luke, lazzat, romance, attendance, socks & brilliant.

​On what I considered the best of the five-days, trust Luke Harvey to steal the I.T.V. show. There he was doing what he normally does at the start of racing but this time he is in a swimming pool in an adjacent garden, with his top hat on. Apparently only his cameraman knew of his plan. Comic genius.

Lazzat started this strategy of trying to steal the limelight by dumping James Doyle as he waved acknowledgement to the crowd before proceeding to canter off, head held high, down to the back-straight where he pulled-up to stand by the rail to take in the scene across to the Grandstand and all the fun of the fair. I dare say he had never seen anything like it before and was making up his mind whether he wanted to be a part of it. You could almost sense he was just taking it all in, the site of his greatest achievement, which might just be dumping his jockey in front of thousands. He then obviously thought he had better get back to the stables, to stop his people worrying about him, which he proceeded to accomplish at that same leisurely canter, slipping those who tried to spoil his fun, before submitting to the charms of his groom. Of course, the delay he was causing would have been far less if they had allowed Lazzat to continue to find his own way home but by then Lazzat, for the time-being, had become the focal point of the day.
Although James Doyle, when talking to the Queen blamed himself as ‘he should have stayed longer at the pony club’, the blame for the incident was wholly on the negligence of the trainer unfurling the sheet (under the nose of Lazzat) to be placed over all the winners at Royal Ascot this week.

On a day of great moments, Rebel’s Romance charmed everyone, as did William Buick’s reaction to his ‘best friend’s’ win in the Hardwicke, Europe’s richest Group 2, apparently. It is rare these days for a horse to win 18 races on the flat, especially at the highest level and yet there seems no reason why Rebel’s Romance should not add half-a-dozen more to his c.v. given he is such a game and honourable horse and also a gelding.
If more colts were gelded, as with Lazzat and Rebel’s Romance, flat racing would be better served. The flat stars are too much of the shooting star variety, here at the start of the season and gone by the start of the following season. It is time, for the overall good of the sport, for every major race to be opened-up to geldings. If the current generation of 3-year-olds are not good enough to defeat the older, gelded, generation, then we will have a mark of their true ability, which will make it easier to determine the order in the pantheon of great horses.

The reason Ascot can boast of a 5% upswing in attendance at this year’s Royal Ascot is a simple one, a good majority of those who attend are there not so much for the racing but for the social event. That is not a bad thing as it persuades people to think of racecourses as a place of entertainment and fun, and if a small majority become engaged with what goes on between the white rails, that will filter through the sport as a whole. I may rage about the out-of-date dress-code and the fashion aspect of Royal Ascot, and continue to believe the image of Royal Ascot is a poor look for the sport in need of attracting the attention of younger people, yet Royal Ascot remains as relevant today as in days gone-by.

Back to the dress-code. I believe wearing socks with sandals is abhorrent and people who commit this horror should be placed in the village stocks and left there. Men who wear shoes without socks, though a fashion crime of less abhorrence than sock-wearing sandal wearers, should not be subject to inspection from the dress-code wardens at Royal Ascot. Would someone get thrown-out if they walked about bare-foot, something I like to do outside on occasion (and always at home)? Would a Masai warrior be refused admission due to not wearing shoes or boots? Is underwear obligatory? Live and let live. Not ‘wear socks or be considered a social pariah’. Really, and we want to encourage young people to come racing!

Saturday, for me, allowed Royal Ascot 2025 to become one of the best Royal Ascots of recent years, though I do have a poor memory, remember. Field of Gold looks a horse of great potential but the three horses who impressed me the most were Trinity College (not sure why, he just looked a horse on the rise), Trawlerman, perhaps the ride of the week, and Rebel’s Romance, a true exhibit of what a racehorse should be.