Alpha Centauri the star as the cash tills ring at Ascot
Royal festival brought bumper crowds and rich pickings, but the racing was a seven out of 10
It was an excellent week for the business of Royal Ascot, but was it a vintage one for the horses? Probably not. With crowds up on four out of the five days and a total just shy of 302,000, a goodnatured atmosphere, strongly performing hospitality, weather neither too hot nor too cold and no incidents of any consequence – much to the disappointment of an army of news writers sent to cover security issues – Ascot itself will have few complaints.
The course’s six shops did a roaring trade, with the latest addition, the one in the Royal Enclosure where a lot of the money is concentrated, doing extremely well. Viewing figures for ITV, who broadcast 22½ hours live and five hours’ worth of Opening Show, were robust and largely in line with what you would expect in a World Cup year.
On the track Chris Stickels produced a good, fast racing surface but not so fast that records were broken in every race, and there appeared no track bias – no easy feat when you have to water. But it was Friday before a genuine stand-out champion emerged – and that was Alpha Centauri winning the Coronation Stakes for Jessica Harrington and owner-breeders the Niarchos family by six lengths and shattering the course record. She may now head to Newmarket for the Falmouth Stakes a fortnight on Friday, which would be good timing for her to go on to the Prix Jacques Le Marois, sponsored by her owners, at Deauville in August.
A number of horses reminded us they are not machines; the Battaash-lady Aurelia match in the King’s Stand did not materialise, Harry Angel always has the potential to throw a race in the stalls as he did in the Diamond Jubilee and, quite frankly, all last week’s big sprints left me a bit cold. Merchant Navy, who rescued a below-par – by their high standards – week for Coolmore, in the Diamond Jubilee, very clearly represented some smart business by Tom Magnier, who put the deal together and had the courage to hand him over to Aidan O’brien for a few months.
However, we may get only one more look at him in the July Cup before he goes home to Australia for their covering season.
I could see the Queen Anne winner Accidental Agent, who clearly loves Ascot, going back to win the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, particularly on soft ground, a surface which holds no fears for him.
Without the Guineas winner, Saxon Warrior, the St James’s Palace lacked a little class, and the winner, Without Parole, a son of Frankel – who was leading sire at the meeting – is an unbeaten work in progress. Had Frankie Dettori, the human star of the show, gone a bit later he would have been more impressive.
Without Parole against the Jersey Stakes winner Expert Eye in the Sussex Stakes would be one to savour at Glorious Goodwood. Calyx, by a long chalk, looked the best of the two-year-olds.
Ascot, however, is only a mid-season championship and there is plenty of time for its winners to emerge as true superstars, and we should not perhaps judge it too quickly.
A terrific week in many respects – but Ascot 2018 was a seven out of 10 for me.