ground she wouldn’t do anything instantly; the ground is probably just a bit dead for her today, but she’s done it well. I felt pressure before the race, but once I was on her it was just like another race. I would like to thank the owners and Mr Varian for giving me these opportunities on the big stages. This could be at the top of my career for now. I think Daayeh is very talented. She won very impressively first time out at Newmarket, as we all know, and she came here today as the favourite. For someone young like myself coming to ride a favourite in a fancy race at Royal Ascot, it is a big deal. I am just delighted I can repay the loyalty of the owners and my trainer. I think I have improved a lot this season and I have been getting some chances in nice races. I would just like to thank the people for giving me these chances. My grandfather Dessie Hughes was a big person in my life and this one is for him.”
JAPAN TAKES THE KING EDWARD IN STYLE
Day four of the Royal Meeting 2019 had been widely predicted to be a strong day for Aidan O’Brien, Coolmore and Ryan Moore – the second race has proved initial predictions correct – the King Edward VI Stakes was won by four and a half lengths by the O’Brien-trained and Moore-ridden Japan (6/4f), who had finished third in the G1 Derby last time out.
“The Derby was a very good race, I don’t think anyone realised what a good race it was – we can see what happened to Circus Maximus earlier in the week. They were all there together – it was a very high-class race,” said O’Brien, the QIPCO leading trainer of the week with five wins. This is a very smart horse and he is coming forward lovely all the time, who knows but we couldn’t be happier. He had a lovely run in the Dante, and he was just ready to go again, and came forward for the Derby. Wayne was delighted with him in the Derby, Wayne rides him in all his work. Everything has been right with him all the time and progressing all the time.”
Lead owner Derrick Smith said: “It was as you would expect him to win really, he was third in the Derby, I reckon he is the best of the lot, this wasn’t a surprise. The surprise was the price!”
Japan is a son of Galileo and is out of Shayste (Danehill). He is a brother to the Oaks runner-up Secret Gesture and the Group 3 winner Sir Isaac Newton. He was bred by Newells Park Stud, and bought by MV Magnier/Mayfair/P&R Doyle for 1.3 million guineas at Tattersalls October Book 1 Yearling Sale in 2017.
SUN IS RISING ON JAPAN, SAYS MOORE
Ryan Moore clawed one back on Frankie Dettori in the QIPCO leading jockey award when riding Japan to victory ion the G2 King Edward VII Stakes. Moore, partnering his fourth winner of the week, rode Japan (6/4f) from off the pace, but there was no mistaking his superiority at the finish, as he swept past his rivals to win by four and a half lengths from Bangkok (10/1), with Eagles By Day (25/1) a further neck behind in third. It was the third time this week that the King Power Racing team and trainer Andrew Balding had finished in the runner-up spot – they were also second in the G1 Queen Anne Stakes with Beat The Band and with Fox Chairman in the Hampton Court Stakes.
Moore said: “This is a high-class colt and he put the race to bed very easily there. We went a pretty good pace. I was happy where I was rounding the home turn, as I was on the best horse. He is more than a St Leger horse, no disrespect to the race. This is a good horse and he will be a very effective mile and-a-half horse going forward.”
Japan, who is trained by Aidan O’Brien, had finished a close third in the Investec Derby on his previous start. Asked if today’s performance was an improvement on that effort, Moore said: “Possibly.”
MEADE THRILLED WITH FIRST ROYAL SUCCESS
Advertise
After Advertise beat only one home in the 2,000 Guineas, Martyn Meade shut his stable down for a month due to concerns about the health status of his team, but that was put behind today by Meade as Advertise 8/1) regained winning form back over six furlongs to win the Commonwealth Cup (G1) by a length and a quarter. It was the Manton Estate-based trainer’s first Royal success.
“He was pretty special over six furlongs last year, but the problem was I had trained him to run the mile and getting him switched off we thought how do we jazz him up again so maybe put the blinds on, just so he knows he has to sprint,” said Meade. “Luckily, it did the job as he jumped and went. Clearly that demonstrates that this is his distance, if we can step him up a bit then clearly we will. It has been a difficult year, the horses were running very flat to start with, a good example was Advertise in the Guineas – it was so disappointing as we went here with high hopes. We were always a little bit worried whether he would get the mile or not, but certainly we thought he would run better. Then you’ve got to pull up stumps, but it is really difficult with a yard full of horses. It shows we are back! From our point of view we had a couple of really good runners, then you have confidence going again, inevitably you have a few who don’t run to expectations, the main thing you have to target these things go for it and hope everything works out on the day. Coming into today we had absolutely nil confidence, you never know despite how well they are working at home!
It’s huge elation – to win a G1 at Royal Ascot, it doesn’t get much better than that – but there is certainly relief because the horses have been a little but under par. It’s brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. He only had one bad run in all fairness, in the Guineas, but it is very easy today – everybody writes horses off pretty quickly and think “he has run poorly, maybe he didn’t train on” and all that sort of thing. I have always had great faith in him. I thought let’s go back to basics, where we were before over six furlongs. We know that he is brilliant at that, so if I can just reproduce what he was doing as a two-year-old, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Getting Frankie back on board was not too difficult – he knows how good the horse is. It was just lucky that he was available to ride him. I did think “what is Frankie doing now?” because I thought he hit the front too soon, but this is Frankie – he knows exactly what he is doing and what sort of horse he has underneath him. Clearly he had the confidence that all was going well. I am thrilled to bits about it. We might step him up a little and go to France for the Maurice de Gheest. Maybe seven furlongs but I like to take baby steps – maybe he would get a mile one day, who knows? At this stage will keep him around six and we have a few options now. At least he is back on everybody’s radar and we can look and see where the best place to send him is.”
DETTORI ADVERTISES BRILLIANCE IN COMMONWEALTH CUP
Everything he seems to touch this week has turned to gold and that was the case again for Frankie Dettori at Royal Ascot this afternoon as he registered his seventh victory of the Royal Meeting aboard 8/1 shot Advertise in the £500,000 G1 Commonwealth Cup. Trained by Martyn Meade, the three-year-old son of Showcasing captured the fifth running of the six-furlong sprint by a length and a half over the Aidan Fogarty-trained Forever In Dreams (20/1) in second.
Dettori, the 48-year-old racing legend, rode a 449/1 four-timer at Royal Ascot yesterday and was narrowly denied a fifth win in the Britannia Handicap. His winners this week have been Raffle Prize (G2 Queen Mary Stakes), Crystal Ocean (G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes), A’Ali (G2 Norfolk Stakes), Sangarius (G3 Hampton Court Stakes), Star Catcher (G2 Ribblesdale Stakes), Stradivarius (G1 Ascot Gold Cup) and now Advertise.
Dettori, recording his 67th winner at the Royal Meeting overall, said: “I am so pleased for Martyn, he has been having a tough time. Advertise ran a stinker in the Guineas and he decided to close his stables for a month as he knew his horses weren’t right. It has paid dividends. He was patient and it’s very hard when you have horses and you can’t run them. We came here hoping, we weren’t so sure that we were out of the woods, but Advertise put up a tremendous performance. I was always in control and travelled like the winner. When I kicked, he went and it was brilliant. He is back to his best.
Advertise always relaxed in his races for me and he has gone a little the other way, that’s is why he has got blinkers, just to keep him focused. He was a very good two-year-old and I am pleased for all the connections. This morning, when I woke up, I felt he had a chance on last year’s form but it has been a long time since that form was franked. I am pleased that he has put that to bed today and won.”
Betfred make Advertise a 10/1 shot from 25/1 for the July Cup at Newmarket.
GRAFFARD CAN TRULY SAY ‘WATCH ME’ AFTER TWO TOP-GRADE VICTORIES
Watch Me
An amazing few days in the career of French trainer Francis-Henri Graffard began with a victory in the G1 Prix De Diane, the French Oaks, and was completed by a first Royal Ascot win. Watch Me’s 20/1 success in the G1 Coronation Stakes was a fabulous follow-up to Channel’s win in Sunday’s big race at Chantilly. Graffard can claim to train two of the top fillies in Europe, and there was no mistaking Watch Me’s superiority in today’s one-mile test for three-year-old fillies. Ridden by Pierre-Charles Boudot she won by one and a half lengths from the English and Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Hermosa (evens favourite), with Jubiloso (9/2) a further one length back in third.
Graffard said: “It’s a week you dream of. As I was saying on Sunday, you get up every morning to do this job and to be part of the game at this level. That’s why I set up in Chantilly – I wanted to win Classics and big races. It happened on Sunday, which was a big day for a Frenchman, in France, and I was confident today again. I trusted in my filly, and she has worked well, which gave me confidence.”
Watch Me was luckless in running during the Poule d’Essai Des Pouliches (French 1,000 Guineas), in which she finished sixth, and Graffard said: “I thought we had to put that race in the Guineas behind us, because everything went against her, and today we were 20/1, which was good for me with the owner. I was able to say to them ‘Enjoy yourself, we are an outsider and there is no pressure’.
“It’s a fantastic result. She travelled very nicely, and while I have to watch the race again she did it very well. After the Guineas Olivier Peslier told me to run her in the Prix de Diane, but after bad luck in that race I didn’t want to change everything [by stepping her up in trip] and so I said let’s stay with the first plan and go to Ascot.”
HAYLEY TURNER BECOMES SECOND FEMALE TO RIDE A ROYAL ASCOT WINNER
Thanks Be
It has been a much-talked about target for female riders at Royal Ascot – to ride a winner at the Royal Meeting and so break the winning drought for females riders since Gay Kelleway’s success on Sprowston Boy in 1987.
Hayley Turner brought that void to an end on the 33/1 chance and Charlie Fellowes-trained Thanks Be by just a neck from The Queen’s Magnetic Charm.
“She was a little bit keen but the strong mile suited her,” said Turner. “She settled really well and I was able to tack over from the outside draw and get in amongst them. She just cruised through them. I had a nice, light weight. I didn’t have breakfast, lunch and dinner but it was worth it! I had a sweat here at the races too. It’s a great performance from Charlie as well. Weirdly, even though she was big price, he was quite confident this morning. He said that everything was perfect for her – the big field, the strong pace, the ground – and she was not without a chance.
“It means quite a lot because, though we all love Royal Ascot, we have to listen to Gay every year – fair play to her, but I can take those bragging rights off her now! Well done to her because it is a great achievement and it was nice to have to have that goal to aim for as well.
“Hopefully, the standard of girls has risen so much that they will just keep coming and coming now. I think it will be more common now and I think in 10 years the girls will be having winners more often here, it won’t be something discussed.”
Turner announced her retirement in November 2015, and spent some time as an ITV presenter, but the lure back to riding was too strong and has been back full-time riding again since 2018.
“I think I needed the break to recharge,” she explained. “I have come back keener than ever and am enjoying it more than ever. It is going so well this year, I have got a lot of new support as well as old support, I love my job – I enjoy it so much. I just recently started riding out for Charlie Fellowes, I know him quite well as he was assistant to James Fanshawe, and I rode out for him a lot. I know how Charlie likes his horses ridden and he trains in a very similar way to James as well. We do get on quite well. I went into the weighing room today and there are five girls there. We know each other really well as we are racing every day and the standard of girls jockeys has risen so much. We all get on so well, Hollie and Josephine waited to congratulate me as we pulled up today. We all wanted one of us to have a winner – it is nice that it was me! I was going to keep on trying – if it hadn’t been this year I was going to try next year. I have been second in the Albany and third in one of the handicaps so I’ve been knocking on the door before.”
Turner was the first female jockey to ride a 100 winners in Britain (2008) and has also ridden two Group 1 winners and one Grade 1 winner – in 2011 on Dream Ahead in the July Cup and Margot Did in the Nunthorpe Stakes, and on I’m A Dreamer in the Beverly D. Stakes in 2012. While she was keen for any girl to have been successful winner this week, she admitted that she did want it to be her! And despite those Group 1 wins, this Royal Ascot victory is a career highlight.
“Royal Ascot is different class! I have have had winners all over the world and it is a buzz, but Royal Ascot is so unique, it has so much history and has done for years and will continue to do so – just to be part of it is wonderful! I feel bad for beating Her Majesty, but I am sure she will understand!”
THANKS BE MAKES HISTORY
Hayley Turner became the second woman to win a race at Royal Ascot and the first since 1987 as 33/1 shot Thanks Be, the bottom-weight, won the 27-runner Sandringham Handicap. Trained by Charlie Fellowes, registering his first Royal Ascot success, the three-year-old daughter of Mukhadram came from the rear with a strong run to lead inside the final furlong of the straight mile contest to defeat her Majesty The Queen’s Magnetic Charm (7/1), the top-weight, by a neck.
Fellowes, who is now based at Bedford Lodge Stables in Newmarket [which used to be owned by Luca Cumani] said: “First and foremost, I am so happy for these owners. Tom Wilson, who owns the horse and is Emma’s [Capon] father, lost his mother last week. They have had a really rough year and they deserve this so much. “The guys at home all work so, so hard, so I hope this goes a small to putting a smile on his face.
“Thanks Be is wonderful. I just felt like today would really suit her. I am so happy for the owners and delighted for the yard. They work so hard and without them I am nothing. To get a winner on the big stage like this means so much. What Hayley has done for this sport is phenomenal. She is the best female jockey that has ever ridden. Hayley rang me up two weeks ago and said can I come and ride out for you two days a week. She had ridden a winner for me at Newmarket earlier in the year, so I said good idea. It is purely because of that that she picked up this ride.
“We have always got on well and she has ridden for me a bit. She wanted to come and ride out regularly – two or three days a week – and I said let’s do that. The ride on Thanks Be came purely though that because there are not many people that can do 8st and she rode her beautifully. Hayley is a very good rider and I am so pleased for her.”
“Thanks Be didn’t stay last time out and I really felt that a big-field would really enable her to settle and get into a rhythm, so this race looked beforehand as if it would suit.
Did I think she would win a Sandringham? No I didn’t. But I did think she would run well and that conditions would really suit her. It’s very special to have a winner at Royal Ascot. The main feeling is relief if I’m honest. We’ve hit the post a few times in big races and I was starting to think after King Ottokar got no luck in the Hampton Court Stakes yesterday that every time we go for a big race, is luck not going to come our way? But thankfully today it did.
“I thought the race would really suit her. When I saw the rain, I was delighted – I had three runners this week and all wanted cut in the ground. Then we got drawn on the other side and everything was winning this side.
“Then I didn’t think Mr Haggas was going to declare The Queen’s horse, I thought they were going to go for the Coronation, so, instead of running off our real weight, we ran out of the weights. I thought everything had gone against us.
“They all came in the middle, we got a lovely position and she just travelled through the race beautifully. Hayley gave her the most lovely ride – she let the filly find her feet – and the rest is history, I guess. She has a very good pedigree and is a really good-looking filly, so the next plan will be trying to get some black type with her.”
BAGHDAD DOES THE DOUBLE
The Mark Johnston-trained Baghdad justified favouritism with a game success in the Duke Of Edinburgh Handicap.
Ridden by Ryan Moore, the four-year-old son of Frankel fended off the fast-finishing Ben Vrackie (7/1), trained by John Gosden and ridden by Frankie Dettori, to score by a diminishing short-head.
Baghdad won the King George V Stakes at last year’s Royal meeting and he became the first horse since Source Of Light (1992 & 1993) to back up a victory in that race with success in the Duke Of Edinburgh Handicap.
Johnston, registering his second winner of the week (Raffle Prize, Queen Mary Stakes, being the first) and 45th Royal Ascot victory overall said: “It is fantastic for Baghdad. He fractured a cannonbone when winning the King George V Stakes last year. Baghdad has only had two runs back this year and I have to say that we saved him for this a bit. Had he gone up a bit more in the handicap, he would not have got in. We wanted to wait for this before going on to bigger things.” I was worried in the closing stages and Mr. Dettori was coming very fast! We had to go wide on the home bend, so I don’t think Ryan was totally happy with his position. But he had to commit on the outside to make sure he got a clear run. Ryan rode a brilliant race and it is wonderful to see him have another winner here this week.”
Ryan Moore was recording his fifth victory of the week and a 10.25/1 double today following the victory of Japan in the G2 King Edward VII Stakes. He is now two winners behind Frankie Dettori who heads the QIPCO Royal Ascot Top Jockey Award standings with seven winners.
