Royal Ascot: the week's winners, losers and much more

Those punters who made Royal Ascot pay this week were very much in the minority. The bookmakers seemed to win every day with a series of short-priced runners fluffing their lines and a number of outsiders hitting the target. Who would have thought that Al Asifah (5-6), Little Big Bear (10-11), Free Wind (6-4), Chaldean (13-8) Modern Games (7-4), Pearls And Rubies (7-4), Elite Status (7-4) and Luxembourg (2-1) would all be beaten. Only eight favourites/joint favourites obliged all week, compared to 14 a year earlier. The average starting price was almost 17-1.

The Norfolk Stakes was billed as a clash between two supposed flying machines in Elite Status and American Rascal. Instead, it was the unconsidered pair of Valiant Force (150-1) and Malc (66-1) who fought out the finish. The Exacta paid almost £5,370 to a £1 stake. The winner had been beaten in his previous two races but unlike last year, when The Ridler prevailed at 50-1, there was no hint of controversy or a sense the best horse had not won.

It had to be the King George V Stakes on Thursday when the front-runners set off in the 12-furlong contest as if they were in a sprint. Davideo, Sisyphus and Struth clocked between 10.22sec and 10.24sec in the second furlong, with the whole field dipping under 11 seconds. Furlong three was also rapid and, inevitably, those near the pace – or exposed to it – wilted in the final stages. Tom Marquand resisted getting involved in the early speed duels aboard Desert Hero, owned by His Majesty The King, but his tactic paid a handsome dividend.

Perfuse went off a well-backed favourite for the King George V and Tagabawa was also a leading fancy. However, both raced near the ferociously hot pace and ended up getting burned. In the circumstances, the pair did well to finish fifth and sixth, respectively, and they are well worth keeping in mind. The former, in particular, travelled with great purpose and there are better days ahead for him.

The Prince of Wales’s Stakes promised to be a cracker with all bar one of the six runners rated 121 or higher. It produced a stunning winner, too, in Mostahdaf, who was cantering all over his rivals some way out and surged four lengths clear. Luxembourg, Adayar, My Prospero and Bay Bridge were all made to look pedestrian. The last horse to complete the Prince of Wales/Juddmonte International double was Duke Of Marmalade, back in 2008 but Mostahdaf will be difficult to beat at York if reproducing this level of performance. Duke Of Marmalade also won by four lengths at the Royal Meeting before going on to land the King George and then International, when it was at Newmarket.

Vauban. The 2022 Triumph Hurdle winner had chased home State Man in the Paddy Power Champion Hurdle at Punchestown in April and, switched to the Flat, hammered the opposition in the 1m 6f Copper Horse Handicap. It briefly looked like his rivals might get to him two out, but then the five-year-old, running off a mark of 101, found an extra gear to pull more than seven lengths clear of Absurde, his stablemate. Next year’s Gold Cup looks a logical target for Vauban. Unibet have framed an ante-post market but don’t quote him.

Jamie Spencer’s record on the straight track at Royal Ascot stands the closest of inspections and he gave Witch Hunter an absolute peach in the Buckingham Palace Stakes. The 50-1 chance fluffed the start, as he’s inclined to do, but Spencer was content to loiter out the back and it was only about a furlong and a half from home that he finally decided it might be time to find what might be under the bonnet. Witch Hunter responded to the sympathetic handling with a withering run that enabled him to eventually win a bit snugly by three quarters of a length. On Saturday, Spencer was at it again – getting Khaadem late on in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at 80-1. Twenty-two of Spencer’s 28 wins at the Royal Meeting have been on the straight track, with ten of them being achieved at 14-1 or bigger.

For the second year in succession, Wesley Ward returned to America without a win to his name. The man who has lit up the meeting with his rapid sprinters, wide smiles and memorable one-liners cut a rather forlorn figure as his streamlined team of four were beaten out of sight. Fandom, Twilight Gleaming, Bundchen and American Rascal were thumped by an aggregate of 46 lengths in their respective sprints and none finished higher than eleventh. Ward had insisted he was saving the best for last in American Rascal, in the Norfolk Stakes, but Lady Aurelia’s son fluffed the start and ended up beating only one home. It was left to George Weaver to fly the flag for the international raiders, via Crimson Advocate’s narrow success in the Queen Mary.

Champion trainer Charlie Appleby had 18 runners and drew a blank, having previously enjoyed four winners at the meeting the previous year. Half of them went off at single-figure odds with the pattern set in the very first race of the meeting when five-time Group One winner Modern Games could finish only fourth in the Queen Anne after going off at 7-4. Native Trail was retired after his defeat in the same race. Saeed Bin Suroor’s five runners were also all beaten. Appleby is rarely down for long, so expect a strong team for Newmarket’s July Meeting.

The Windsor Castle Stakes is the only non-Group race at the meeting for the juveniles but pattern success surely awaits for Big Evs after his striking success in Wednesday’s finale. Sent off at 20-1 after his debut defeat at Redcar, when beaten by the draw as much as anything, he clearly knew much on this occasion and powered to a three-length victory over Johannes Brahms, the Aidan O’Brien-trained favourite. Winning trainer Mick Appleby said: “Big Evs worked with Annaf (third in the King’s Stand on Tuesday) earlier in the week and I thought this has got to have a great chance at Royal Ascot, because Annaf is a machine. I knew he'd get the job done.” Bizarrely, none of the six juvenile winners during the week had previously won a race in Britain.

Plenty of candidates, especially in the handicaps, but Relief Rally gets the nod for her agonising near-miss in the Queen Mary Stakes. She stayed on powerfully in the closing stages under Tom Marquand and led a stride before and after the line it. But the photo finish revealed it was Crimson Advocate who had won by a nose. Relief Rally, trained by William Haggas, shaped here as if she will be just as effective over 6f, but the Super Sprint at Newbury on July 22 is apparently next on her agenda. She will be favoured by the weights in that valuable contest.

Frankel. The horse who keeps on giving was responsible for a notable Group One treble: Triple Time (Queen Anne Stakes), Mostahdaf (Prince Of Wales’s Stakes) and Courage Mon Ami (Gold Cup).

There were great scenes at the stable of Ed Walker when Waipiro walked back into the yard after his decisive victory in the Hampton Court Stakes. As staff cheered, the colt had a chat back. Watch and listen above.