5-days of excellent racing.

​Not even someone with as saturnine a soul as myself could be critical of the 5-days of Royal Ascot. I will also contend that prize-money is perfectly satisfactory and that to concede to the argument that more money is needed to be applied to the Group 1 races in order to achieve greater foreign representation is to concede that the honour and privilege of winning at Royal Ascot is less worthy than the prize for winning. Instead of ballooning prize money, perhaps Ascot should contribute to the shipping of horses from foreign parts to Berkshire.
It may add to the occasion to have horses trained in the U.S., Europe and far distant countries competing against the best from Britain and Ireland but they add little to the actual excitement of what fascinates us between the white rails. It may matter to the exclusive few which horse tops the International rankings at the end of the year but the thinking of nameless faces and the attributing of trite numbers to the names of horses have little bearing on racegoers and the rest of humanity. Nor should the Breeders Cup be the accepted destination for every Royal Ascot Group 1 winner. Royal Ascot is Royal Ascot. It should be the destination. After all, it has heritage and history and prestige, recommendations that the billionaires’ paradise that is the upstart Breeders Cup does not and can never have.
I speak as someone whose affection for flat racing has in recent years cooled to lukewarm, yet Royal Ascot, to me, is a proper race-meeting, with races to suit every type of horse, except those who favour soft ground, from 2-year-old sprints, 3-year-old sprints, to the toughest to win handicaps, to the longest race in the entire calendar. I enjoy the handicaps the most, doubtless because I am drawn to cheering-on the little man, the jockey rarely in the spotlight, the working-man’s syndicates, the trainer with only a couple of dozen horses in training. The underdog has an opportunity in the Royal Hunt Cup or the Wokingham, even if rarely does the trophy not go to one of the leading lights. But the chance is there and that is what I like.
Reflecting on the final day. The highlight was Callum Shepherd getting some kind of redemption on Isle of Jura, the winning of the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes payback for holding his tongue after the despicable actions of the Gredley family in jocking him off Ambiente Friendly in favour of the popular yet same division of jockey as himself Rab Havlin. As I said at the time, I suspect Frankie Dettori was involved somewhere within the decision-making.
Callum Shepherd proves, as did Tom Eaves earlier in the week, that the reality is that most of the jockeys riding possess the ability, though not the opportunity, to win major races when given the right horse to ride. Yes, Buick, Murphy, Moore, Doyle and Marquand, get the job done on a regular basis but because of their track record they have the connections and the confidence to know if it goes wrong today, tomorrow they will get other chances. If Shephard and Eaves had messed up at Royal Ascot, they would know there would be a good chance they would not get a second opportunity. Now, I hope, Callum Shepherd goes on to win the Group 1 King George & Queen Elizabeth back at Ascot at the end of July.
Anyone thinking of backing ante-post either Fairy Godmother or Bedtime Story for the 1,000 Guineas next season should bear in mind what Aidan O,Brien said in the aftermath of this year’s Guineas races. He no longer hard trains his classic horses early on as he is mindful that it is a long season and those same horses were needed to be fresh for the big races in the Autumn. City of Troy is a superstar in June but back in April he was undercooked and underprepared to make even a bold show in the 2,000 Guineas. Opera Singer is only now beginning to look like the filly everyone thought her to be at the end of last season. Even with the sires now being used by Coolmore having a greater influence on speed than in the chronicled days of Sadlers Wells and Galileo, Aidan is not minded to train a horse with only the Guineas as its main target. Aidan is unusual for the modern trainer as he is prepared to use races to bring a horse to full fitness, as his comment ‘oh, the race will bring him on, no doubt’, testifies. 
For me, it is downhill from here on in. From June onwards my thoughts drift to the Cambridgeshire, Cesarewitch and the start of the jumps season.