Highland Reel gives O’Brien 300th Group One winner

ASCOT (United Kingdom): Highland Reel delivered Irish training great Aiden O’Brien his 300th Group One winner over flat and jumps on Wednesday, by taking the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on the second day of Royal Ascot.

Highland Reel, winning his second Group One race inside a month, also brought relief to the 47year-old trainer after his hotly-fancied Churchill had failed to fire and finished only fourth in Tuesday’s feature, the St James’s Palace Stakes.

The five-year-old -- who has won six Group Ones, including in England, Hong Kong and the United States -- looked beaten at the furlong pole but somehow found the reserves to storm back and win by a length and a quarter to take his prize money to just under the £6 million ($7.6m, 6.8m euros) mark.

O’Brien hailed Highland Reel as ‘unbelievably courageous’.

“If it comes anywhere near courage, then he will be there fighting,” said O’Brien.

“He has danced every dance. I’m not sure we have ever had a horse with the constitution he has.”

O’Brien was typically humble about his own landmark of 300 Group and Grade One wins.

“I’m just a small part in a massive team,” he said.

“It’s a huge chain of people involved and I feel privileged to be part of it.”

Highland Reel also gave jockey Ryan Moore his 44th Royal Ascot winner.

“Highland Reel has been everywhere and keeps coming back,” said Moore.

“We knew he would see it out real well (the race distance), and the last furlong was his best.

“I’d say it was probably a career-best from him today.”

Queen Elizabeth II resolutely turned up in her carriage at the meeting, despite having her husband Prince Philip taken to hospital on Tuesday and then having to attend the State Opening of Parliament.

However, bedecked in a buttercup yellow dress, and a matching coloured hat, she was accompanied by her eldest son Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.