Richard Fahey: my leading lights for Royal Ascot 2026

Royal Ascot is very much on the agenda for Crystal Queen following her victory in the Hilary Needler Trophy at Beverley on Saturday.

Second to long odds-on favourite and expensive breeze-up purchase Ruler’s Pride on her racecourse debut at Ayr, the daughter of Cotai Glory turned out just 10 days later on the Westwood and ran out an authoritative winner.

Joint-trainer Richard Fahey confirmed she will head to the Royal meeting in three weeks’ time, but whether she will stick to five furlongs in the Queen Mary or step up to six for the Albany Stakes is undecided.

He said: “The draw (stall eight) wasn’t ideal, but she did everything right – she settled and relaxed and finished the race off really well.

“The horse that beat us at Ayr could be a decent one, but I just felt they hacked and sprinted and she was a little bit keen. The third horse was way behind us and that one had finished second before, so we’ll see.

“She seemed to gallop right to the line the other day, so I might contemplate the Albany as well. I’ll speak to the owner (Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum) and then decide.”

Another Fahey-trained juvenile who appears Ascot-bound is Virtuous Star, who made a successful start to his career at Chester on Saturday.

“We do like the horse a lot, but he was drawn nine round Chester so that is probably why he was a big price (12-1),” the Musley Bank handler added.

“He got himself further back than ideal, initially because of the draw and then he got caught on heels, so I thought he did well to get his head down and go.

“We felt before the race he probably was Ascot material and now he’s gone and won he probably still is. In the circumstances I felt he did very well to win.”

Fahey’s Ascot squad will also include stable star Powerful Glory, a shock 200-1 winner on Champions Day last season but a little disappointing on his return to action in the Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh, albeit beaten less than five lengths.

Fahey said: “He seems fine, he probably didn’t go and finish his race off there but he seems in good form and has come back fine.

“That (Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes) is where he has to go – he’s a Group One winner and there’s no other races for them, they have to go down that road.”

Considering some of his other Ascot contenders, Fahey, who trains in partnership with his son, Peter, added: “A lot of them will be handicappers but there is Mr Colonel, who was third in the Chester Vase and he could go for the Queen’s Vase – I think he’ll just gallop all day that horse and we’ve earmarked him for that.”