THE STAR CARRIAGE RIDER, TOO FAST, HARDWICKE & SHAME ON BALLYDOYLE.

It is all very well the King and Queen honouring Brough Scott with a prominent ride in the Royal Procession on the last day of Royal Ascot 2026, yet the question I ask is why Brough is yet to receive a knighthood, if not a lordship? The man is reverred in racing circles; he has worked as hard as anyone to raise funds for both jockey and equine charities and has served the sport in many different capacities, including as a presenter of racing for I.T.V. Someone of influence in our sport should write to the King for an answer to my question. I hope Brough's presence with the King and Queen in the lead carriage yesterday was but a prelude to an even greater privilege in the very near future.

These American two-year-old speedsters that Wesley Ward brings over to run at Royal Ascot are too fast for their own good. As far as English racing is concerned, they are four-furlong horses. To gun them out of the stalls to go lickerty-split for as long as their limited speed-stamina allows them to is just plain folly and Ward to should be learning that lesson by now.

At a meeting blessed with a plethora of Group 1's would it hurt the European Pattern to allow the Hardwick to be upgraded to a Group 1? As someone who believes there are too many Group 1's around Europe, and far too many Group races per se -  the more Group races there are, the more diluted becomes the competitiveness - it may seem hypocritical of me to suggest upgrading a Group 2 to Group 1 status. In this instance, with the King George & Queen Elisabeth on the horizon, and with remarkably few Group 1's in this country over 12-furlongs, and, I would contend, several Group1's at Royal Ascot this year less competitive than the Hardwicke, it is odd that it remains one notch inferior than its status suggests it should be.

Lambourn may not be one of the great Epsom Derby winners of all-time; he might even be regarded as one of the lesser Derby winners. But he is a dual Derby winner having followed-up his victory at Epsom by adding the Irish Derby to his c.v. Those two wins alone should afford him respect. Yet in the Hardwicke he was used with the sort of respect a downtrodden, despairing third-world peasant gives his emaciated donkey. A two-time Derby winner used to force the pace for a stablemate that has clearly not yet won the sort of races that entitled him a place at one of Coolmore's studs. It was the sort of ride that breaks the heart of a brave warrior. I thought it disrespectful. 

On the same theme, it obviously pissed-off Illinois at Epsom when he was used in a similar manner. He jacked it in by halfway at Epsom, yet given a more respectful ride in the Queen Alexandria he won in extremely game fashion.

This is what can happen when one stable has almost total domination of a single department of the sport. No other stable in my lifetime, and I suspect in the history of the sport in Europe, has had so many top-flight middle-distance colts and fillies that they can afford to use a dual Derby winner as a pacemaker for a lesser stable-mate. This quest for an even pace in races by Ballydoyle does not always make for a fairer race for all, even if it benefits the Aidan O'Brien runners. I am not suggesting for one moment that he is breaking any rules, and I for one have no problem with 'team tactics' or pacemakers when they are used correctly, which they were not in the Prince of Wales Stakes, I just thought it an unedifying sight to witness a dual Derby being rousted along by Wayne Lorden to get him on the rails and directly in front of Jan Brueghel and team captain Ryan Moore. He was there in the main to help Jan Brueghel win and as such was not allowed to run on his own merits. Surely Ballydoyle must house a enough middle-distance horses to have used to undertake the donkey work for Jan Brueghel other than a dual Derby winner!