Award winners make up for slow start to meeting

COOLMORE and Ballydoyle overcame a slow start to the five-day Royal Ascot spectacular by scooping the three end-of-meeting awards.

The unstoppable combination of trainer Aidan O’Brien, jockey Ryan Moore and owners Coolmore won their respective titles despite drawing a blank on the first day.

The ever-reliable Highland Reel got the ball rolling in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday, with Sioux Nation in the Norfolk Stakes their sole success on Thursday when Order Of St George suffered a narrow defeat in his bid for back-toback victories in the Gold Cup.

It was business as normal on Friday with the brilliant pair of Caravaggio in the Commonwealth Cup and Winter in the Coronation Stakes justifying their prohibitive odds.

Even so, Coolmore went into yesterday’s final day trailing Godolphin by two winners. They managed to get those with September in the Chesham Stakes and Idaho in the Hardwicke.

With Godolphin drawing a blank, Coolmore went to the top on the back of better placed performances.

O’Brien, winning the Qipco-sponsored trainers’ award for the eighth time, and for the third year in succession, said: “I am delighted for everybody really. A lot of people put in a lot of hard work day in day out so I am delighted for everyone really.

“We always hope and we try and have the horses ready and that is all you can ever do really. You don’t ever expect anything.”